Grant Program: Community Impact Grant

In the span of the last 100 years, however, the Menominee Nation community has experienced severely limited access to healthy foods, with a dramatic increase in Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart diseases that occur at a disproportionately higher rate compared to the state’s average. Through this initiative, the Menominee Tribe and its Department of Agriculture and Food Systems will create a renewed food system by focusing on access to healthy food, agricultural best practices, raising livestock, Menominee cultural teachings and peer support. The initiative will work to assert tribal sovereignty through the customization of a Menominee Food Code, beginning with food safety regulation of traditional tribal food systems, while promoting healthy food consumption and economic development. By reclaiming a tribally driven food system, the initiative will support a healthy and culturally vibrant Menominee Nation.

Through its project, the Milwaukee Re-entry Alliance, Employ Milwaukee and collaborators will address the widespread negative health effects of incarceration by establishing a better coordinated re-entry system to support criminal justice-involved individuals.

Education is a building block of healthy communities. When people have access to quality educational opportunities, families and communities thrive. A grant to One City Schools supports the school’s work to advance health equity through an innovative model of early child education. One City will use the funding to develop a rigorous longitudinal evaluation of the school’s novel approach—which includes how it trains staff, engages parents and the larger community, and prepares its young children—to better illustrate how its model of early childhood education and family involvement can close educational and health gaps. Findings will be used to inform expansion of the preschool, inform the fields of early childhood education, and help support public policy and system changes around early childhood education.

Centro De La Comunidad/United Community Center, Inc will develop a regional model of dementia healthcare and caregiver support to improve Alzheimer’s disease detection, diagnosis and supports for Latinos in the southeast region of the state, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine and Kenosha. This project will engage existing county and community organization partners to establish a regional approach for earlier detection and diagnosis of dementia while building on existing mobile assessment services, virtual assessments and caregiver support and education to reduce geographical, cultural, financial and language barriers. Dr. Melina Kavanaugh, UW Milwaukee Helen Bader School of Social Welfare is the academic partner.

Through the creation of the Well Black Women Institute (WBWI), the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness will connect, train and empower Black women to reshape the conditions in which they live, work and play. Through this Institute, the Foundation will prepare women as health equity leaders to address the persistent health and birth outcome disparities plaguing Black women in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, Black women face higher death rates, lower life expectancy and some of the highest rates of infant mortality. Black families experience chronic stress caused by systemic racism and economic instability. These health challenges have been further exacerbated by COVID-19 and racial unrest. The WBWI will harness the talent and experience of Black women and provide them with the tools and training to become systems change leaders who can inform and promote policies and solutions to change how Black women experience health and well-being.

This project, Healthy Workers, Healthy Wisconsin, led by Community Advocates, Inc., aimed to improve the health and economic well-being of low-income Wisconsin residents by increasing employment and connecting people to effective mental and physical health care. Poor health and exposure to trauma, particularly among low-income populations, has been shown to interfere with job-related outcomes, including higher rates of unemployment, poverty and use of social services. The Milwaukee Transitional Jobs Collaborative was formed in 2009 which emphasizes the importance of transitional jobs (TJs) as a pathway for low-income job seekers with barriers to secure formal economy jobs, leading to sustained unsubsidized work. The project significantly expanded TJ programs over six years, increasing funding from $6 million to $9.5 million annually by 2022 and notably improving Black male employment rates in Milwaukee. Advocacy efforts led to the expansion of TJ programs across Wisconsin, providing over 10,000 low-income job seekers with sustained employment opportunities. Furthermore, the project’s implementation of trauma-informed practices enhanced support systems, empowering job seekers to overcome barriers and achieve meaningful employment outcomes.

This project is designed to make a substantial and long-lasting impact on the social emotional health of African American/Black students enrolled in the McFarland School District both now and into the future. While McFarland consistently ranks high among districts academically, their African American/Black students are not meeting critical health indicators as compared to their White counterparts. To address these disparities, this initiative will implement and expand the Natural Circles of Support program, in close partnership with student, school leaders, teachers, and families to change the conditions that perpetuate racial disparities and create a learning environment that ensures equity. The project, with plans to expand beyond McFarland, will work to increase engagement and belonging, expand equity and improve teacher support and relationships with Black students to create conditions that support all students’ ability to reach their full potential.

This project, led by Marshfield Clinic, aimed to change the way clinics, campuses and communities interact to advance health equity by refining and expanding the Community Connections Team (CCT) model to screen for and address unmet social needs. The CCT model recruits, trains and supervises volunteers to connect patients with unmet social needs to community agencies for assistance. Traditional health care systems excel in treating illnesses through medication, therapy or procedures but often fall short in addressing upstream social factors that significantly influence health outcomes. Systematic screening for social needs is rarely part of routine care, leading to many patients not receiving the necessary referrals and support. This project successfully advanced health equity by screening over 54,300 individuals for social determinants of health (SDOH) needs and facilitating 11,361 referrals to community agencies, connecting patients with baby needs, dental care, housing and more. The integration of Findhelp into Marshfield Clinic Health System’s electronic health record system expanded access to a directory of social care programs via a ZIP code search. Additionally, the project trained and supported 154 volunteer navigators who collectively contributed over 15,500 hours to bridge health care gaps and promote health equity through community resource navigation.

The goal of this initiative is to improve population health by reducing health problems that are fueled by civil legal injustices. The initiative’s approach combines technology and community-based programming to address legal problems that are barriers to employment, economic stability and health and well-being. Civic legal issues like child support, consumer and medical debt and evictions, influence economic and employment stability, housing access and poverty, and chronic stress, and impact families and individuals who often don’t have the resources to address these issues effectively. This grant team aims to transform the legal aid system, court procedures and the policy environment through community-driven policy and a technology response to make legal services more accessible to Black, Indigenous and People of Color in Dane County (LIFT Dane), Racine County (LIFT Racine) and statewide (LIFT Wisconsin). By addressing issues that can be resolved with a legal intervention, through a system that is modern and accessible, this initiative will work to improve health and well-being for people throughout the state.

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.