ACCESS TO HOUSING IS ESSENTIAL FOR FAMILY WELLBEING AND A STRONG WORKFORCE |
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The challenge
Too many families in our region can't find or afford housing. 30% of families are housing cost burdened, meaning they are spending more than 30% of their income on rent or mortgage.
What's led to this housing crisis?
- New developments stalled during the 2008 recession and have been slow to rebound.
- The cost to build a single-family home jumped 36% since 2020.
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Rising interest rates put even more pressure on developers, who report a $20K - $25K financing gap per unit.
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Indicator
As a data-driven organization, we use population-level indicators to help us track and understand key regional trends we seek to influence.
As part of our Strong Families priority, we already track:
- Rates of child abuse and neglect, and
- Frequency of families talking, reading and playing with their young children.
To reflect the importance of housing, we are adding a third indicator: Percentage of households who are cost-burdened by housing. That means households spending 30% or more of their income on rent or mortgage payments.
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Strategy
Complex challenges like housing cannot be solved by one agency alone. The Foundation and partners are working to:
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Provide awareness, advocacy and technical assistance to local partners (such as co-hosting the Housing Summit, see below),
- Leverage our resources to activate local, state and federal dollars, and
- Develop a 90-acre parcel on Watertown’s southwest side that will model a broad spectrum of housing opportunities for all household sizes and income levels across the lifecycle (the Collective).
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Impact Updates:
Programs Proudly Supported by Foundation Funding
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Haus of Peace provides safe and secure temporary housing for women and children who have experienced homelessness or abuse, providing crisis support and connecting guests with the essential resources they need to transition to independent living. In their 2022 Annual Report, they shared that 55 women and 52 children have received services. Only 2% of women were employed before reaching out to Haus of Peace and 90% of those served have found employment.
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With a Capacity Building Grant from the Foundation, Cornerstone of Grace is renting two new homes, expanding the number of families served to a total of six. Cornerstone of Grace is a faith-based organization that provides resources, love and spiritual guidance to women and children in crisis.
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Community Survey:
Please Help Spread the Word
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Please help us collect information from community members through a short online survey. This survey will help us understand awareness of the importance of early learning, how much families are currently engaging with their young children, and knowledge of TalkReadPlay.
The TalkReadPlay Community Survey will take about 5 minutes to complete. All participants have the opportunity to be entered into a gift card drawing for participating. Answers will be used to help our network of partners plan for the future.
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Please help spread the word in our community by sharing the post (above) on our Facebook page. Here is a recommendation for your Facebook post share:
(Your organization name) is a proud partner of TalkReadPlay, an effort that supports young children and families in our community. Please take this short survey to help us understand community awareness on the importance of early learning, how much families are currently engaging with their young children, and knowledge of TalkReadPlay.
Thank you for your assistance in helping us to collect information from our community!
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Changemakers in Action:
Foundation Investments in Positive Change
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Our collaborative approach to early care and education brought us to the bipartisan Wisconsin Legislative Children's Caucus, where (pictured l-r) Maranatha Bible College CEO Dr. Matthew Davis, Watertown Mayor Emily McFarland, Foundation CEO Tina Crave, and Watertown Area YMCA CEO Jon Lange presented on the impact of quality childcare on workforce availability and the greater economy.
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Habitat for Humanity is building two new homes in Juneau! We stopped by to see the amazing progress and were happy to meet one of the new owners, there to hang drywall in her house. The Foundation is proud to contribute to this project, recognizing that safe, stable housing is essential for our goal of building strong families.
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The Every Child Thrives Transformation Council convened to focus on health equity, taking a close look at gaps in outcomes for various groups in our region. The Council leads powerful change through collaborative work... transforming the systems that serve our communities to help EVERY child thrive.
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Lake Mills Elementary special ed paraprofessional Mike Winter was named Playworks' Coach of the Month for all of Wisconsin. Lake Mills adopted the Playworks program with financial support from the Foundation. Playworks uses recess play to teach key life skills, helping kids develop communication, emotional regulation and other "soft skills" that have been shown to boost success in learning and life.
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How Can We Support Your Work? |
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The Foundation provides resources, tools and support to changemakers who work toward measurable improvement in community health. To date, the Foundation has invested more than $34 million in its three strategic, child-focused priorities: Strong Families, Kindergarten Readiness and School Success.
Capacity Building Grants are for agencies looking to advance their missions by developing leadership skills or strengthening organizational efforts.
Health Equity Grants* support equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) projects or initiatives focused on removing obstacles to health for populations not well served under current systems and policies. The Foundation recognizes the dignity and value of every person, envisioning thriving communities where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
Proposals must directly support the communities served by the school districts of Dodgeland, Hustisford, Ixonia, Jefferson, Johnson Creek, Lake Mills, Waterloo and Watertown.
*We recently updated guidelines for our Health Equity Grants
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Further Resources (click on the links to access)
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Transforming Our Housing System - A very readable Stanford Social Innovation Review article that explores the complexity of the housing system, and how solutions may be found through collaboration
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920.390.4000
600 East Main Street, Suite 200, Watertown WI 53094
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