We are honored and humbled to share that KinderSmile Foundation’s continued advocacy efforts are beginning to bear fruit!
After years of hard work and many sown seeds, Governor Murphy included KinderSmile Foundation in the FY2025 Appropriations Act when he signed the state budget into law on June 28, 2024! We are beyond grateful! We were heard.
Our village is growing. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to members of Governor Murphy’s Office and NJ legislation who listened to our presentations, heard the stories, and saw the photos of our own patients that we serve every single day. Thank you for understanding the importance of oral health as the gateway to total health and wellbeing. Thank you for seeing through our lenses the disparities in oral health care access that underserved vulnerable populations in New Jersey face, and the need for funding and further oversight and regulation.
Thank you to Jennifer Fearon, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Governor, for inviting us to return and present again to the Treasury, Budget, and Policy teams. Thank you to Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Ed Gittens for the continued and steadfast support. Thank you to Assemblywoman Sumter and the NJ Legislative Black Caucus for supporting our efforts of increasing access to oral health care to marginalized communities in our state. Thank you to Assemblyman Verrelli and Assemblywoman Morales for your time and your passion. Senator Zwicker, thank you for allowing us to present, for sponsoring our request, and for the kind congratulatory phone call. Assemblyman Venezia, thank you for standing on our side before the NJ Department of Health on behalf of a little girl who came in with facial swelling when you visited our Dental Home. We truly appreciate all of you, and we look forward to our continued collaboration!
As a small nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with a vision of a future where every child has access to a dentist and preventable dental diseases are eradicated, KinderSmile Foundation is in a league of its own. We are not an FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) and we do not receive per-patient state or federal funding. Our sustainability model relies on our village of private donors and grantors to enable us to continue to make an impact by offsetting the high costs of dental care and the low reimbursement rates from Medicaid MCOs. We are forever grateful to you, our grantors, donors, and community partners, and recognize in particular those who have been by our side for over 15 years! Thank YOU!
This appropriated funding will help defray our costs, and enable us to do what we do best–continue to raise awareness, increase access to care, expand partnerships and reach, and continue to link children to our Dental Homes, which are continually growing.
Please stay tuned. This is only the beginning. We look forward to continuing our advocacy efforts, reaching out to legislators in other districts, and making a long lasting change in the landscape of access to oral health care in the state and impacting children and families in New Jersey thorough changes in policy.
Thank you in advance to our village for your continued and unwavering support of KinderSmile Foundation! Together, we will continue to raise awareness of the need to make oral health a priority. #ItTakesAVillageKSF
