Grant Program: Community Impact Grant

“Reentry Rising MKE”, a project led by Employ Milwaukee, aimed to address the health and life outcomes of individuals returning to the community after incarceration. Recognizing that returning citizens face overwhelming challenges such as housing insecurity, employment discrimination and poor health outcomes, the project sought to build a person-centered reentry system rooted in equity and care. Through community-based research, reentry simulations and facilitated dialogues, the project engaged individuals in conversations to better understand and address the systemic barriers to successful reentry.

In the span of the last 100 years, the Menominee Nation has experienced severely limited access to healthy foods. This has caused a dramatic increase in Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, both of which 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 created a renewed food system by focusing on access to healthy food, agricultural best practices, raising livestock, Menominee cultural teachings and peer support. The initiative worked 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 supported a healthy and culturally vibrant Menominee Nation.

A public health approach to family support is needed to effectively address family stress and instability that is experienced by families in some of Milwaukee’s most vulnerable communities. Through this grant, the initiative ultimately aims to improve health outcomes for children by building an integrated system of prevention, intervention and treatment services to strengthen families and help reduce the disproportionate rates of African American children in the Milwaukee child welfare system.

The RHeSUS initiative seeks to close the substance misuse treatment gap by improving treatment and care for people struggling with substance use disorders in rural Wisconsin. The team aims to enhance the care delivery capacity of rural primary care clinics and hospitals and the availability of peer recovery support to rural residents. The team aims to enhance the care delivery capacity of rural primary care clinics and hospitals and the availability of peer recovery support to rural residents. This initiative supports a new collaboration between Wisconsin Voices for Recovery, academic partner Dr. Randall Brown, professor of family medicine, and the Wisconsin Hospital Association, which will leverage its network of health systems to facilitate this work.

This project, Improving Assisted Living Quality through Collaborative System Change, aimed to expand current Wisconsin Coalition for Collaborative Excellence in Assisted Living (WCCEAL) efforts to establish a comprehensive and robust quality infrastructure for Wisconsin Assisted Living Communities (ALCs).The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has developed a comprehensive system to measure and monitor quality of care received in nursing homes, but ALCs are typically not included in these efforts to measure, monitor and improve quality of care. The absence of a quality measurement system for ALCs is underscored by the fact that they are not regulated by the federal government, and as such, the standards of care and training and even the definitions of “assisted living” vary from state to state. Over the course of the project, WCCEAL membership was increased by 28 percent and three important policies were adopted by the Division of Medicaid Services (DMS) at the state level to help sustain the initiative. Additionally, new partnerships were cultivated and existing partnerships were strengthened over the course of this project.

This project, First Breath Families (FBF), aimed to fill the gap in access to perinatal smoking cessation services for low-income Wisconsin women, thereby improving the health of mothers, infants and families. FBF is a comprehensive cessation support system for pregnant women and household smokers and supports them from pregnancy through six months postpartum. Smoking during pregnancy is the leading preventable cause of adverse birth outcomes, and in Wisconsin, 15 percent of women report smoking during their pregnancies. Despite the risks associated with smoking, many women who quit during pregnancy face high postpartum relapse rates due to social challenges and lack of access to cessation services. FBF successfully expanded its evidence-based perinatal tobacco cessation program across Wisconsin, engaging 2,300 pregnant and postpartum individuals. The program achieved substantial progress in smoking cessation, increasing rates from 26 percent of participants in 2019 to 56 percent in 2023. Additionally, the program has trained 1,388 providers in tobacco screening and intervention, with high satisfaction and confidence reported among newly recruited providers. Finally, FBF expanded its reach through over 50 new partnerships, ensuring broad accessibility to cessation services statewide, including coverage in all Wisconsin counties.

This initiative, designed for and by Black men, aims to improve the mental-emotional health and well-being of Black men in Southeastern Wisconsin in order to achieve higher quality of life and longevity. In Wisconsin, African American men have a life expectancy seven years shorter than white men and are more likely to report serious psychological stress and feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. Black men face health equity issues including low mental health literacy and education, stigma around mental health problems and lack of access to mental health support services. Their stress has been further heightened by the dual crises of COVID-19 and racial injustice. The initiative will normalize and destigmatize mental health issues in the Black community, improve access to mental health supports and help men address the historical and current health inequities they are experiencing.

High-quality early childhood education is an evidence-based intervention proven to reduce the occurrence of health disparities like heart disease, drug and alcohol abuse and teen pregnancies. The lack of quality early care and education options has resulted in an achievement gap seen in children as early as eighteen months old with lower neurological, cognitive and social-emotional development. With this Community Impact Grant, the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA) and its partners (including childcare providers and parents) developed the Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network (WEESN) – Milwaukee initiative to strengthen the quality and continuity of local childcare providers in the most under-resourced areas of Milwaukee. The initiative worked to stabilize childcare by connecting family and group childcare programs to pool resources and capitalize on economies of scale and expertise. By sharing resources, knowledge and staffing, childcare programs can build capacity in their caregiving and improve outcomes for young children and their families. WEESSN-Milwaukee promoted and sustained more accessible, high-quality early care and education opportunities, ultimately benefiting children, working parents, childcare providers and their communities.

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, 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.