Recent Grant-Funded Programs
Appleton Public Library
Reach Out and Read
Total Grant Amount: $335,000
Grant Period: 2016, 2017, and 2018
Reach Out and Read promotes early childhood literacy. During well-child visits from 6 months to 5 years of age, pediatricians give a free book to their young patients and, at the same appointment, educate caregivers on the benefits of reading to their children.
Apricity
Vocational Learning Center
Total Grant Amount: $130,000
Grant Period: 2017, 2018, and 2019
Men and women recovering from addictions can get help with writing résumés, building interview skills, and pursuing the career options available to them. A coordinator works with participants on their goals, sets up trainings, connects with resources in the community, and teaches various classes. The ultimate goal is to help clients find living-wage community employment.
Mental Health Counselors for Dual Diagnosed Clients
Total Grant Amount: $15,000
Grant Period: 2019
Many of the clients in Apricity’s residential treatment facilities have dual diagnoses of substance use disorder and mental illness. Seeking treatment from a community provider can be difficult, as many agencies have wait lists and are not able to see clients at a sufficient frequency. Grant funds will help support additional therapists at Apricity’s treatment facilities.
Residential Treatment
Total Grant Amount: $15,000
Grant Period: 2022
Apricity’s Residential Treatment program provides low-income individuals with SUD access to residential treatment, which will help bridge the gap between the actual cost of services and MA’s low reimbursement rates. Funds will allow Apricity to stay viable and continue to offer residential treatment services to the community’s most vulnerable individuals so they can receive services pertinent to successful sobriety.
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Mentoring Programs
Total Grant Amount: $15,000
Grant Period: 2018
Big Brothers Big Sisters observed a trend of early and preventable mentoring match closures. When looking at this issue further, the staff found that many of the families are living in poverty and struggling with basic needs. Big Brothers Big Sisters hired additional staff to reduced caseloads in order to take a more engaged approach with parents and mitigate premature match closures.
Boys and Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley
Page Turners Literacy Tutoring Program
Total Grant Amount: $75,000
Grant Period: 2019 and 2020
Page Turners aims to reduce the disparities in third grade reading proficiency by providing individualized reading instruction to kindergarten through third grade students who are ranked in the bottom 25-30% of reading proficiency. The program will be offered at five elementary schools and the Boys and Girls Club locations in Appleton and Menasha. The school sites include: Badger, Columbus, Foster and Highland elementary schools in Appleton and the Little Chute elementary school.
STAR (Scholars on Target to Achieve Results), formerly Scholars of Excellence Program
Total Grant Amount: $230,000
Grant Period: 2018, 2019, and 2020
STAR is a collaboration among school districts, post-secondary institutions, and community partners to improve the academic achievement levels, graduation rates, and post-secondary enrollment rates of African-American youth.
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of the Fox Cities
Volunteer Advocacy Program
Total Grant Amount: $25,000
Grant Period: 2017-2018
CASA’s Volunteer Advocacy Program recruits, trains, and supervises volunteers who regularly meet with abused and/or neglected children. The volunteers then file a written report with the court outlining observations and recommendations, attend court hearings related to the child’s case, and provide a consistent adult presence for the child.
Catalpa Health
Mental Health Pediatric Care Navigation Program
Total Grant Amount: $150,000
Grant Period: 2021, 2022
Catalpa Health serves more than 8,500 kids annually in the Fox Valley, with some families traveling from outside of the Fox Valley to receive care. Half of the clients served are of financial need and often have additional, significant barriers to accessing mental health services and completing treatment.
The expansion of the program will add 3 full time cases managers over 2 years and will significantly increase the number of children served. It will also serve more children through the urgent care clinic and provide more comprehensive wrap around support for families with significant needs such as connections to community resources and navigation through the mental health continuum.
Community Clothes Closet
Children’s Winter Boots
Total Grant Amount: $4,500
Grant Period: 2019
The Community Clothes Closet provides free apparel to men, women, and children in need. Grant funds will purchase winter boots for approximately 150 children.
