Grant Program: Community Impact Grant

This project, led by Three Gaits, Inc., will implement a Riding in the Moment (RM), an adaptive horseback riding program, to reduce isolation and improve the health and quality of life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and their family caregivers.

This project, Empowering African Immigrant Women’s Health and Well-being: A Virtual Center for Women’s Health and Mental Health in Wisconsin, will establish a virtual center for women’s health and mental health dedicated to African immigrant women. As of 2021 there were over 21,000 African immigrants in Wisconsin and this demographic has significant diversity, necessitating services tailored to effectively meet their needs.

This project, titled Advocates in Medicine Pathway 2.0, seeks to improve representation in medicine in North Central Wisconsin by addressing barriers to medical school for rural and underrepresented medicine students from this region. Strong doctor-patient relationships are crucial to providing excellent health care and such relationships are best facilitated by having physicians that represent the people that make up the local community. Students from rural, underserved communities are most likely to return to those areas to practice medicine, but these students often face barriers to matriculating to medical school.

This project, From Punishment to Restoration, aimed to implement a comprehensive intervention to bring about policy and systems change in order to address barriers to successful re-entry in Wisconsin, where the incarceration rate is the highest in the upper Midwest, and the state’s rate of incarceration for African American males is the highest in the nation. Incarceration is a public health problem with widespread negative effects on individuals and communities, including effects related to mental illness, alcohol and other substance addiction and chronic disease, all of which reflect priorities in community health improvement plans across the state. From Punishment to Restoration significantly transformed Wisconsin’s criminal justice landscape by boosting leadership and civic engagement among previously incarcerated individuals in Ex-Prisoners Organizing (EXPO) and performing a Health Impact Assessment (HIA). The HIA played a vital role in public education, highlighting the negative effects of parole and probation revocations on health, resulting in strengthened partnerships with public health organizations. The HIA also influenced agenda setting, legislative efforts and administrative changes at local and state levels, demonstrating its comprehensive impact on criminal justice reform in Wisconsin.

This project, led by Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), aimed to ensure students with mental health concerns achieve wellbeing, maximize their potential to engage in their education and grow academically to attain educational success. Low-income students are twice as likely to experience mental health concerns, and students of color are overrepresented among MMSD students living in poverty. These students also face disparities in access to mental health services, with only 20 percent receiving community support compared to 50 percent of their economically-advantaged peers. Multiple studies substantiate links between participation in mental health services and improved mental health and school participation and performance. The Behavioral Health in Schools (BHS) program, initially piloted in three schools, successfully expanded to 13 schools over five years. The population of students grew 63 percent annually, and clients were consistently seen for an average of 17 sessions per year. The program primarily served traditionally underserved students. Notable improvements were reported among elementary school students, while middle school outcomes varied. Caregivers emphasized positive changes in their child’s mental health and functioning and expressed additional desire to work on family communication. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected benefits and challenges, including highlighting the vital role of virtual sessions and concerns about equity in service access.

This project, Cultivate Health Initiative, aimed to build capacity for garden-based education programs through professional development and technical assistance for educators and community leaders. School-based garden interventions have the potential to promote healthy eating behaviors and impact obesity in children. The initiative successfully advanced garden-based education by aligning stakeholders, establishing a strong communications infrastructure, surpassing professional goals and prioritizing resource development and dissemination. Cultivate Health Initiative’s lasting impact was evident in its widespread reach, stakeholder engagement and policy influence, fostering a thriving ecosystem for garden-based education across the state.

This project, led by Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program, aimed to address the growing opioid addiction epidemic in rural Southwestern Wisconsin. The prevalence of opioid addiction in this region has reached critical levels, revealing gaps in health care infrastructure and capacity, including shortages of psychiatric and substance abuse professionals and a lack of accessible long-term recovery options. This situation forces affected individuals to seek care in distant urban areas, contributing to a cycle of recidivism without clear pathways for sustained treatment. This project made significant progress in addressing the opioid addiction in Southwestern Wisconsin. The Opportunity House provided essential housing and support to 48 residents in early recovery and expanded its capacity to serve both men and women. Collaborative efforts with county agencies, treatment providers and academic partners and educational events in the community have strengthened access to substance use treatment resources, fostered a more cohesive care network and made strides in reducing stigma in the region.

Centro Hispano of Dane County and its academic and community partners sought to improve Latino health in Dane County through improved access to mental health services. Centro Hispano of Dane County and its academic and community partners including UW-Madison developed a bilingual certificate in Counseling, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology to advance the quality of accessible linguistically and culturally competent services that support the mental health of the Latino community in Dane County. This project helped increase the number of trained professionals to serve Latino communities

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.

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.