Overview: Five agencies serving the needs of preschool-aged children needed a central location to provide for more efficient operations. Information in the 2006 and 2011 Fox Cities LIFE Studies indicated a need for early intervention services for children age 5 and younger, along with more family education. The studies reported a decline in third-grade reading scores and high school graduation rates. The Community Foundation both co-sponsors the LIFE Study and helped guide the planning for the Early Learning Center.
Grant Dollars to Date: $761,750 (as of July 31, 2015)
Update: CELC opened in September 2014. We are continuing to meet with United Way about creating communitywide early childhood outcomes measurement. The Community Early Learning Center in the former St. Mary School building in Appleton is the focal point for making the most of that potential for children across the Fox Cities. And what could represent a community’s potential more than its children ages birth to five?
Fox Valley Memory Project
Wayne and Nancy Christman
Overview: The Rev. John and Susan McFadden are championing a multi-faceted project to create a dementia-friendly community in the Fox Valley. Foundation-directed grants and donor support have helped the organization present activities in Memory Cafes at locations around the Fox Valley and train employees of participating businesses how to deal with people with dementia as persons.
Grant Dollars to Date: $312,619 (as of July 31, 2015)
Update: Organization received funding for half-time executive director from United Way in 2015 and filled it in June 2015. Capacity Building grant request is possible in 2016.
“I think it always helps, because you’re not alone.”
-- Nancy Christman on Memory Cafe activities helping with her husband's dementia.
Project RUSH
Overview: Suspecting that homelessness was more extensive than the bed counts at area homeless shelters indicated, the Fox Cities Housing Coalition conducted a thorough survey of the incidence and causes of homelessness in the Fox Cities in April 2015, with 125 volunteers conducting 600 interviews of homeless and "near homeless" individuals doubling up with friends or family. The study was backed by more than $18,000 in the Foundation’s discretionary grant money and a $30,000 grant from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, which is supported by the U.S. Venture Open golf outing and matching gifts from the J. J. Keller Foundation.
Grant Dollars to Date: $48,000 (as of Sept.1 2015)
Update: The survey was completed in April 2015 and a report issued. The study suggested these strategies:
Share the Project RUSH data broadly.
Streamline current services.
Remove barriers to education and employment.
Provide ongoing support services to prevent relapse.
Address the lifelong trauma of associated physical and mental health issues.
Study the effects of homelessness on performance in school and generational poverty.
Overview: A multi-day blitz by the Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity to address external building rehab and accessibility problems for homeowners in the Fox Cities.
Grants Awarded:
A $300,000 Community Leadership grant over three years helped to to start Rock the Block in 2015.
Six donor-directed funds added $43,000.
A Capacity Building grant of $100,000 helped with planning and hiring a construction supervisor.
A $300,000 grant over three years from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, supported by the U.S. Venture Open golf outing, with additional money from J.J. Keller Foundation and other community partners, is assisting with neighborhood development after the repair blitz.
Volunteers Rock!
Homeowner Marsha Jenks Homeowners in the Appleton neighborhood surrounding Story and Spencer streets saw an army of volunteers come to help them with needed home repairs Sept. 14-19, 2015, for the Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity’s first-ever Rock the Block. The home rehab blitz was launched with the help of a $300,000 Community Leadership Initiative grant from the Community Foundation. More than 500 volunteers worked on repair and safety improvement projects to 33 properties. Habitat plans to build 13 new affordable houses starting in spring 2016 on a vacant city block that used to be the site of a manufacturing building and choose two more neighborhoods for future Rock the Block events.
Update: Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity announced on April 27, 2016, that it is expanding Rock the Block to address 10 more neighborhoods over the next three years, including a $4 million fundraising campaign. These neighborhoods have been selected:
Neenah, downtown west neighborhood (May 2-7)
Menasha, Jefferson Park east neighborhood (Sept. 12-17)
Kaukauna, Fassbender Park neighborhood
Menasha, Abbey Avenue north neighborhood
Neenah, Abbey Avenue south neighborhood
Appleton, Columbus School neighborhood
Kimberly, New Page neighborhood
Little Chute, villagewide event
Menasha, Friendship trailhead
Menasha, Jefferson Park west
Neenah, Washington Park
Neighborhood Partners
Overview: A partnership project to help residents of a central Appleton neighborhood (St.Therese-Columbus Elementary School-Arbutus Park area) make environmentally sound improvements that also address economic and social concerns.
