Chapter 3. Create Awareness and Secure Support

Phase 5. Secure Support

Once you’ve created awareness of the value of oral health integration and identified others who share your interest in weaving oral health content into the curriculum, you will need to take steps to secure their support. These steps will vary depending on the scope of your effort and the resources you will need to carry it out. Regardless, translating expressions of support into concrete commitments will require some additional work on your part. Consider these actions.

Meet with key decision makers. Conduct individual meetings with department chairs, academic deans, and program directors to discuss project goals, aims, and deliverables. Ask these leaders to identify faculty oral health champions whose support you can enlist.

Look for win-win situations. Explore ways that oral health integration can help the department, program, or school meet some of its established objectives. Work activities that address these areas of mutual interest into your plans.

Seek endorsements. Ask relevant curriculum committees to endorse your effort to integrate oral health content in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Go public. Share what you are doing with the institutional and mainstream press. Media coverage not only amplifies your voice. It validates your work in the eyes of potential supporters and collaborators.

Apply for internal and external funding. Even small grants bring recognition to your efforts, boost team morale, and facilitate progress toward your goals. Institutional dollars can act as seed money and leverage external commitments of in-kind or philanthropic support.

Attend professional meetings. Identify associations whose members share your goals. Use their gatherings to reach potential allies and build a broader constituency invested in your success. Conduct presentations to inform them about your initiative.

Draw on the expertise of outsiders. If your team lacks specific skills that would be instrumental in advancing your initiative, consider using grant money or other funds to obtain assistance. Consultants who offer grant writing, website development, social media, event planning, and other services can help keep your effort moving forward.