Grant Program: Community Catalyst Grant

Youth aging out of foster care face high rates of homelessness and some of the highest barriers to health and well-being in the nation. National and Wisconsin data indicate that one in three youth aging out of foster care will stay in a homeless shelter within two years of exiting the system, and 42 percent will have a homeless experience by age 21. Through further research and evaluation, this project aimed to expand an innovative model of service delivery to address youth homelessness in Wisconsin and beyond. This project expanded the evidence base for an innovative solution to the challenges of youth homelessness that has been piloted in Milwaukee. Pathfinders, a nonprofit organization that serves youth in crisis in Milwaukee, was able to expand the program’s capacity to enroll youth in the PATHS pilot program. The PATHS program represents an innovative approach to preventing homelessness for youth aging out of foster care. Youth enrolled in the PATHS program exceeded every outcome target within the five PATHS domains: stable housing, positive connections, academic progress, training and employment, and social-emotional wellness.

In response to challenges faced by immigrant populations in Racine, Appleton and Eau Claire, this project, called Building Immigrant Leadership for Wisconsin, aimed to empower immigrant community leaders to foster relationships and address immigrant-related issues. Despite the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this project made significant progress toward its goals. The project raised awareness of family separation, supported immigrants held in Wisconsin jails and made efforts to increase voter turnout and provide accurate census information to dispel fears of immigration consequences. Notably, the Immigrant Support Project was established and raised funds to assist over 130 undocumented families in Racine during the pandemic.

Early childhood presents a unique developmental window of opportunity to set a trajectory for a lifetime, and in one’s earliest years, more than one million neural connections are made every second. Experiences in early childhood, whether positive or negative, have significant impacts that last a lifetime. Supporting Families Together (SFTA) created a Parent Leadership cohort with parents who were part of SFTA’s Parent Café project, a project that was meant to create places where parents and caregivers can come together with others in similar situations to learn from and support one another. The parents volunteered to serve in a leadership capacity as part of their local Parent Café team. As part of this cohort, the Parent Leaders participated in a year-long learning process so they would be able to lead the design of community-based supports aimed to address the health inequities associated with ACEs. These inequities are grounded in income and racial disparities, causing those affected to be more likely to have two or more ACEs than their peers, which is correlated with more health risk factors and negative outcomes. They also worked towards building protective factors, which are characteristics at the biological, psychological, family, or community level that reduce the negative impact of a risk factor on problem outcomes, as a community-based support. Some examples of protective factors include social connectedness, concrete supports, and parental resilience. The outcomes exceeded what the grantees had originally intended to accomplish with this project. The Parent Leaders were actively engaged throughout the entire process and requested the cohort to continue beyond the scope of this project as they are still eager to learn more and stay connected.

This project will create a smartphone application to address the increasing demand from veterans for non-clinical, peer-based mental health services. DigitalFOB will offer a secure, confidential space in which veterans and family members can connect virtually with other veterans and family members.

This grant will support the development of an adolescent health stakeholder group in Racine that aims to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and infection in teens and teach leadership skills to support adolescent healthy lifestyles. Teen stakeholders will gather information, identify needs and share resources to ensure the community is receiving optimal care related to sexual health and teen pregnancy.

The structural and cultural forces that shape health are the result of decisions made by those in positions of relative power. To help members build their networks of relationships and develop their understanding of how to use power and move projects forward in their communities, the Lussier Community Education Center (LCEC) and Goodman Community Center formed the Neighborhood Organizing Institute (NOI) in 2015. NOI was a 12-month cohort-based training and support program that provides local, grassroots, low-income organizers with skills to make change in their own Madison neighborhoods and communities. This project, Neighborhood Organizing Institute 2.0 (NOI 2.0) was created to catalyze increased and sustained action by building long-term peer and institutional support for organizers’ work. NOI 2.0 was successful in building a leadership council that led organizer workshops, retreats and summits which provided opportunities for organizers to build relationships. The project team also worked with partners to compile research supporting the impact of organizing approaches which was shared with individuals from nine local funding sources.

In order to better meet the oral health needs of Wisconsin children, there is a need for greater collaboration and resource sharing between free and charitable dental clinics in order to ensure the sustainability of each individual clinic. Wisconsin provides one of the lowest Medicaid dental reimbursement rates in the country, and as a result many private dental practice providers do not accept Medicaid. This has led to poor outcomes in oral health as only 30 percent of children on Wisconsin Medicaid receive dental care- the lowest rate nationwide. The overarching goal of this project was to create a system that ensures dental care for every child who needs it by collaborating with local schools and dentists to provide that care. Although this project team faced challenges implementing the Hometown Smiles dental program in schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to establish relationships with schools, student service teams, local dentists and statewide programs. Additionally, a dedicated website was built to facilitate easy access to information and contacts for all partners involved. Looking to the future, this project is working to secure funding to implement Hometown Smiles in schools with the ultimate goal of being self-sustaining through BadgerCare.

Despite similar prevalence of depression between white and African American individuals, African Americans seek mental health care at lower rates and often turn to religion and faith as a primary coping mechanism. As a result, there is a need for African American clergy to partner with mental health experts to develop programming that is faith-based and culturally adapted. The overarching goal of this project was to partner with African American faith-based leaders to deliver a depression management program called Community Fellowship and Improve Thy Health (FAITH). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to gather for in-person training, this project rapidly adapted its planned activities to focus on the immediate need to support pastors in the African American community. The project team developed and launched a survey to understand how African American pastors were coping as they supported their congregants and raised awareness of the implications of COVID-19 on mental health through several virtual presentations. Together, these efforts have helped congregants feel comfortable seeking help with depression and stress, and the African American community has begun talking more about the impact of depression and stress on individuals and families.

This project aimed to promote equitable health care for transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender nonconforming (TNG) individuals by increasing access to affordable and competent sexual and reproductive healthcare services through health care work force training and patient material improvement. The project accomplished its goal through several key approaches that included focused training for health center and administrative staff and the establishment of a community advisory group to provide input on patient education materials, communication and other resources.

The original aim of this project was to address the health inequities of lead exposure and lead poisoning in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood in Milwaukee. However, the grant was reallocated to respond to the immediate needs of the community during the COVID-19 crisis.