Non-Discrimination Guidelines

Non-Discrimination Guidelines for WPP-Funded Projects

The Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP), in partnership with the UW–Madison Office of Legal Affairs, has developed guidelines to ensure that WPP-funded project activities comply with relevant non-discrimination laws and statutes. These activities include:

• Project programming, events and outreach
• Project participation
• Hiring and employment

Eligibility for participation in WPP-funded project activities cannot be restricted based on race, ethnicity, gender or other legally protected identity characteristics. For more information, please refer to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for your grant award. You can also refer to the Draft Example Memorandum of Understanding OAC Grants and the Draft Example Memorandum of Understanding PERC Grants.

Questions regarding adherence to non-discrimination terms and conditions or these guidelines should be directed to Tonya Mathison, Administrative Director, at tonya.mathison@wisc.edu.

Promoting WPP-Funded Project Activities

When developing or conducting programming, events or outreach activities funded by the WPP grant, it is important that grantees do not limit participation based on legally protected identity characteristics. However, grantees may describe the intended audience in general terms. Here are key points to keep in mind:

• State the goal of the activity/program and encourage broad participation
  • Example 1: “The goal of this [activity/program] is to educate the community about how heart disease presents in women. All are welcome.”
  • Example 2: “The goal of this [activity/program] is to work with community partners to decrease health disparities in the Latino community. Open to all.”
• Hold the activity/program in a space that welcomes your intended audience or partner with organizations that have strong ties to the intended audience.
• Publicize the activity/program through channels that reach your intended audience.
• Avoid restrictive language. Do not limit participation based on legally protected identity characteristics. However, it may be acceptable to restrict participation based on identity factors that are not legally protected, which, depending on the circumstances, may include employment or student status or geographic location for example.
• Describe the intended audience. For example: individuals in X-Y age range, parents, single adults, Medicare participants. It is acceptable to mention logistics like childcare will or will not be provided. Avoid saying for example “you must be X years old to participate”.

Compliant Criteria for WPP-Funded Project Activities

Grantees may select from these criteria to best meet the participation or hiring/employment goals of the WPP-funded project while also adhering to non-discrimination requirements. To meet those goals, it is acceptable to recruit individuals who:

• Are likely to contribute varied perspectives to the project because of their life experiences, including those who have:
  • Overcome personal adversity or family hardship
  • Demonstrated extensive community service
  • Successful employment or experience in related or other fields
• Have prior experience, education, community service or other accomplishments that predicts future service to populations that have health disparities
  • Optional additional program-specific language: “including rural communities”; “including urban communities”; “including tribal communities”
• Have faced significant barriers to achieving health, such as impact of social determinants of health like health care, housing and childcare access
• Reside or have lived in any of these areas:
  • A U.S. rural area, as designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer
  • A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-designated low-income and health professional shortage area
  • A neighborhood with high disadvantage, as designated by the Neighborhood Atlas’ Area Deprivation Index
• Speak a language other than or in addition to English
• Have experienced adversity, which could include discrimination