Grant Type: Community 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.

According to neuroscience, the first three years of life are a critical window of opportunity and time of increased vulnerability. Supporting a child’s social and emotional development while also being nurtured within culturally responsive relationships in which they can form secure attachments lays a solid foundation for lifelong health and well-being. The goal of this project was to create equitable access for Spanish-speaking early childhood educators to professional development opportunities related to social emotional development and infant mental health. Tools, resources and training were translated into Spanish and reflected the cultural awareness of the needs of Latin/x early educators. The grantees were able to make significant progress in strengthening equitable pathways to professional development and the IMH-E® (Infant Mental Health Endorsement) credential in Spanish. As a result of this project, Latin/x educators well-trained in this area were able to foster positive health outcomes for infants and children in their care.

The Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) is a social service agency in Madison that offers support to those in need of assistance with meeting basic needs and spiritual and educational growth. It served some of Madison’s most vulnerable people, including those who were amongst the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic facing housing, food, and job insecurity. In order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 among its English and Spanish-speaking clients, the CMC sought to address their clients’ immediate needs for food and hygiene supplies and assist those seeking employment or unemployment benefits. This project allowed the CMC to continue offering crucial social services throughout the pandemic. The CMC served 810 households through its food pantry over the duration of the project and distributed 213,471 pounds of food – double the amount in 2019. The personal essentials pantry served 769 total households from May to December in 2020 and 205 households from January to April in 2021, distributing a total of 7,071 personal hygiene items. The jobs office successfully assisted an average of 61 individuals per month throughout the project, with 18 individuals referred to an employer to apply for work, and 15 individuals gaining employment on average each month.

Note: Funding for this grant has ended.

In response to challenges faced by immigrant populations in Racine, Appleton and Eau Claire, this project, called Building Immigrant Leadership for Wisconsin, aimed to empower immigrant community leaders to foster relationships and address immigrant-related issues. Despite the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this project made significant progress toward its goals. The project raised awareness of family separation, supported immigrants held in Wisconsin jails and made efforts to increase voter turnout and provide accurate census information to dispel fears of immigration consequences. Notably, the Immigrant Support Project was established and raised funds to assist over 130 undocumented families in Racine during the pandemic.

This project led by Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health, Maroon Calabash and UBUNTU Research and Evaluation aimed to develop Black women’s leadership in reproductive justice by establishing a statewide reproductive justice and advocacy nonprofit. The project successfully transformed Maroon Calabash into a statewide organization led by Black women, implemented a community doula program and advocated for policy changes including Medicaid reimbursement for doula services and expanded coverage for midwifery care.

Youth aging out of foster care face high rates of homelessness and some of the highest barriers to health and well-being in the nation. National and Wisconsin data indicate that one in three youth aging out of foster care will stay in a homeless shelter within two years of exiting the system, and 42 percent will have a homeless experience by age 21. Through further research and evaluation, this project aimed to expand an innovative model of service delivery to address youth homelessness in Wisconsin and beyond. This project expanded the evidence base for an innovative solution to the challenges of youth homelessness that has been piloted in Milwaukee. Pathfinders, a nonprofit organization that serves youth in crisis in Milwaukee, was able to expand the program’s capacity to enroll youth in the PATHS pilot program. The PATHS program represents an innovative approach to preventing homelessness for youth aging out of foster care. Youth enrolled in the PATHS program exceeded every outcome target within the five PATHS domains: stable housing, positive connections, academic progress, training and employment, and social-emotional wellness.

This project led by Anesis, a Black-owned therapy center in Madison, aimed to address the high rates of violence and trauma experienced by children, particularly in the Black community. All Anesis staff were successfully trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Brainspotting, and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) to help children and their caregivers work through trauma and prevent cycles of intergenerational trauma. While the original goal was to include training in Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), it was not feasible due to cost constraints. Instead, over 200 families were treated with TF-CBT, BrainSpotting and EMDR during the two-year grant cycle. The success of the project led to securing a substantial contract with Dane County Human Services to expand Anesis’ In-Home Mental Health Program for youth ages 0 to 17 years old.