Minority Health Grant Program

Grantee Organizations and Project Summary

Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic

Chris Casselman, email: Christine.casselman@aah.org
Location: Milwaukee, WI

The Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic’s (AWPCC) Cresciendo Juntas (Growing Together) program is a series of free classes and workshops designed to help Latina immigrant women manage stress, improve mental health, and build community. The program serves over 150 individuals annually and is led by a WPCC psychologist and MD-trained Peruvian community health worker. It has been transformative in the lives of participants. Delivered in Spanish, the program includes: 1)Venga y Relájese (Come and Relax): Participants learn relaxation techniques, mindfulness, and other stress-management skills; 2) Venga y Siga Creciendo (Come and Keep Growing): Participants explore the impact of trauma on mental health and learn tools to help process past trauma; 3) Mindful Communication: Participants learn to communicate more effectively in personal and professional relationships; 4) Developing a Personal Narrative: Participants explore personal history and develop ownership over their life stories,5) Circulo de Mujeres (Circle of Women): Weekly support circles; 6) Conscious Eating: One course and 7) a Weekly Walking Group.

Centro Hispano of Dane County

Evelyn Cruz, email: Evelyn@micentro.org
Location: Dane County, WI

Centro Hispano and the Esperanza Partnership will implement a HEART Sanctuary and Community of Care strategies to address workforce burnout and the ability to increase resilience. These strategies aim to increase community capacity by supporting our community mental health workforce to strengthen individual and community sense of identity and belonging by reconnecting with our cultural roots, reawakening and reclaiming our ancestral knowledge as a path to resilience, liberation, healing, and well-being. They are targeting Latine- and BIPOC-identified Spanish-speaking social service and behavioral health providers (e.g., mental health practitioners, community health workers, advocates, community leaders and educators) to strengthen workforce capacity and support.

City on a Hill

Art Serna, email: Aserna@cityonahillmke.org
Location: Milwaukee, WI

City on a Hill (COAH) is dedicated to mitigating health disparities and generational poverty among minority populations in Milwaukee's Near West Side and adjacent neighborhoods. Their project integrates person and community-centered healthcare, social connectivity, and mental well-being. They employ Health Outreach events and the Empowering Communities of Color Digital Well-Being Initiative (ECC-DWBI) to promote preventive care, manage chronic diseases, and provide mental health education. Their initiatives foster community unity, counteracting the adverse effects of social isolation on mental and emotional health. They leverage telehealth technology to broaden mental health services in our target areas, collaborating with mental health providers to offer virtual counseling, screenings, and educational resources. This strategy addresses the shortage of mental health professionals in our service area and ensures individuals have easy and confidential access to support.

Finding HOME

Quinn Devlin, email: Quinn.devlin@marinecu.com
Location: Sheboygan, WI

Finding HOME is interrupting the cycle of generational financial instability by connecting underserved and credit-challenged populations to homeownership. Homeownership is a crucial foundation for financially stability. In fact, academic research and surveys point to one inescapable conclusion: that owning one’s home enhances quality of life in a variety of specific, verifiable ways, such as feelings of stability and pride, involvement in communities, decreased doctor visits, and increased academic achievement. To this end, MCU Foundation created Finding HOME, a free 12-18 month financial education, behavior change, and housing program designed to help families achieve homeownership. Throughout the core program, participants meet with a financial coach three times per month, attend educational courses, and receive resource navigation assistance as needed. As a result, families build robust savings accounts, reduce debt, and increase their credit scores substantially. Upon graduation, families are guaranteed access to a market-rate mortgage that fits their spending plan.

