Welcome to Community Currents, the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) Community Grantee information hub. This page is intended to provide connection and information for current WPP community grant recipients. Check here for the latest WPP events, funding updates and other news!
Watch your email for upcoming events this fall!
Other Upcoming Events
Submit events related to your WPP-funded projects and we'll promote them here!
WPP is pleased to announce the nine projects selected for funding through its Community Capacity Grant Program.
This grant program provides capacity-building support to smaller and/or newer Wisconsin-based organizations working to improve health. Funding of up to $20,000 for one year helps organizations strengthen their operations, build their infrastructure, and work more efficiently and effectively to strengthen their ability to advance their missions.
This year’s awards support a broad range of organizations and missions addressing health needs including autism, caregiver support, restorative justice, youth education and well-being, mental health and more.
Grantees in the Spotlight
Tracking Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases
Tracking ticks and tick-borne disease risk across Wisconsin: Researchers at UW School of Medicine and Public Health are using WPP funding to improve how Wisconsin predicts, prevents and responds to tick-borne diseases. As we gear up for hiking and outdoor adventures, it's a great time to learn about how WPP-funded researchers are addressing this growing public health challenge.
WPP Staff Updates
Meet the WPP team: Sakiah Perez Rivera
Sakiah Perez Rivera
WPP is pleased to welcome our new administrative specialist, Sakiah Perez Rivera, to the WPP team!
In her role at WPP, Sakiah supports the operational and administrative needs of the team, helping coordinate activities across staff, partners and grantees to ensure projects and processes run smoothly.
Before joining WPP, Sakiah worked as a research project coordinator in Dr. Matt Anderson’s lab on the National Institutes of Health–funded Data for Indigenous Interventions, Implementations and Innovations: Tribal Data Repository (D4I TDR) project. This $9 million, multi-site initiative brought together collaborators across five institutional sites to strengthen data systems and support Indigenous-led health research.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. Looking ahead, she hopes to continue building a career that supports underrepresented communities through science and public health initiatives that advance health outcomes and equity. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and her two dogs, traveling to Puerto Rico and Mexico, and trying out new restaurants. Welcome, Sakiah!
Community Connections
This June WPP had the opportunity to visit grant partners across the state.
Thank you to those who joined us at UW-Stevens Point for a community conversation with grant partners at Marshfield Clinic and UW-SP on their WPP-funded project to promote food security in northern Wisconsin.
Pictured left to right: Randy Neve, Marshfield Clinic, Center for Community Health Advancement; Maggie Bohm-Jordan, UW-Stevens Point Department of Social Work;
Jill Neimczyk, Marshfield Clinic, Center for Community Health Advancement;
Aimee Haese, Wisconsin Partnership Program
Thank you also to the Forest County Potawatomi (FCP) community for welcoming us for the Penothés Project Summer Family Picnic, where WPP and the SMPH Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHP) had the opportunity to share our work and learn more about the FCP’s WPP-funded Penothés Project, an autism support project.
Pictured left to right: Dr. Bonnie Samuelson, Forest County Potawatomi Health and Wellness Center; Melissa Metoxen, SMPH Native American Center for Health Professions; Travis Mullins, Forest County Potawatomi Health and Wellness Center; Deanna Collins, Forest County Potawatomi, Health and Wellness Center; Tonya Mathison, Wisconsin Partnership Program
Grantee Resource: WPP Communications Toolkit available for community grant recipients đź“ť
Community grant recipients are invited to use the WPP Communications Toolkit for information on crafting press releases and pitches, WPP grant acknowledgement guidelines and more.
Share your news! Do you have an event or update related to your WPP-funded project that you'd like to share here? Submit to Ashley Benitez at agbenitez@wisc.edu for consideration! Thank you!