Grant Dollars to Date: $175,707 (as of July 1, 2015)
Update: Neighborhood Partners was spun off from Sustainable Fox Valley and is now a program of Goodwill Industries. It will provide support for Habitat for Humanity’s ongoing neighborhood development efforts as part of Rock the Block.
Rooted in the future
Ron Sabai and a group of men were volunteering to clean out brush at Appleton’s Arbutus Park in 2009 when a Mercedes drove down the path though the park, stopped at the far end for a short time and then drove back out. A community garden was created at St. Therese Catholic Church in Appleton. “What else would he be doing there?” Ron asked. The park in a ravine between Packard and Atlantic streets – underused and neglected – had become a place for drug deals and gang activity. As the crew cleared brush, homeless men who had been sleeping there cleared out and people there for activities they didn’t want seen stopped coming. That approach expanded to the whole neighborhood when a $50,000 grant from the Environmental Sustainability Fund in 2012 started Neighborhood Partners and its first project in the Arbutus Park/Columbus Elementary School neighborhood . The fund’s focus on sustainability considers environmental, economic and social equity concerns in taking action to assure enough resources now and for future generations. Neighborhoods offer the right scale for accomplishing those goals, Julie Filapek, operations manager, said. A series of Community Foundation-funded initiatives in the target neighborhood – Franklin Street to Wisconsin Avenue and Richmond to Drew streets – has been helping residents take ownership of their neighborhood, she said. Ron was inspired by the project to plant a hay bale garden. But he said that for him this project is about far more than growing fresh vegetables. It is about taking back his neighborhood.
The Results:
A community garden Therese Parish.
Youth nature walks at Arbutus Park.
Lessons in starting an organic lawn care business for teen entrepreneurs.
A new playground with less asphalt at Columbus School, redesigned based on suggestions from students.
Neighbors teaching neighbors gardening and home maintenance skills.
“It’s one of the neighborhoods that’s most in need, but also has a core group of really committed neighbors who understand the potential of this neighborhood.”
Overview: A collective anti-obesity initiative led by the United Ways of the Fox Cities and Oshkosh.
Grant Dollars to Date: $67,500
Update: Action Teams were established in 2014 for Active Communities, Worksite Wellness, Early Care and Education and Food Systems. Speaker on evolutionary origins of nutrition 0n 4/27/2015. Kick-off event for Passport for Active Living Challenge, June 2015.
Nonprofit Leadership Initiative
Overview: A collaborative effort to centralize resources available to nonprofits, identify gaps in resources and implement strategies to better support strong boards and executive directors. See details.
Grant Dollars to Date: $30,963 Update: Committees involving other funders and community leaders are being established for:
NonprofitExecutive Director Leadership & Networking Forum to Implement an educational/ networking group for executive directors.
Nonprofit Leadership Institute to support executive directors in managing an effective nonprofit organization by connecting best practices of managing an organization with personal leadership development.
Nonprofit Board Pipeline to Identify, cultivate and match area employees and CEOs to board service.
Nonprofit Board Support to provide tools & training to board chairs and board members.
Riverfront Economic Development and Planning
Alex Krieger on the Fox River
Overview: A visit by Prof. Alex Krieger of Harvard and the global architecture and planning firm NBBJ to assess riverfront development potential for five Fox Cities communities.
Grant Dollars to Date: $7,500
Update: A November 2015 workshop by a local engineering firm briefed interested planners and business people on what projects are in the works and how they relate to Krieger’s advice.
Traumatic Brain Injury Project
Overview: A community-wide initiative to create systematic education and support for those with traumatic brain injury.
Grant Dollars to Date: $2,000
POINT (Poverty Outcomes and Improvement Network Team)
The Community Foundation and our partners have invested substantial staff time in a regional effort to move the needle on poverty in northeast Wisconsin. This 18-month initiative, funded by the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, — supported by the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs, the J. J. Keller Foundation and other community partners — will equip northeast Wisconsin nonprofit organizations with continuous improvement methodologies focused on poverty. POINT will use these processes to strengthen existing poverty reduction efforts, address service gaps and measure progress on reducing poverty in the region.