HealthNet of Rock County

Holly Bowers, email: Hbowers@healthnet-rock.org
Location: Janesville, WI

Mental healthcare access remains a paramount concern in Rock County, particularly for individuals facing language/cultural barriers. HealthNet of Rock County's "Apoyo en la communidad" project is a crucial response to the scarcity of behavioral healthcare providers in Rock County, Wisconsin, focusing on the underserved Hispanic/Latinx population. Aligned with the State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) priorities, the project aims to deliver culturally sensitive mental health and substance use treatment services. By providing bilingual individual therapy, group psychotherapy, and psychiatric prescribing, the initiative addresses specific barriers faced by Hispanic/Latin individuals, including language, lack of insurance, and cultural considerations. Objectives include reducing depression symptoms and advancing behavioral change readiness. Long-term goals focus on increasing the likelihood of behavior change and achieving treatment retention, ultimately contributing to enhanced mental health outcomes within the Hispanic/Latin community in Rock County. This project signifies a crucial step towards equitable access to quality mental healthcare in the region.

IP Ministries

Catrina Sparkman, email: Catrinasparkman@gmail.com
Location: Statewide

The Memory Collectors Story Project: Fighting Alzheimer's with Art is a collaborative effort between IP Ministries and The Creator’s Cottage, The Ironer’s Press, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, African Americans Fighting Alzheimer’s in Midlife, New Bridge Community Center, and Badger Rock Community Gardens to create an innovative arts education program. The Memory Collectors Story Project: Fighting Alzheimer’s with Art program, employs the creative arts to manage stress, and to educate participants on strategies to improve heart and brain health with the purpose of decreasing the risk of Alzheimer’s and other Dementia related diseases in African American, Indigenous, and other women of color age 40 and up. Participants in the program will gather monthly at the Creator’s Cottage, a culturally specific, welcoming maker space, to share memories surrounding themes of family, community, faith, culture, and resistance. Project participants will be given the option of producing their stories in written form or by means of fabric through story cloths and quilts.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin

Maria Barker, email: Maria.barker@ppwi.org
Location: Dane, Green Bay, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Trempealeau, Walworth, and Waukesha counties

The Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, Inc. (PPWI) Promotores de Salud (Health Promoter) program will provide culturally and linguistically relevant outreach, health education and peer navigation within social networks. The project focuses on decreasing health disparities and improving health outcomes of underserved Latinx people in Wisconsin within two SHIP priority areas: 1) Promoting person and community centered care by recruiting, training, and mobilizing a network of 20 Latinx health promoters who will conduct education, outreach, and peer navigation to health care and community resources, and 2) Increasing social connectedness and belonging among Latinx immigrants who are isolated as a result of structural and systemic barriers and their undocumented status. The project will take place in Dane, Green Bay, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Trempealeau, Walworth, and Waukesha counties. Staff and health promoters work with 25+ local partner organization to coordinate outreach and engagement activities such as health fairs, vaccine outreach, community celebrations, and voter registration.

FREE

Peggy West-Schroder, email: Peggy@freemvmnt.org
Location: Statewide

Women are the fastest growing incarcerated population; the separation of children from primary caregivers and the treatment of pregnant and incarcerated women and girls reproduces intergenerational cycles of trauma and the potential for incarceration, and associated health disparities. Wisconsin has the most racially disparate rates of incarceration in the country, so this systemic health disparity falls on our Black communities most heavily. Lack of awareness by the public and power holders means that this key site of potential intervention remains neglected. This project will 1) Raise awareness among the public of the intersection between incarceration and the health of women and girls, with a focus on Black maternal and child health; 2) Empower women impacted by the criminal legal system and 3) Build coalitions between impacted women and non impacted allies to create concrete changes in linked criminal legal institutions.

Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic (AWPCC), Hispanic Women’s Stress Management Program
Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 Focus: Mental Health

The Minority Health Grant covers expansion of the Venga Y Relajese stress management program and its related curriculum delivered to uninsured women. Funding allows AWPCC to increase programming both in frequency and participant capacity, offer new programs and hire a Community Health Worker to support efforts and bolster operational capacity. There have been two new, one-time classes offered, Relajémonos en Familia and Mindful Eating that served eighteen participants. Additionally, there are two new Venga Y Siga Creciendo classes serving fifteen participants. A group for men is planned to begin January 2021.

"Overall, we are pleased that the Venga program continues to touch lives in positive ways to improve the stress levels of our patients despite obstacles."

