Grant Program: Community Impact Grant

Nehemiah Community Development Corporation, Inc. will expand its Justified Anger pilot work through an initiative titled Reducing Health Inequity through Promotion of Social Connection, which focuses on reducing disparities in overall health among African Americans by addressing implicit and structural racism.

This project, Legacy Community Alliance for Health (LCAH), aimed to to strengthen the collaboration between Green Tier Legacy Communities (GTLC) and the UniverCity Alliance (UCA) by leveraging academic expertise to address health improvement and health equity at the local policy making level. GTLC are communities that signed a charter pledging to lead initiatives that promote environmental stewardship, economic growth, public health and social equity, and UCA is a partnership among leading centers, departments and schools at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that applies campus-based education, service and research to further the sustainability, resilience, livability and wellbeing of cities. The need for collaboration between these organizations stemmed from a GTLC survey that indicated participating communities lacked knowledge and experience with Health in All Policies (HiAP) frameworks and Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methods, and all respondents felt that their communities would benefit from assistance from academic partners in addressing issues of health and equity. LCAH significantly contributed to advancing health equity in Wisconsin by providing training for 216 individuals across 18 communities and creating HiAP virtual modules with case studies from 15 communities in the state. Notable achievements include collaborations with cities like Appleton, which passed the first HiAP Ordinance in Wisconsin, and Fitchburg, addressing neighborhood barriers through the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative. The project’s impact extended to improved collaborations in Oshkosh, the introduction of HIAs in Wisconsin Rapids and initiatives promoting housing reforms and community health improvements in Ashland and Bayfield County.

This project, led by the Dane County Health Council and the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, aims to reduce racial inequities in birth outcomes through care coordination. Wisconsin has the highest Black infant mortality rate in the country, and Black infants born in Dane County are two times more likely to die in their first year of life than white infants. Factors contributing to racial disparities in birth outcomes are attributable to social and economic challenges in Dane County, including inadequate housing, food insecurity, lower educational attainment, fewer economic opportunities, poverty and structural racism. The project has made significant progress toward its goals in the first three years. ConnectRx is a closed-loop referral system developed in partnership with Epic Systems and UW Health and launched in April 2022. ConnectRx allows providers to make social prescriptions and integrates over 1,200 unique resources into patients’ electronic health records. Six Black female community health workers were hired to enhance maternal care teams, and a partnership with the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness provided doula support. These efforts have resulted in assistance for over 200 Black birthing persons and their families, addressing needs such as rental assistance, homelessness prevention, mental health support, job-related assistance and food pantry referrals.

This project, led by Community Advocates, Inc., aimed to improve health and reduce the inequities within Wisconsin that are driven and reinforced by poor housing conditions. In Milwaukee, over 28,000 rental units were deemed moderately to severely inadequate to live in and nearly 16,000 adults and children face eviction each year. Disparities exist as women and people of color are over 50 percent more likely to be evicted than men or white individuals. The lack of quality, stable and affordable housing leads to poor health outcomes. In collaboration with Human Impact Partners, the project conducted a modified Health Impact Assessment (HIA), leading to the publication of the “Home Is Where Our Health Is” report with policy recommendations. The formation of the Healthy Housing Initiative’s Housing Advisory Council facilitated stakeholder engagement and contributed to the establishment of the Milwaukee Rental Housing Resource Center. The center’s triage team provided diverse services and resources to over 2,300 households in six months. Finally, a website was launched and garnered substantial engagement, with over 158,000 visitors since its launch in December 2020.

Oneida Nation will develop a model of programming that promotes food sovereignty and cultural identity among Indigenous communities as a comprehensive approach to reducing health disparities and improving health and healthcare. Dr. Bret Benally Thompson, a clinical assistant professor in the SMPH Department of Medicine and advisory council member of the SMPH’s Native American Center for Health Professions, serves at the academic partner.

Farmers are an occupational group with one of the highest rates of death by suicide- as much as two and half times the rate of the general population. To impact the number of farmers experiencing mental health distress and prevent farmer suicides, this project, Farm Well Wisconsin, aims to develop a comprehensive range of upstream interventions to create an ecosystem of support to foster farmer resilience. In its two first years, Farm Well has trained more than 700 rural community members and agribusiness professionals in peer support and suicide prevention, expanded their social media reach 10-fold and conducted training for more than 75 health providers, residents and medical students. Farm Well staff members have also been asked to join statewide coalitions and steering committees related to farmer mental health and rural suicide prevention.

The FREE Campaign seeks to improve health outcomes for formerly incarcerated women and their families by increasing access to safe, stable and supportive housing and resources to support successful recovery and reentry. The team will employ various approaches including transitional and reentry housing coordination in Milwaukee, Madison and the Chippewa Valley to achieve its goals. The FREE Campaign is an initiative within EXPO (Ex-incarcerated People Organizing), led by criminal justice-impacted women; EXPO is an affiliate of WISDOM, a faith-based community organization in Wisconsin. Lori DiPrete Brown, UW–Madison School of Human Ecology serves as the academic partner.

Through its grant, Supporting Families Together Association (SFTA),and its grant partners, will focus on improving health outcomes by implementing intervention strategies in early childhood education to address disparities in rates of expulsion among young children in Wisconsin.

This grant ended on July 12, 2024. Lead exposure in children causes serious, adverse health outcomes including brain and nervous system damage and interference with growth, development, learning, behavior, hearing and speech. Racial inequities in lead poisoning persist in Wisconsin as African American children were lead poisoned at 3.5 times the rate of non-Hispanic white children. This project aims to reduce childhood lead poisoning and prenatal exposure to lead and advance health equity through three goals.

This project, Social Service Redesign, led by Sixteenth Street Community Health Center (SSCHC) aims to improve health outcomes by reducing housing insecurity. SSCHC is Milwaukee’s largest federally qualified health center and has been addressing the health needs of economically disadvantaged individuals, many of whom face housing issues and homelessness. In its first two years, the project established an AmeriCorps program with 13 members, including four resource navigators. Resource navigators and volunteers have contributed to a 44.5 percent increase in completed, totaling over 8,700 patients. Housing needs have persisted as a priority, leading to the implementation of an internal housing protocol.