Community Advocates Public Policy Institute Insights: Spring 2024

Spring 2024

Public Policy Institute Insights

Friends –

As you may know, April is Family Strengthening Month, which is when we recognize and honor the importance of strong family connections. When you think about it, all of our programs in some sense are aimed at building up the resources of families. But more specifically, PPI has developed a Child Welfare Program to prevent child abuse and problematic behaviors while enabling families to remain happily intact. This program includes the Stronger Families Milwaukee pilot program and Milwaukee Family Intervention Services, both of which engage with families who want to improve their household stability and family bond. We’re seeing lots of progress with our parents, caregivers, and kids, but we’re also seeing the intense issues that these families are coping with, including untreated mental health issues, generational trauma, and teen pregnancy and parenting. We’re grateful we can be part of our families’ positive development, but we know that the need is great. Your support and allyship means so much as we walk with our families into a more hopeful and healthy future.

Kari Southern

Deputy Director

Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

PPI Members Event

Friday, April 26

If you've been thinking about joining the Public Policy Institute as a member, now's the time. We're organizing a members-only event on April 26 that you won’t want to miss. We're offering a networking and resource sharing event for members who want to highlight their own work and potentially collaborate to reach common goals. We're also seeking your input on how we can shape the membership network to make an impact in the community.

This is a great opportunity for PPI members to connect with allies in our community. It'll be held in our downtown offices, 728 N. James Lovell St., Milwaukee, on Friday, April 26, from 8:45 to 10 a.m. with coffee and refreshments.

Individual memberships are $10 monthly, and group memberships (up to 5 staff members) start at $250 annually.

Become a PPI Member

Community Advocates Now Offering

VitalCog Suicide Prevention

in the Workplace Training

Community Advocates Public Policy Institute is pleased to announced that we are now offering VitalCog, a workshop on how to support those in the workplace who may have suicidal thoughts.

VitalCog trains organizations to proactively address the early warning signs of suicide in the workplace. This training will educate and equip organizations with tools to address mental health and suicide concerns within the workplace.

This two-hour training gives participants the skills and tools to appreciate the critical need for suicide prevention while creating a forum for dialogue and critical thinking about workplace mental health challenges, and by promoting help-seeking and help-giving.

The course covers how to deal with someone in the workplace who may have suicidal thoughts, as well as how to handle their return to work. Supporting a coworker who lost a loved one to suicide also is part of the curriculum.

VitalCog workshops are best conducted in the workplace for groups of 7 to 25, with human resources staff present to discuss available services for employees.

To learn more and schedule a training, email certified trainer Rita Liesiefsky.

Email Rita to Learn about VitalCog

Find More Workshops on Our Calendar

Help Us Feed Our Families

One of the best ways to create fellowship is through sharing food. Unfortunately, we’re struggling to feed the families when we’re working with them or when we’re hosting a community event or meeting. Adults and kids engaged in our Milwaukee Family Intervention Services program attend therapeutic sessions at our offices every week. These sessions are held after work or school, so providing a healthy meal is simply the right thing to do for participants. Complicating matters is that many of our grants place strict limits on how much we can spend on food, sometimes amounting to little more than a granola bar and a bottle of water per person at community gatherings.

We want to do better for our families. If you are able, we’d be grateful for any donations that can cover healthy meals during group sessions or nutritious refreshments when we’re hosting an event. Simply select “Feed Our Families” on the donation form on our website. On behalf of our families, thank you!

Feed Our Families

Community Organizing Training

We had a great time and learned a lot during a community organizing training for Community Advocates Public Policy Institute presented by Tiquila, DJ, and Teneen from Safe & Sound, Inc. After learning the basics, PPI staff role-played a number of scenarios that can happen when meeting people where they are and engaging them in community building.

Out and About in the Community

The RISE Drug Free MKE coalition, housed at PPI, organized the annual Light & Unite Red Week in Milwaukee County to shine a spotlight on the benefits of living a substance-free life. The week was full of engaging and enlightening activities for all ages and included events sponsored by the Alliance for Wisconsin Youth, Dominican Center, Neighborhood House Milwaukee, Pathfinders, PPI, Safe & Sound, Samad's House, Southshore CARES, and Volition Franklin. And the Hoan lit up RED thanks to Light the Hoan!

senator tammy baldwin and de'shawn ewing at inhaler cost event

PPI Community Outreach and Engagement Manager De'Shawn Ewing was honored to be part of a roundtable discussion at Children’s Wisconsin with Senator Tammy Baldwin and community stakeholders on what we can do about the high cost of inhalers.

Derek Mosley, the director of the Marquette University Law School Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, gave a fantastic presentation on unconscious bias for Community Advocates staff. He gave us a lot to reflect on and put into practice in our daily lives and as we meet the needs of our community members.

PPI co-sponsored a fascinating discussion of our corrections and parole systems in January at Boswell Book Company. Ben Austen, author of Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change, and Elly Fishman, author of Refugee High raised a lot of important questions about crime, punishment, rehabilitation, and justice.