Shopping Floor
Total Grant Amount: $10,000
Grant Period: 2021
This is a trial program to bridge the gap between the current inventory and existing need. Funding to provide new men's and women's underwear on Community Clothes Closet general shopping floor. Clients are referred from several different social agencies, churches, schools and food pantries around the Fox Valley. CCC serves ALICE families, students, foster children, single parents, veterans, disabled, victims of domestic abuse and people who have experienced a fire, flood or other natural disaster. Currently, CCC accepts gently used underwear to provide to clients. This program will strictly focus on adults ages 18+ in the trial run. Providing new underwear to clients is important for their health, self-confidence and restores an individual's sense of dignity.
New Start Boutique
Total Grant Amount: $10,000
Grant Period: 2017–2018
The New Start Boutique provides free job-attire and interview-appropriate outfits to low-income clients.
Community Early Learning Center Fox Valley
Promoting Families’ Mental Wellbeing: A Mindfulness-Based Wellness Project for Families with 3-5 Year Olds
Total Grant Amount: $92,165
Grant Period: 2018 and 2019
The Promoting Families’ Mental Wellbeing project will implement the Kindness Curriculum from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Healthy Minds Innovations at Bridges Child Enrichment Center, Head Start, and Even Start Family Literacy. The curriculum improves children’s academic success, social skills, and resiliency, parents’ mental health and parenting practices, and teachers’ effectiveness in dealing with their own stress and developing students’ social-emotional, cognitive, and self-regulation skills.
Advancing Early Childhood in the Fox Cities
Total Grant Amount: $62,500
Grant Period: 2018
The Community Early Learning Center is a multi-agency center serving more than 300 children daily to ensure that by age 5, children of the Fox Valley have the foundation to achieve their full potential. Advancing Early Childhood in the Fox Cities funding will support a full-time leadership position to promote further early childhood collaboration in the community and sustainability for the center.
Family Services of Northeast WI
Community Connections
Total Grant Amount: $270,438
Grant Period: 2018, 2019, and 2020
Community Connections is a collaboration between Family Services and Outagamie County, Department of Health and Human Services, Children, Youth and Families Division to prevent the incidence of child abuse and neglect. The rapid-response program will provide 24-weeks of voluntary, pro-active services to families at-risk for child maltreatment, but not currently involved in the child protection system.
First Five Fox Valley
Operations and Help Me Grow
Total Grant Amount: $68,310
Grant Period: 2022, 2023
Funding will support operations as well as Help Me Grow program. The Help Me Grow model Fox Valley was launched as the first affiliate in Wisconsin. Help Me Grow is a national evidenced based model. The local HMG model has 4 main points: 1) centralized access point and call in center, 2) Family Resource Navigators, 3) ASQ Developmental Screening and Assessments, and 4) Data Analysis and Evaluation.
Goodwill North Central Wisconsin
Financial Outreach/Refundable Tax Credits
Total Grant Amount: $17,000
Grant Period: 2022
The Financial Outreach/Refundable Tax Credits program will promote financial literacy and strengthen money management skills through 24 scheduled workshops delivered by Goodwill NCW’s Financial and Debt Solutions Services (FDSS) program. FDSS will work with their Goodwill NCW marketing team to promote refundable tax credits to many organizations and social agencies throughout the Fox Cities. The Goodwill NCW marketing strategy is designed to bring awareness and increase participation in FDSS workshops and Goodwill NCW’s VITA program of specialty tax preparation and e-filing services, such as the GetYourRefund program.
Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity
Rock the Block
Total Grant Amount: $300,000
Grant Period: 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019
Rock the Block, a revitalization initiative, invests in neighborhoods struggling with decreasing property values by helping homeowners and businesses complete improvement projects.
Harbor House Domestic Abuse Programs
Economic Advocacy for Survivors of Domestic Abuse
Total Grant Amount: $24,999
Grant Period: 2019
In order to advance the economic independence of survivors of domestic abuse, Harbor House created an Economic Advocacy position. The program provides financial literacy education, assistance with continuing education, job training and skill building, job placement, career development, and long-term support for survivors.
