Grant Type: Community Grant

The community of Cross Plains, Wisconsin determined that it needed to promote nutrition and physical activity in order to address this small, rural community’s troubling obesity rate. The project’s results suggest that strategic and organized social support networks as well as community gardens promoted across community, childcare and senior settings are both effective ways to engage residents in activities that improve nutrition and increase physical activity.

Jackson County recognized that it needed to provide a public health approach to address the misuse and abuse of prescription and illegal injectable drugs occurring within its community. The project’s diverse range of efforts and results suggest that collaborating across sectors and implementing targeted resources and education are effective ways to create sustainable change and improvement in addressing drug misuse and abuse.

Through this project, Wisconsin middle and high schools showed the film titled Straight Forward: The Truth About Addiction and developed and used the accompanying curriculum. The project’s ultimate goal was to create awareness about Wisconsin’s addiction crisis and empower young people and their families with information and inspiration to live sober and successful lives. WisconsinEye staff presented the film to more than 12,000 students statewide in all-school assemblies, and thousands of students were engaged in post-film conversations with addiction prevention specialists. Lesson plans and complimentary video materials were created and packaged around the film for further learning. In addition, the film was viewed directly off the WisconsinEye website more than 3,500 times.

The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness partnered with Reach Dane to provide comprehensive, culturally appropriate, coordinated support to Black women in Reach Dane’s Early Childhood Program who are at risk of experiencing poor maternal and infant health outcomes. They collaborated to aid Black women in Dane County with overcoming economic stressors, improving access to information, education and supports, and accessing critical social, healthcare and community support to address needs that impact perinatal health.

This project, WeRISE Community Doula Program, aimed to transform the African American Breastfeeding Network’s pilot program into a sustainable community-based model of care for Black families. In Milwaukee, Black infant mortality rates are three times higher than white infant mortality rates, and maternal mortality rates are five times higher for Black women than white women in Wisconsin. The project made significant progress toward its goal by increasing program awareness at both the community and state levels and by forming partnerships with various organizations. The WeRISE doula program supported 65 pregnant individuals providing support and care through the prenatal, delivery and postpartum periods. Survey feedback demonstrated high levels of satisfaction and the program’s positive impact in reducing anxiety related to pregnancy and labor.

This project, led by Today Not Tomorrow, Inc., aimed to sustain access to low and no-cost doula services, implement Harambee Birth and Family Center services for autonomous care options for Black families and finalize accreditation for a midwifery school to train six BIPOC midwives. Historically, midwives, similar to today’s doulas, played a crucial role in pregnancy care, but their contributions were marginalized with the rise of the medical profession, diminishing community-based midwifery and Indigenous birth practices. As a result of this project, the Harambee Birth and Family Center expanded their services with community-based doulas, scholarships for BIPOC doulas, and improved lactation support. Their integrated care model and new partnerships aimed at doula training marked significant progress, and the first cohort of doulas advanced into their second year of training and clinical preceptorship.

Rock County Public Health Department (RCPHD) is partnering with Rock & Walworth County Comprehensive Family Services, Inc. Early HeadStart, Harambee Village Doulas, and Dean Health Plan/SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital of Janesville to strengthen community support for pregnant Black women and Black families. With this initiative, RCPHD will conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, expand doula services through building an apprenticeship pipeline and execute an educational campaign to increase awareness about the impact of racism and its chronic stress on Black mothers and the value of doula support.

The structural and cultural forces that shape health are the result of decisions made by those in positions of relative power. To help members build their networks of relationships and develop their understanding of how to use power and move projects forward in their communities, the Lussier Community Education Center (LCEC) and Goodman Community Center formed the Neighborhood Organizing Institute (NOI) in 2015. NOI was a 12-month cohort-based training and support program that provides local, grassroots, low-income organizers with skills to make change in their own Madison neighborhoods and communities. This project, Neighborhood Organizing Institute 2.0 (NOI 2.0) was created to catalyze increased and sustained action by building long-term peer and institutional support for organizers’ work. NOI 2.0 was successful in building a leadership council that led organizer workshops, retreats and summits which provided opportunities for organizers to build relationships. The project team also worked with partners to compile research supporting the impact of organizing approaches which was shared with individuals from nine local funding sources.

This grant will support the development of an adolescent health stakeholder group in Racine that aims to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and infection in teens and teach leadership skills to support adolescent healthy lifestyles. Teen stakeholders will gather information, identify needs and share resources to ensure the community is receiving optimal care related to sexual health and teen pregnancy.

This project will create a smartphone application to address the increasing demand from veterans for non-clinical, peer-based mental health services. DigitalFOB will offer a secure, confidential space in which veterans and family members can connect virtually with other veterans and family members.