American Idol's Jason Castro Gives Back

Castro will visit The Family Place, one of the Children's Health Fund's Dallas Program's service delivery sites for the mobile dental component of the program, the program also provides medical and mental health care to homeless children and families. He will see how "Idol Gives Back" funding is helping some of Dallas' neediest while visiting the clinic and performing for the families, many who benefit from these essential services.

Children's Health Fund's Dallas program, which is affiliated with Parkland Health & Hospital System, provides quality medical, mental health and dental care to homeless children and families. Last year the program provided care to over 8,400 homeless people in over 26,000 patient visits via its fleet of six mobile medical and dental clinics that roll through Dallas with teams of medial professionals visiting various homeless sites.

Since 2007 CHF has granted the Dallas program over a half-million dollars of "Idol Gives Back" support, and the most recent mobile dental clinic was made possible through the generosity of "Idol Gives Back" viewers. The state-of-the art fully-operational dentist office on wheels makes it possible for the team to provide a true "dental home" for the patients it serves. The program hits the streets 5 days a week with a fully staffed team made up of a dentist, dental assistant, hygienist and receptionist/registrar. In its three spacious exam rooms with state-of-the art equipment including a "pano" digital x-ray machine the team is able to provide the same services to their patients, regardless of their ability to pay, as they would receive in any dentist office. Besides The Family Place, the program serves various homeless sites in Dallas including a homeless shelter, domestic violence shelter, day care for homeless children, residential drug and alcohol treatment program and a teen shelter.