Menasha Joint School District and Fox Valley Technical College
Menasha Even Start Family Literacy Program
Total Grant Amount: $172,285
Grant Period: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020
Even Start Family Literacy Program helps low-income families increase their educational attainment and potential for economic stability. Parents and children go to school together; the children receive early childhood education and the parents learn skills to become more self-sufficient.
Multicultural Coalition, Inc
Job Training (Technology)
Total Grant Amount: $1,800
Grant Period: 2022
The Coalition has built relationship of trust with local Congolese refugee community. They engage with the Congolese community to identify barriers to equity by providing additional resources to them in areas such as health insurance, health care, food and more. Obtaining good paying, long-term jobs are critical to their long-term well-being. Understanding and speaking English and childcare is a barrier for many. This includes providing access with the computers, sitting with them to take online courses, attending meetings with Childcare Resource & Referral and more. This grant would give them the tools to begin online training. At this time, they are starting with online training for members to be certified in-home day care providers.
N.E.W. Mental Health Connection
Qualitative Study of Teen Suicide-Related Behaviors
Total Grant Amount: $90,000
Grant Period: 2019 and 2020
The Qualitative Study of Teen Suicide-Related Behaviors is designed to identify the reasons why our youth are attempting suicide at twice the rate of the rest of the state and the nation. The research will also include an environmental scan of social media to better understand its role in self-harm and suicide-related behaviors. The project will be led by a research team from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.
N.E.W. Mental Health Connection, Appleton Police Dept, Outagamie County Mental Health & Medical College of WI
Crisis Response Team
Total Grant Amount: $100,000
Grant Period: 2021, 2022
The Crisis Response Team is a co-responder model, where a mental health clinician, employed by Outagamie County, will be embedded in Appleton Police Department. Together, the behavioral health officer, dressed in plain clothes, and the clinician will respond to calls for service that are related to mental health. Meeting individuals who are having a mental health crisis in their home allows that individual to have a greater sense of security, safety and autonomy. This coupled with a response in an unmarked police car and an officer in plain clothes will decrease the likelihood of the crisis escalating unnecessarily.
NEW Mental Health Connection/Diverse and Resilient
LGBTQ Summit
Total Grant Amount: $2,500
Grant Period: 2022
This is the first summit of its kind in the Fox Cities and will be a full day in November. LGBTQ+ people experience alarmingly high rates of mental health challenges, due in large part to stigma, discrimination, and bias in all its forms. This summit will allow people to join established and emerging leaders, activists, advocates, community members, and allies from throughout Northeastern Wisconsin for a day of learning and networking, to join in solidarity to support the LGBTQ+ community and explore solutions to address these inequities. Some sessions are targeted for providers while others are designed for LGBTQ+ community members to support their mental health and healing.
Pillars
Ascend Initiative
Total Grant Amount: $60,000
Grant Period: 2017 and 2018
The Ascend Initiative, in partnership with NAMI Fox Valley, provides stable housing and support services for young adults (ages 18-25) who are living with moderate mental health challenges.
Diversion Program
Total Grant Amount: $200,000
Grant Period: 2018 and 2019
The Diversion Program will provide case management and rapid re-housing services when individuals and families who have immediate risk of homelessness first contact the shelter, rather than putting them on a waiting list.
“It Takes a Village” Program
Total Grant Amount: $15,000
Grant Period: 2017–2018
The “It Takes a Village” program provides long-term transitional housing and intensive, supportive services for individuals who have a history of chronic homelessness and a documented disability.
Merger Transition Support
Total Grant Amount: $15,000
Grant Period: 2018
After two years of planning and evaluation, in April 2018 the boards of Homeless Connections, the Fox Valley Warming Shelter, and the Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities approved plans to merge all three organizations into one new agency. The merger will be effective on October 1, 2018. Grant funds will be used to support a short-term project manager to ensure the success of the merger.
Services Advocate
Total Grant Amount: $50,000
Grant Period: 2022
Pillars Stable Housing program provides clients with the "next step" out of shelter by providing safe, affordable housing options coupled with intensive case management. This program further stabilizes formerly homeless households and prepares them up for a brighter, more sustainable future. The funding will be used to support the newly created Services Advocate (SA) position which provides front-end Diversion/Prevention strategies to all who may need to access the Pillars service system. This role streamlines Pillars services while leveraging external community resources to reduce the need for a shelter entry.
