by Liz Hawley, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Happy New Year! Let the 2020 Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) Grant cycle begin! Applications for the CRF grant are now open, and we will be accepting applications from local 501(c)3 nonprofits and cooperatives through February 29. Each year we seek to fund projects benefiting Dane County with priority given to projects benefiting the Madison and Middleton metropolitan areas, organizations with limited access to funding, and projects that have not been funded by the grant program previously. Grants provide for innovative, hands-on, educational projects that impact a large group of people, reach out to underserved populations, create jobs or develop skills, foster social engagement, and offer opportunities for diversifying partnerships, collaboration and entrepreneurialism. Grants are competitive, and this year your Co-op’s Board of Directors has allocated $25,000 from abandoned Owner equity to award. For more information and to download the application, visit www.willystreet.coop/community-reinvestment-fund.
Highlights From 2019 Recipients
Each year, as part of the agreement with our grant recipients, the organizations that received awards prepare a report for the Community Reinvestment Fund Committee about the work they completed with the funds. Here are the stories we received this past year.
Bayview Foundation
More than 50 children ages 6-11 participated in Bayview Foundation’s weekly Healthy Cooking Club and enjoyed farm-fresh produce as part of their daily snack routine. We supported the program’s membership to a FairShare CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Coalition farm. Using fresh produce from Troy Farm and Second Harvest, children learned and practiced essential food preparation skills including washing produce, safely chopping vegetables, operating an oven, and cooking food on the stove. According to Bayview, “One of the best and unexpected results of Healthy Cooking Club has been the community bonding that comes from sharing meals together. In addition to learning to love vegetables, children practice the pro-social skills of listening, respecting one another, and sharing through a process called Cooking Club Shares. After the food has been prepared, with all the students sitting down at one long table together, the children who prepared the food explain the ingredients and preparation processes to the others. Once the chefs have explained the food, all the children enjoy the meal together. The moments shared around the giant table full of food students prepared are favorites of both staff and children.”
Briarpatch Youth Services
Briarpatch Youth Services Madison Street Team employed and provided job skills training to 21 at-risk-youth, exceeding their goal to employ 15-20 youth. Throughout the summer, the Madison Street Teams worked with Dane Arts Mural Arts to complete the mural for Willy North. At the end of their term of employment, of the 21 youth, five of those youth earned the Employability Skills Certificate, eight youth received at least 0.5 MMSD credit, and 12 youth continued into other employment, activities, or programming after ending with Madison Street Teams. According to Briarpatch staff, “Eight youth working with our Kennedy Heights supervisors chose to continue working with their team in the community well into the start of the school year. These youth assisted with early childhood programming at both Kennedy Heights and Vera Court, which provided them a unique opportunity to develop mentorship and conflict resolution skills.”
Bridge Lake Point Waunona Neighborhood Center
We provided funds to purchase the materials to build the outdoor garden kitchen, as well as raised garden beds at Bridge Lake Point Waunona Neighborhood Center’s (BLW) Edible & Ecological Garden. The outdoor kitchen promotes hands-on educational activities surrounding nutrition, cooking, gardening, and the environment. This hand-built outdoor garden kitchen is also a space for young children to play while parents garden and for adults and kids alike to prepare fresh foods that are served to the entire community. By expanding their intergenerational programming through the Edible & Ecological Garden, BLW noted that “beautiful relationships developed between young children attending BLW Center youth programs and older adults living in the neighborhood simply through gardening side-by-side.” The garden has increased accessibility to fresh produce to children and adults in the community, and looking to the future, BLW plans to expand the garden to continue to reduce food insecurity in the BLW neighborhood by creating produce boxes for homebound older adults.
Catholic Charities: The Beacon Homeless Day Resource Center
This past summer The Beacon Homeless Day Resource Center rolled out a new women’s well-being program that featured a trauma-informed curriculum of yoga and the arts. We provided funds to purchase art and yoga supplies, and to pay a trauma-informed yoga instructor. The Beacon staff reported that “participants said that they felt as though the program gave them the community, safe space, and network for enduring homelessness.” They also noted, “The best part about engaging a variety of women on the same topic was seeing friendships form and develop[…]We learned that the way these participants uplifted and unconditionally supported one another during emotional disclosure helped them to engage in peer support outside of the programming.”
Dane Arts Mural Arts
Residents in the Truax neighborhood have a bright and beautiful mural in the pedestrian tunnel that connects their neighborhood to Hawthorne Elementary School and other amenities, thanks in part to the grant provided by Willy Street Co-op. Dane Arts Mural Arts (DAMA) collaborated with the elementary school, Healthy Kids Collaborative, Safe Routes to School, and Public Health Madison Dane County to work with kids and families to give new life to the “scary, stinky, and dirty tunnel.” After kids and adults from the community gathered to brainstorm ideas for the tunnel mural, DAMA came up with a few designs, and then the community voted on the final design. Willy Street Co-op provided funds to purchase supplies and paint and pay for DAMA artist time spent at community painting events. According to DAMA, “Teachers report that their students expressed excitement and joy at being a part of the creation of the mural and that they are proud of their involvement and of the results.”
