A message to our partners: The Wisconsin Partnership Program’s commitment to health equity

We stand with you and reaffirm our mission to bring about lasting improvements in health and well-being and to advance health equity in Wisconsin. To truly improve health and well-being, we recognize that we must advance health equity, which the Partnership defines as “the attainment of the highest level of health for all people through the removal of obstacles to health, such as poverty, discrimination and lack of access to health care.”

The events of the past week have underscored how far we are from achieving these goals. We are committed to giving them clarity and meaning in the following ways:

• Listening to and learning from our grantees whose experiences and perspectives inform our investments
• Implementing strategies to ensure that funding, leadership, staffing, training, engagement and monitoring practices advance health equity
• Joining organizations around the state to declare racism a public health crisis via the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s Resolution
• Reaffirming our mission to advance health equity in ways that produce a rapid and attainable response

We will continue to listen and learn and expand this list to demonstrate our understanding that this difficult work requires unwavering commitment. We echo the message from Patrick J. Sims, UW–Madison Deputy Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion, who said that we must “go beyond discussions and committees to a place of finding solutions and commit to meaningful, systemic and substantive change.”

Sincerely,

The Wisconsin Partnership Program

Andrea Dearlove, Senior Program Officer
Madalyn Grau, Administrative Assistant
Mehrnaz Ahmadi Joobaneh, Systems Analyst
Tonya Mathison, Administrative Manager
Anne Pankratz, University Relations Specialist
Courtney Saxler, Program Officer
Eileen M. Smith, Assistant Dean and Director
Jonathan Thomas, Assistant Director of Finance
Debbie Wu, Financial Specialist