Single Room Occupancy
Total Grant Amount: $45,000
Grant Period: 2019
The Single Room Occupancy program is a creative, innovative solution to a shortage of 1-bedroom units available in the Fox Cities as well as through Pillars. This program also allows Pillars to use larger units in a more cost-effective manner. On average, a 1-bedroom unit in the Fox Cities rents for about $650 a month. Program participants pay a flat-rate, $300 rent including utilities, which has all participants paying 30% or less of their monthly income, allowing them to plan for their next steps.
SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery) Case Management
Total Grant Amount: $25,000
Grant Period: 2017–2018
SOAR Case Management increases client access to federal income supports including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and connects individuals and families to resources that can help prevent future episodes of homelessness.
Rebuilding Together
Success Pack Software Implementation
Total Grant Amount: $6,000
Grant Period: 2019
With a goal of making homes healthy and safe, the program partners with volunteers and businesses to provide critical home repairs for low-income residents, typically serving elderly, persons with disabilities, and veterans. The grant will fund the Rebuilding Together Success Pack, a software program for managing projects in real time, communicating more effectively with homeowners and contractors, collecting data, and managing volunteers.
St. Joseph Food Program
Backpack Food Assistance Program
Total Grant Amount: $20,000
Grant Period: 2019
The Backpack Food Assistance Program is designed to provide low-income children with food for the weekends. Every Friday during the school year students receive fresh fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and ready-to-eat or easy-to-heat nutritious foods.
St. Vincent de Paul Society of Appleton
Bed Program
Total Grant Amount: $41,500
Grant Period: 2017, 2018–2019
The Bed Program provides new box springs and mattresses at no cost to low-income households. Having a bed provides a higher quality living environment and ensures a more positive developmental experience for children and youth in disadvantaged households.
Update: Since the program’s inception in December of 2016, new beds have been provided to 253 households and 489 individuals.
Basic Needs Program
Total Grant Amount: $20,000
Grant Period: 2022
St. Vincent de Paul will use funds to support their Basic Needs Programs. $5,000 for the bed program to purchase around 15 beds to individuals currently sleeping on the floor or in shelter, $5,000 to provide household items, clothing, and furniture items to around 50 households through the Voucher Program, and $10,000 to provide financial assistance through the Home Visitor Program to individuals who do not qualify for local, state, or federal programs and are under-resourced.
Samaritan Counseling Center
Centralized Clinical Intake Specialists
Total Grant Amount: $150,000
Grant Period: 2021, 2022
Currently, clients who call for an intake have to wait between 2 and 4 weeks for the appointment. In order to address the wait time two Centralized Clinical Intake Specialist (CCIS) positions have been created. There will be one point of entry for clients that is more therapeutic in nature and responsive to the level of care needed and provide therapeutic point of triage, assessment and referral by a treatment provider. The positions will allow clients who have concerns of a more urgent nature to be seen more promptly.
The CCIS will gather a brief screen from the client regarding their needs. If the client is determined to be appropriate for outpatient treatment they will be scheduled with one of the CCIS or another therapist for further assessment. If they are determined to not be appropriate for outpatient care during the screening process, or if a different treatment specialty is recommended, an appropriate referral will be made. This will enable Samaritan to refer the client to the most appropriate care provider before having to come in for an intake only to have to be referred elsewhere.
Wellness Screen Database
Total Grant Amount: $25,000
Grant Period: 2019
The Wellness Screen aims to prevent teen suicide and identify unmet mental health needs of our region’s youth. The program launched in 2012 with one staff member providing a free, confidential mental health check-up right at school to 23 students. The screening team has grown to 16 members who will offer the screen to over 16,000 K-12 students at 66 school sites in 11 districts in four counties during the 2019/20 academic year.