F.O.S.T.E.R of Dane County Inc. Black Girls Talk Too / Triple B Black Girls Empowerment Online Platform
Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 Focus: Mental Health; Collaboration, Community Strengths, Prevention

The project has two goals. The primary goal is to provide positive and healthy supports in the lives of African American girls in order to prevent poor health outcomes over the life course. A collective goal is to utilize the positive youth development model to identify and draw inherent strengths. Mentors are embedded in the project to support families as well as youth.

“The socioemotional health of the girls we serve is our main priority despite the pandemic and we are so excited to do this with the support of the Minority Health Grant.”

One RBN Wellness, (Relate, Build Nurture) Project
Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 Focus: Mental health; Everyone Living Better, Longer

The RBN Pilot Project is a program designed to improve wellness outcomes for American Indian populations, with specific focus on youth. The focus of the project is to Relate, Build, and Nurture (RBN) through the integration of American Indian arts and teachings with focuses on mental wellness. The project goal is to normalize conversations on mental wellness within America Indian communities, while building relationships between youth, adults, and community supports. Due to COVID-19 online forums and hands on workshops and wellness events have proven successful.

"There is healing that occurs as we foster healthy connections and relationships. Not only is this prevention and education for the current generations, but healing for the next generations to come.”

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, Promotores de Salud (health promoters)
Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 Focus: Chronic Disease Prevention; Human Growth and Development; Reproductive and Sexual Health

Health promoters work across Wisconsin to ensure that addressing health disparities in Latinx communities. Program components are designed to reduce health disparities including higher rates of some cancer diagnoses, low access to preventive health care, and higher exposure to hazardous working conditions. The Program Director, Maria Barker is engaged with Latinx leaders in several communities including farm workers in central Wisconsin. The program director and health promoters are a resource for COVID-19 information relevant to diverse Latinx communities and shared information weekly with trained Latinx health promoters.

"Our entire team is excited to share our knowledge with Latinx families across WI. We will ensure families are receiving information in a manner they can understand and feel comfortable asking question. Creating trust and connecting people to reputable resources is our expertise and top priority."

YWCA Greater Green Bay Fitness Exploration for Minority Middle Schoolers
Healthiest Wisconsin Focus: Physical Activity

The program helps low-income minority middle school students try many different styles of physical fitness activities in an effort to help kids connect with a fitness activity they can take with them their entire lives. This program has given these youth an outlet to be physically active and to safely socialize in a time of isolation and inactiveness while also developing a norm for healthy habits. The benefit expanding these services has against the backdrop of a pandemic impacting people of color so disproportionately is amazing.

“We are excited to be expanding our work with youth fitness and coupling it with our missional dedication to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity.”

Muslim Community Health Center
Healthiest Wisconsin Focus: Tobacco Use and Exposure

MCHC delivered the Stanford University a three part series on “Vaping Prevention: A remote learning curriculum” class to 200 Salam School middle and high school students. Students are provided vouchers and a certificate of completion. Students interact throughout each session and really are compelled about making a change on vaping. Students express concern regarding the amount of misinformation that is presented in the community about vaping and its dangers.

“This funding opportunity has been vital to start the program at Salam School. One student said, “I can’t believe some of the ingredients in e-cigarettes and the effects of second hand smoking.”

Jump at the Sun, Wisconsin We’re Better Than This: Anti-Racism Public Health
Healthiest Wisconsin Focus: Tobacco; Structural Racism

This project focuses on the needed upstream policy interventions to address structural racism. One key area of racial health disparities is tobacco use. A goal of the program is to go beyond tobacco-focused interventions to incorporate upstream work that both builds public will for policy changes and addresses the root causes of smoking disparities. The project includes an Anti-Racism Public Health Initiative, targeting systemic and structural racism across all sectors through the development and pilot-testing of anti-racism learning circles and by engaging in message testing to support the development of an anti-racism media campaign.

"We are grateful to be a grantee of the Wisconsin Minority Health Program and view this as seed money that will allow us to engage in the type of ‘good trouble’, described by the late Senator John Lewis of Georgia. This funding will support thoughtful planning, relationship building and partnerships that will pave the road for Wisconsin to be a state where everyone lives in dignity and has an equal opportunity to achieve optimal.”

