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- EIN 74-2428161
- (210) 220-2325
- 1 Haven For Hope Way Bldg 1 400 San Antonio TX 78207-1266 USA
- www.sachristiandental.org
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Community Clinics, Health, Health Care, Job Training
Mission: The mission of san antonio christian dental clinic is to provide charitable dental care to low-income and homeless bexar county adults. Our ministry is committed to providing the highest quality of dental care in a christ-centered environment to strengthen the safety net, especially for people facing cost or access barriers. Through access to oral health our goals are to improve opportunities for general health, employability, recovery, education, and/or self-sufficiency. Working in ways that encourage restoration of both body and spirit, our programs reduce gaps in health services, improve access to care, serve the needs of vulnerable adults. Our patient care program addresses barriers to care through delivery of dental services at no cost to qualifying patients utilizing a model based on volunteer dental professionals serving alongside an employed support team. The clinic offers preventative, restorative, episodic, specialty, and urgent care.
Programs: San antonio christian dental clinic has two distinct ongoing programs: a patient care program providing high quality dental care to low-income and homeless bexar county adults and a dental assistant job training program to offer low-income and homeless adults who lack personal resources for advanced education. The secondary program supports patient care by offering supervised clinical care while providing budget relief to chairside assistance required by our dental volunteers. With revenues based uniquely on private support and donated services, the ministry has served bexar county and greater san antonio for over 35 years. While low-cost community dental care is available at other community clinics, there are a number of important ways in which our approach differs: - we are the only clinic exclusively serving adults. - our dental care services are completely free of charge to patients. - we are 100% privately funded. - clinical volunteers deliver 82% of all responsive and urgent care.
sa christian dental clinic's onsite job-training program prepares participants for a career in dental health as registered dental assistants (rdas). We teach participants how to work in dental clinics or offices over the course of 25 weeks in order to assure participants who may need to sustain an income can continue to work. Since 2012, the program boasts a 100% pass rate for all participants completing the course. For participants, the financial relief that comes along with the training program is substantial since the usual tuition cost alone for a similar program in san antonio is approximately $16,000. In addition to eliminating the considerable financial barrier, our rda students are trained to assist with some of the most difficult dental procedures in the city due to the level of decay typical of a patient population whose oral health is marked by long-term neglect. The program design anticipates potential barriers to enrollment not only by assuming costs for tuition, but also for uniforms and shoes, immunizations and bus passes, books and supplies, certification testing, and cpr training fees. Our no-cost rda training program is the only one of its kind in texas. Upon completion, each student provides the clinic an additional 80 hours of dental assisting, reinforcing the value of earning certification, the reward of giving back, and providing participants with the dignity of personal accomplishment.