Sexual Assault Crisis Center
Website Development/Upgrade
Total Grant Amount: $25,000
Grant Period: 2022
The Center will design, develop and launch a new ADA compliant website that is equitable for everyone in the community. The first step is accessibility, and to be ADA compliant the site needs to be completely redesigned due to the age. It will allow permission for multiple users (staff) to update and edit information to keep content timely and accurate. They will merge the Sexual Assault Crisis Center – Fox Cities and Shall We Dance fundraiser websites. They will also develop an app as another way to access materials and a chat widget to speak with advocates in real time vs. making the difficult phone call.
Tri County Dental
The Dental Bus
Total Grant Amount: $50,000
Grant Period: 2020
The Dental Bus offers free dental care to all children who qualify for the free or reduced lunch program in their schools in the 3 counties we serve, Winnebago, Outagamie and Calumet. This grant allowed for the purchase of a new dental bus. Services are provided to children Pre-K through 6th Grade. Typically, the bus arrives at a school on a Monday to do the exams including X Rays. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with the bus returns to clean their teeth, apply sealants and provide oral health education. On Friday restorative work is performed on the bus.
VPI (Valley Packaging Industries)
Early Intervention Program Expansion to Winnebago County
Total Grant Amount: $35,000
Grant Period: 2018
The Early Intervention Program uses evidence-based practices to provide support to families of children under the age of three who are demonstrating delays in their development. The program offers screening, evaluation and assessment, service coordination, resource and referral, early childhood special education and physical, and occupational and speech therapies. Grant funding allows Valley Packaging Industries to serve families in the Neenah-Menasha area.
Volunteer Fox Cities
Enhanced Volunteer Engagement Program
Total Grant Amount: $20,000
Grant Period: 2019
Volunteerism has changed. Volunteers age 75 and older are committed to volunteering on a fixed schedule, while younger volunteers want more flexible volunteer opportunities. They view volunteerism as a way to meet people and learn new skills. The Enhanced Volunteer Engagement Program addresses this change. This program connects nonprofits with the corporate community to raise awareness for local causes, educate people on issues happening in their backyard, build a sense of pride and community for volunteers and promote a culture of civic engagement and responsibility.
Older Adult Outreach
Total Grant Amount: $20,000
Grant Period: 2019
Volunteer Fox Cities and St Paul Elder Care in a collaborative effort to connect community members to Isolated older adults residing in their own home.
Elder Match – a companionship program in which a qualified volunteer is matched with an older adult living in our community. The qualified volunteer visits twice a month with their older adult to increase socialization and bring about a feeling of connectedness with their community.
TeleCare – A friendly twice-a-week chat via phone with an older adult in our community. The qualified volunteer would be matched with a homebound older adult. The volunteer would call twice a week for a 15-minute friendly conversation. The phone call develops into a relationship.
Tech Ed for Older Adults
Total Grant Amount: $25,000
Grant Period: 2021-2022
Volunteer Fox Cities assists isolated adults age 65 and older in Outagamie County in Tech-Ed for Older Adults. This one-on-one technology education program is designed to teach older adults how to use their own electronic devices and to introduce them to other forms of technology and social media in order to reduce their social isolation and give them the tools and training they need to be socially connected to their community and helping them to live independently.
Women's Fund for the Fox Valley/Feeding America
Monthlies Project (Kick-off event Sponsor)
Total Grant Amount: $5,000
Grant Period: 2022
The Monthlies Project is a community initiative, run by community volunteers, is a collaboration of a number of organizations who want to impact period poverty. The overall goal of The Monthlies Project is to ensure all students within the Fox Valley have period products they need to reach their potential, eliminating physical health, mental health, and educational barriers created by period poverty inequity.
World Relief Fox Cities
Housing Relief Fund
Total Grant Amount: $20,000
Grant Period: 2022
Funds will be used to secure apartments as they become available. Once they receive notification of a family’s arrival, even with a very short turn around, they are able to furnish the home and take the family directly to the house from the airport when they arrive.
About 2/3 of the funding will be used to pay an additional security deposit that has enabled agency to 'open doors' to new landlord relationships in the Fox Valley - especially Appleton. The other 1/3 of the funds will be used to secure housing before the clients' arrival. By securing housing before the clients arrive, they are able to set up the apartments with furniture, smaller household items and stock their pantry and refrigerator with groceries.