Health Connections, COVID19 Testing and Community Outreach Program
Healthiest Wisconsin Focus: Communicable Disease, (Building Infrastructure for health services and resources for vulnerable populations and reducing negative health and economic impact of communicable diseases)

Health Connections Inc. (HC) is healthcare firm with a public health/population management perspective providing COVID-19 testing as our response to health services and linkage of Milwaukee County residents to other basic needs, supportive services and mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the Health Connections Inc.’s (HCI) COVID-19 Testing and Community Outreach Program has networked with its community partners, churches and neighborhood food pantries to provide more than 1000 COVID-19 onsite tests, counseling, education for the entire community – but especially targeting the African American populations in Milwaukee County.

“The State of WI providing Minority-lead health-focused agencies with access to funding and operational integration into public health systems, is how we start equalizing access to and acceptance of healthcare in general and thereby achieve health equity and overall increase of Wisconsin's health performance.”

ABC for Health, Inc. recently embarked on a project to document and translate the stories from unmarried women and families on Badger Care Plus in Wisconsin facing legal action and judgment from county child support offices to repay Medicaid-supported birth expenses through the “Birth Cost Recovery” policy. These stories formed part of a campaign to inform community leaders about the disparate impact of this policy on low-income, minority families, contributing to health inequity and prenatal stress leading to poor birth outcomes. Visit ABC for Health's Birth Cost Recovery or watch the following informational videos created by ABC for Health, to learn more.

• A Conversation on Birth Cost Recovery video (6 minutes)
• Eliminating a Medicaid Health Disparity: Stopping the Birth Tax video  (29 minutes)

Wisconsin Health Literacy's  project—Let's Talk About Opioids— sought to improve health and reduce opioid disparities for justice-involved (incarcerated or on parole) individuals from minority populations. The project included the development of health literacy workshops to improve individuals’ understanding of the risks of overdose after leaving incarceration or parole and how to recognize and prevent an overdose.

Faced with the challenge of adapting to a new way of doing their work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project managers were able to forge ahead in creative ways. Combining public health knowledge about keeping communities safe during COVID-19 with what they learned during focus groups with their target population, they shifted the program delivery method for the Let’s Talk About Opioids workshop to a virtual format. This shift allowed the project to keep moving forward, and will serve even more justice-involved adults with a greater variety of materials than originally planned.

The Minority Health Program is pleased to announce that the grantee recipients have been selected for fiscal year 2020. The recipients are listed below, along with their project goals.

ABC for Health, Inc. Family Stories: Birth Cost Equity for Unmarried Women & Families

In collaboration with ABC for Rural Health and HealthWatch Wisconsin, this project will document and translate the stories from unmarried women and families on Badger Care Plus in Wisconsin, that face legal action and judgment from County Child Support offices to repay Medicaid-supported birth expenses through the “Birth Cost Recovery” policy. These stories will form part of an education and outreach campaign to inform community leaders about the disparate impact this policy has on low-income, minority families, including health inequity and prenatal stress that leads to poor birth outcomes.

Centro Hispano of Dane County New Routes Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) Support Group

This project’s primary goal is to address the void of cultural and linguistically appropriate services for AODA for Latino families in Dane County. The project aims to run four AODA support group cohorts that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to serve a total of 60 participants. In addition, they would collect evaluation data to move into a national review of the curriculum to validate the intervention as a new evidence-based practice and allow sharing of the intervention with other Latinx communities in the nation.

Focus Counseling, Inc. Pilot: Housing as Healthcare+

The goal of this initiative is to support initial housing opportunities for individuals facing significant barriers to housing, including substance abuse disorders, mental health diagnoses and criminal justice involvement, while providing wrap-around services to address other barriers to improved health outcomes, including development of an individualized recovery plan, access to nutrition and fitness education, and treatment and recovery services for AODA and mental health conditions.

Racine Kenosha Community Action Agency, Inc. Eat. Move. Thrive. Kenosha

This project is a non-pharmaceutical prescription approach for health improvement in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, tobacco cessation, wellness and social cohesion. Their priority populations include Hispanic and African American individuals participating in the following RKCAA – Kenosha programming: Dedicated Dads, a WIC father involvement program. The Momtastics, a newly formed group of WIC moms, and low-income senior citizens participating in the Kenosha Senior Veggie Voucher Program.