Elver Park Neighborhood Center
Elver Park and Theresa Terrace Neighborhood Center partnered to increase accessibility to and education about fresh produce for children and families in their communities by providing fresh produce from a FairShare CSA farm. Representatives for the project noted that “both centers primarily serve low income families of color that are faced with various barriers associated with poverty. The likelihood of residents having access to fresh food directly from a local, organic farm; or youth seeing where and how produce is grown, is low. Our project aims to bridge the gap to address these needs in a unique way.” The neighborhood centers partnered with a local chef to use the produce from the CSA shares in cooking lessons for children and families. These lessons helped pique interested minds to sample the produce items, ask questions about them, and learn to cook with them during the weekly dinners at the center. Additionally, we provided funds to purchase take-home containers that families were encouraged to use to take home produce from the CSA shares for use in their own kitchens.
Gio’s Garden
Gio’s Garden, a therapeutic respite center for children with special needs and their families, hosts both parent support groups and family special events. With funding from a CRF grant, Gio’s Garden hosted two family special events, which give children with special needs, their siblings, and their parents the opportunity to meet and interact and play together and build social connections in safe, judgment-free environments. Additionally, we provided funds for parent support group sessions. They reported that “the events held throughout these past months brought the Gio’s Garden community and families closer together.” They also noted, “A new family expressed their gratitude for having the opportunity to meet with other parents and socialize about frustrations and triumphs during the support groups.”
Groundswell Conservancy
Groundswell Conservancy is an organization that works to protect green places by helping to create conservation areas, such as parks, natural and wildlife areas, permanently protect farmland from development, and ensure equitable access to nature, land, and the outdoors. This particular project included funding for translation services at grower meetings to determine necessary infrastructure improvements at Westport Farm. Two important outcomes came as a result of a series of grower meetings: a five-year lease was created to replace the handshake agreements under which growers had previously been leasing their plots, and growers’ needs, including water, on-site storage, and shared service to till the plots were identified. The lease and infrastructure improvements will commence this year.
Another tract of land protected by Groundswell Conservancy, Pasley’s Swan Creek Farm, is the home to Neighborhood Food Solutions, who leads the Farming After Incarceration Release (FAIR) and Program for Entrepreneurial and Agricultural Training (PEAT) initiatives for youth and adults on the south side of Madison. With Neighborhood Food Solutions, Groundswell Conservancy developed a priority list of infrastructure needs, which include water, a shed, and improvements to the driveway.
Neighborhood House
Madison’s oldest community center, Neighborhood House serves the Greenbush neighborhood on Madison’s south side near campus, and they have been working to reinvigorate their wellness programs by focusing on three main areas: senior fitness, community wellness, and fitness equipment. Their senior fitness programming has remained popular and well-attended. With the grant received from Willy Street Co-op, they have been able to replace old, broken, or outdated sports equipment with newly purchased equipment. Based on instructor observations and feedback on the senior fitness programs, participants in the programs have improved their health and are making healthy choices to stay active. Neighborhood House has also started a Healthy Cooking Club for youth. The cooking class is free and open to all youth, and they use ingredients grown in their garden.
Wisconsin Books to Prisoners
Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (WBTP) sought to bring awareness to the public about “the poor nutritional quality of food in Wisconsin prisons[…]and to expose the exploitation of prisoners and their families by prison commissary and food service corporations.” They asked prisoners to submit their own recipes using ingredients they purchase in the prison canteen to be analyzed for nutritional content, and then to be published in a cookbook. With grant funding from Willy Street Co-op, WBTP printed 240 cookbooks, and obtained nutritional analyses of the recipes from a UW nutrition intern, and secured speakers, both of whom were formerly incarcerated, for the cookbook release party. Through their work to complete the cookbook and get it to print, WPTP volunteers learned that “in Wisconsin, far from experiencing hunger in prison, prisoners are fed way too much poor quality food (i.e. high in empty carbs, fat and salt, as well as ‘meat products’ of unknown composition) the end result being that three quarters of the prison population in the U.S., Wisconsin prisoners included, is overweight or obese.”
Thank You, 2019 CRF Grant Recipients and Owners
Year after year, it is inspiring to hear the innovative plans proposed as part of the grant application process, and even more exciting is to hear the outcome of the projects, and especially the meaningful relationships that develop as a result. Even when the grant recipients gather in one room at the award reception, it is easy to see the connections being made among these people who are dedicated to our communities as they forge deeper relationships and discover new ways to collaborate to bring about positive change. Owners who have left the Co-op and opted to donate their equity to the CRF can also be very proud of what their contribution has provided to this community. Thank you to the award recipients for all your hard work, and thank you to our Owners for providing for this grant program. We look forward to reading the innovative and inspiring grant proposals for 2020 after the February 29 deadline.
