G-2105-16998

St. Coletta’s of Illinois is a social services provider in Chicago that serves over 300 children and adults diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Their programming includes the Kennedy School, which is a day school that provides academic and therapeutic services.

This investment, through the Executive Director’s Fund, is to support in building up the oral health hygiene program at the Kennedy School. They are planning on implementing an Oral Health Training in their Daily Living Skills curriculum and would serve at least 80 students. They plan to bring in Debbi Viger, who is an oral health educator, author, and dental hygienist, to lead the training. She is also the creator of the BOIT (bumpy, outside, inside, clean tongue) method of brushing for individuals with disabilities. She will provide up to 30 hours of guidance and workshops for students and will also instruct teachers and other professional support staff on how to assist students with proper brushing skill development. The trainings will focus on brushing instruction, and desensitization to dental visits. The program will then include in-school daily brushing to reinforce proper oral health care habits and the distributions of oral health hygiene kits. The main goal of expanding this curriculum to include oral health is to foster healthy habits with students with disabilities from an early age in order to prevent dental issues that can occur now or later in life. The request is for $2,575, which would go toward consultant time, oral health books, and program materials.