Safe Community Coalition Madison-Dane County Understanding Opioid Harm and Suicide in Dane County’s African American Community

This project has as a primary goal to engage African-American community members and organizations in Dane County in the Ending Deaths from Despair Initiative through presentations and conversations about prevalence, impacts and prospective solutions to reduce opioid harm and suicide, planning, and recruitment to participate in the Ending Deaths from Despair Summit (Spring 2020) along with subsequent compilation of community conversations about suicide and opioid harm to begin next steps of developing culturally appropriate, community-based strategies to address these problems.

HealthNet of Rock County, Inc. Preventing Suicide and Improving Treatment of Hispanic Adults in Rock County

This project seeks to decrease the risk of suicide by initiating an intense screening and treatment program for Hispanic individuals suffering from depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder in Rock County.

Today Not Tomorrow Family Resource Center Family Support Services

The goal of this work is to support African-American families in Dane County and to foster healthy birth outcomes by providing parents and caregivers with opportunities to learn and foster healthy parent-child relationships in the face of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Wisconsin Health Literacy Let’s Talk about Opioids

This project seeks to increase the knowledge among justice-involved individuals in minority populations about how to avoid death from opioids. The proposal includes the development of health literacy workshops for inmates upon release from prison or parole, followed by training of partners to sustain the delivery of this material.

Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness Project LiveWell: Moving Black Women to Wellness through Fitness & Nutrition

The goal of this project is to engage African-American women and girls of Dane County in regular physical activity and nutrition education that bolsters their overall health and well-being and reduces their risk and incidence of chronic illness.

Centro Hispano of Dane County Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences in Latinx Families using a critical approach to the Life Course Framework

This campaign aims to create innovative approaches to understanding and analyzing the health and well-being of Latinx families in Wisconsin through an entirely community-based approach to understand how ACEs are expressed and reported on in this community

The Minority Health Program is pleased to announce that the grantee recipients have been selected for fiscal year 2019. The recipients are listed below, along with their project goals.

Today Not Tomorrow Family Resource Center Family Support Services.

Today Not Tomorrow’s (TNT) Family Resource Center provides brain-based learning that gives parents the chance to engage and interact with their child during childcare. This varies from pro-social behavioral activities that are self-paced and promotes self-discovery, to the Fatherhood Initiative to keep fathers engaged and active with their families and children. TNT also connects African-American families who are either pregnant or existing parents with other families to bridge interactive opportunities that builds healthy parent-child relationships amid Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s), thereby supporting families in accessing resources that results in healthy birth outcomes.

Behavioral Health Division of Milwaukee County Crisis Care
The Behavioral Health Division of Milwaukee County is improving health outcomes among Milwaukee’s African American and Hispanic/Latino community members by increasing access to evidence-based mental health care and stabilization. If uninsured Milwaukee County residents face a mental health related crisis, the Access Clinic connects them to behavioral health care regardless of their ability to pay. BHD also uses evidence-based practices to evaluate their clients in support of overcoming any crisis. This includes the Zero Suicide Severity Rating Scale that supports screening and wellness outcomes.

Jewish Family Services Inc. School-Based Mental Health Services
Jewish Family Services (JFS) is growing their School-Based Mental Health project with the goal of improving student’s mental health and prosocial behaviors while ameliorating symptoms of stress and trauma. In partnering with the Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (M.T.E.A.) to address trauma among students, JFS trained the MTEA’s teachers union, including an estimated thirty school social workers from the Milwaukee Public School district. On-site mental health services are available to students at both Brown Deer public schools and Inner City Cyber charter school to reduce the negative impact of Adverse Childhood experiences (ACE’s) on mental health. Children are able to work on problem behaviors, develop coping skills, and improve their academic performance. Teachers are also equipped with skills to recognize adverse behaviors, better support learning, and refer children to additional support therapies. To date, twenty-six students have received school-based psychotherapy, with a goal to reach forty-five students by the end of this school year.

