Team members: Dr. Maja Goršič (Marquette), Dr. Jacob R. Rammer (UWM), Sharon Rohde (WASA), Steve Wolf (MPS), Carlos Rodriguez (MPS), Dr. Gerald Harris (Marquette)

This project addresses a critical communication gap between available adaptive sports resources for children with disabilities and families who could benefit from accessing the resources. The goal is to increase participation in adaptive sports, with a long-term goal of improving health outcomes for children with disabilities.

To accomplish this, the team will partner with the Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association to support four "Try It" events hosted at Milwaukee Public Schools and community centers in Milwaukee over the next year. Each event will showcase adaptive equipment, trained coaches and opportunities for parents or guardians to connect with WASA and other community resources. Researchers will also partner with WASA and families on the creation of a mobile app or other communication resources that help promote and centralize the services and resources available in the greater Milwaukee area. 

Team members: Dr. Lynne Woehrle (UWM), Dr. Erin Lee (MCW), Mabel Lamb (Sherman Park Community Association), Mia Rudolph-Schulta (City of Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office)

This project will increase the energy efficiency of homes in Milwaukee, which can help lower the energy burden and utility costs for families. This project team will support the efforts of the Sherman Park Community Association, Inc. by building household budget resilience through energy audits, healthy home assessments and connections to weatherization services. Resilience Ambassadors will play a critical role by sharing energy efficiency resources with participating households. The data collected will help to support the implementation and sustainability of additional home improvement assessments and programs, with a goal of scaling the project to other Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Team members: Dr. Gabriel Velez (Marquette), Dr. David Nelson (MCW), Kristin Kappelman (Milwaukee Succeeds), Bevin Christie (Pivot Consulting)

This project advances youth-led transformational change in Milwaukee by focusing on young people between 16 and 21 years old who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market (“Opportunity Youth”). A primary focus of this project is centering youth researchers in the project team, which will gather and assess data to better understand the needs and success measures for young people to become thriving adults.

From these analyses, the trained cohort of youth researchers will work with the project leads to develop and distribute a resource toolkit for organizations serving Opportunity Youth in Milwaukee. The toolkit and youth researchers will collectively help inform policy and programming that serves Opportunity Youth in Milwaukee.