G-2109-17226

Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) seeks to advance equity through an ecosystem-based model. Focusing on four key areas: energy, growth, health, and opportunity, PSE promotes racial equity through policy advocacy and community power-building.

The organization has never been funded by CareQuest and notes that it recently acquired Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) with hopes of introducing youth to the advocacy space and leveraging their leadership, energy, and talents to support the key areas. The organization has been engaged in community advocacy for years and has the capacity to advance work in oral health under its Just Health initiative. In partnership with community organizations, PSE operates as the primary facilitation center and resource for several health equity initiatives that would be supported and expanded with support for the Just Youth Circle and YES! The Just Youth Circle is composed of community/organizational partners that will receive grants from PSE and work with youth to identify policy and systems change opportunities focused on oral health.

This request was appropriately submitted under the Strengthen Community Voice and State Advocacy sub-program of Advancing Equity through Oral Health. PSE’s YES! For Equity is an advocacy effort that would be supported through this grant funding and it employs a nationally recognized model of social change through youth power building and racial equity. Central to this proposal is the belief that youth, in partnership with adult leaders/mentors, can be a powerful resource in advocacy efforts. Because youth are the focus of the advocacy work being proposed, there may be some sensitivity in timing with respect to PSE’s ability to announce, recruit, and train new members of the Just Youth Circle. The key activities the grantee will implement include training and skill development for youth and adult mentors, establishing strategic partnerships with community- and state-based organizations who can support community engagement efforts, and development of a community asset map following training and outreach. Other outcomes of this work include:
• the creation of a youth-led toolkit on how to engage and educate the public via presentation and virtual forums
• development of a policy/systems change platform to educate the public and begin advocacy and action planning around community needs
• ongoing technical assistance for both partner organizations and the YES! Equity teams

PSE is fiscally sound and this grant, if approved, would constitute 4-5% of the organization’s budget. Most of the grant funds would be applied toward staffing, travel, materials required for training youth advocates, and funds for micro-grants that PSE would provide to organizations within its Just Youth Circle.

This proposal was originally submitted with a $275,000 funding request. Reviewers were very supportive of exploring potential partnership with PSE and articulated a specific interest in their decision to focus on youth, but there were some concerns about the funding level given that this would be a new advocacy population and about whether the proposed outcomes would be worth the financial investment. The resulting recommendation was to return to PSE to discuss a potential reduction around the request and the scope of work, moving from launching in two states to a focus on one, Georgia or North Carolina given the strong interest. Following discussion with PSE, the proposed work will now focus on Georgia to begin and the funds requested have been reduced to $150,000. Details around budget specifics will continue to be discussed, however, funding would likely be allocated similarly to what was described earlier.