Sixteenth Street Community Health Center Nutrition and Physical Activity
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center’s goal is to foster a culture of personal and community health for the Latino community on the near-South side of Milwaukee. SSCHC works to provide and expand access to free physical activity and nutrition/cooking education in local schools and parks with a grass-roots approach that impacts the physical and emotional health of their community members. These activities are implemented through the Healthy Choices Program, consisting of: family education for Pulaski neighborhood residents, walking clubs in both Pulaski and Burnham Parks, a biking club at the Hank Aaron State Trail, and a walking club with nutrition series at five schools. To date, SSCHC has trained four health promoters from the Latinos por la Salud (Latinos for Health) program in facilitation, nutrition and engagement to lead nutrition classes and walking clubs. These activities vary from an eight-week physical activity to cooking education classes for the entire family.

African American Breastfeeding Alliance of Dane County Inc. Helping Women Find Their Voices
The African American Breastfeeding Alliance (AABA) of Dane County aims to help women better understand the benefits of breastfeeding and their rights around breastfeeding through a series of podcasts, radio ads, billboards, and public service announcements. Their mission is to address African American breastfeeding disparities through dissemination of information, research, consultation, and support so that every African American family will make well-informed decisions about breastfeeding. Since 2003, AABA empowers women to advocate for improving healthcare that serves them and their families, which in turn reduce the rates of obesity and chronic disease because the family becomes aware of the health benefits in breast milk.

The Minority Health Program is pleased to announce that the grantee recipients have been selected for fiscal year 2018. The recipients are listed below, along with their project goals.

Clinica Latina – Journey Mental Health Center Strengthening Latino Families by Increasing Social Support and Resiliency (Fortalezas Familiares)
Fortalezas Familiares is a 12 session, multi-family group intervention for Latino families with a mother suffering from depression. Adapted from the “Keeping Families Strong” project (a family-based, resilience-centered intervention developed at UW) it aims to: 1) provide culturally specific care to Latinos to help recovery from the effects of depression and to promote family support and resiliency and 2) Serve as a platform to train staff on the culturally competent aspects of this intervention.

Today Not Tomorrow, Inc Family Resource Center Family Support Programming
Today Not Tomorrow Family Resource Center (TNT FRC) is designed to connect with African American families with young children who are homeless or near homeless in the greater Madison area to provide culturally competent peer to peer support for early parenting. Additionally, education about child development and development of healthy parent child relationships will be offered to help address ACEs and promote resilience.

Wisconsin Health Literacy, a division of Wisconsin Literacy, Inc. Let’s Talk About Pain Medicines
Let’s Talk About Pain Medicines seeks to improve the health of American Indian, Asian, Black and Latino populations in Wisconsin by increasing awareness of opioid use, misuse and abuse. WHL will use its award-winning project model- comprised of multi-lingual workshops and easy-to-read curricular materials in partnership with trusted community-based organizations- and apply it to the issue of pain medication, specifically opioids.

Racine Kenosha Community Action Agency, Inc Adolescent Health: Youth and Parent Involvement to Improve Health Outcomes for African American and Hispanic Adolescents
The Adolescent Health program is part of the Greater Racine Collaborative for Health Birth Outcomes initiative, and is designed to foster community leadership and strengthen coordination of programs to: reduce unintended teen pregnancy, STDs, ethnic/racial disparities in sexual health outcomes, and risky behaviors. The program takes a 3 pronged approach that includes: Increasing parent/teen communication, education for teens on how to make wise choices as it relates to risky behaviors, and community awareness and engagement related to adolescent health. These strategies will consists of parent/youth communication workshops, youth workshops on making wise choices, teen-led activities, events for youth and the community, skill building exercises, peer counseling, and community-wide education.

Meta House, Inc. Reaching Out for Recovery Media Campaign
This campaign seeks to target African-American women struggling with substance use disorders through an informational campaign designed to help connect women of color to addiction treatment. The campaign will include advertising through Clear Channel Outdoor as well as radio ads that target African American neighborhoods.