Fox Cities LIFE Study
The 2016 Leading Indicators for Excellence (LIFE) Study takes a fresh approach to providing a data-focused overview of the quality of life in the Fox Cities area of Wisconsin and, for the first time, offers priorities for community action. This is an evolving resource that is designed to spark data-driven conversations within all areas of the community, leading to action and transformative change. Nearly 200 indicators related to demographic, economic, social and health aspects of community life in the Fox Cities are presented, with benchmarking against select counties, Wisconsin, and the nation, with trending information. The 2016 study is an evolution and extension of earlier community needs assessments conducted in 2001, 2006 and 2011. It was funded by the Community Foundation, United Way Fox Cities and the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Research Partner:Community Research Partners, a nonprofit research, evaluation and data center in Columbus, Ohio, collected, analyzed, and visualized the data for this website.
VIEW THE LIFE STUDY PRIORITIES selected by a cross section of about 200 area residents after reviewing 20 "themes" of quality of life here. Selecting both for the seriousness of the need and the potential for making a positive difference, the community members selected:
Poverty – While there is no significant climb in child and overall poverty rates, more people are enrolling in the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program and using food stamps, the number of working poor seems to be growing and people marginally above the poverty threshold are susceptible to food insecurity. The Community Foundation, working through the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, invests heavily in looking for ways to address the root causes of poverty. It is supported by the U.S. Venture Fund for Basic Needs within the Community Foundation and the J. J. Keller Foundation, as well as other community partners.
Youth Health – The region saw a reduction in alcohol consumption and binge drinking among high schoolers, but suicide attempts exceed state and national averages.
Youth Safety –Bullying, physical and electronic, are both higher than the state and national averages. While child abuse and neglect rates decreased, they exceed the state average in Outagamie and Winnebago counties.
Student Performance – Free and reduced lunch numbers are rising. Students demonstrated 40% reading proficiency and only a bit over 50% math proficiency. The gap for those economically disadvantaged declined but remains significant.
Overview: Five agencies serving the needs of preschool-aged children needed a central location to provide for more efficient operations. Information in the 2006 and 2011 
Overview: Suspecting that homelessness was more extensive than the bed counts at area homeless shelters indicated, the Fox Cities Housing Coalition conducted a thorough survey of the incidence and causes of homelessness in the Fox Cities in April 2015, with 125 volunteers conducting 600 interviews of homeless and "near homeless" individuals doubling up with friends or family. The study was backed by more than $18,000 in the Foundation’s discretionary grant money and a $30,000 grant from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, which is supported by the U.S. Venture Open golf outing and matching gifts from the J. J. Keller Foundation.
Homeowner Marsha Jenks Homeowners in the Appleton neighborhood surrounding Story and Spencer streets saw an army of volunteers come to help them with needed home repairs Sept. 14-19, 2015, for the Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity’s first-ever Rock the Block. The home rehab blitz was launched with the help of a $300,000 Community Leadership Initiative grant from the Community Foundation. More than 500 volunteers worked on repair and safety improvement projects to 33 properties. Habitat plans to build 13 new affordable houses starting in spring 2016 on a vacant city block that used to be the site of a manufacturing building and choose two more neighborhoods for future Rock the Block events.
A community garden was created at St. Therese Catholic Church in Appleton. “What else would he be doing there?” Ron asked. The park in a ravine between Packard and Atlantic streets – underused and neglected – had become a place for drug deals and gang activity. As the crew cleared brush, homeless men who had been sleeping there cleared out and people there for activities they didn’t want seen stopped coming. That approach expanded to the whole neighborhood when a $50,000 grant from the Environmental Sustainability Fund in 2012 started Neighborhood Partners and its first project in the Arbutus Park/Columbus Elementary School neighborhood . The fund’s focus on sustainability considers environmental, economic and social equity concerns in taking action to assure enough resources now and for future generations. Neighborhoods offer the right scale for accomplishing those goals, Julie Filapek, operations manager, said. A series of Community Foundation-funded initiatives in the target neighborhood – Franklin Street to Wisconsin Avenue and Richmond to Drew streets – has been helping residents take ownership of their neighborhood, she said. Ron was inspired by the project to plant a hay bale garden. But he said that for him this project is about far more than growing fresh vegetables. It is about taking back his neighborhood.
