Grant Type: Community Grant

The Birth Outcomes Made Better (BOMB) Doula Program aimed to address and improve the poor birth outcomes experienced by Black mothers and infants in Milwaukee. Between 2016 and 2020, nearly 50 percent of Milwaukee births were to Black mothers, yet 70 percent of infant deaths were among Black infants. Because culturally appropriate support from doulas has been shown to significantly improve birth outcomes and maternal health, this approach was critical to address the disparities Black women and infants face in Milwaukee. The BOMB Doula Program successfully advanced its mission to improve birth outcomes for Black families in Milwaukee by providing crucial resources, health education and employment opportunities. By offering free doula services, the program ensured broad accessibility and met high demand by expanding its team from four to eight full-time employees. Additionally, the program trained doulas as Certified Lactation Counselors, increased appointment attendance and created sustainable employment opportunities.

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.

Madison Area Care for the Homeless (MACH OneHealth) – now known as Madison Street Medicine – aimed to deliver services that bridge the gap between healthcare and housing systems. With funding support, they were able to expand from a volunteer-run initiative into a staffed nonprofit organization offering a range of programs, including weekly clinics at shelters, mobile medical outreach, housing-focused case management, harm reduction services and Madison’s first city-sanctioned campground for unsheltered individuals.

This grant has ended. Urban Triage has received an award for a project to support Black youth who have been disproportionality impacted during the pandemic. Their project will expand its transformative educational workgroup model to include access to telehealth resources and establish a youth-centered Hip Hop Based Educational (HHBE) workgroup to promote healing, resilience, self-esteem and connection. It will also support Black youth by providing training for existing social and emotional healthcare providers in the community through its Co-Conspirator workgroups. The partners will evaluate the impacts of services on adolescent mental health and well-being to inform sustainability and replication of workgroups.

This project will use family resource and support specialists to promote infant health and safety, and address parental mental and physical health, family needs and risk factors that contribute to abuse and neglect in Door County.

Lilada’s Livingroom, which provides culturally competent services to Black women and girls, sought to create a virtual safe space for Black girls between the ages of 10 and 17 who are at high risk for suicide and sexual abuse. The project aimed to create a positive online community focused on trauma healing through podcasts, videos and other forms of creative expression like art and poetry. Lilada’s Livingroom successfully launched 50 episodes of a podcast called “Defending Black Girlhood.” Three affirmation, journaling and coloring books that celebrate Black girls were also published and distributed for free within the Madison community.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges across communities, and transmission among underserved communities, such as people experiencing homelessness added complexity to the response. The goal of this project was to reduce the spread of COVID-19 at Porchlight Men’s Emergency Shelter by using an innovative technology-enabled solution of virtual volunteer nurses from Nurse Disrupted, LLC to screen all guests safely and accurately each day prior to admission to the homeless shelter sites. This project was successfully completed as the technology was developed and implemented. The technology solution had a 100 percent adoption rate, and surveys of guests and staff demonstrated high satisfaction with the telehealth service.

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.

Through the WeRISE Black Birth Workers Response to COVID-19 pilot program, the African American Breastfeeding Network (AABN) partnered with Black doulas and Black birth workers to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among Black/African American families across Southeastern Wisconsin, specifically in Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha counties. The grant team sought to provide culturally-appropriate services, information, and resources to 100 pregnant African American birthing persons, reduce the incidence of the COVID-19 infection and spread, and reduce risk of maternal and infant complications. The grant team successfully served 90 women through the WeRISE pilot program and a majority of the mothers expressed high levels of satisfaction with the services provided, doula communication and skills, COVID-19 information and resources, and the program overall. The team identified, interviewed, and recruited 25 Black women who were trained and certified as doulas and were subsequently matched with the mothers enrolled in the program. Additionally, they created and disseminated a two tier COVID-19 Emergency Tool Kit, as well as Postpartum Healing Kits to support mothers’ needs after birth.

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.