WISCONSIN PROMISE
February 2019
Reyna's Story
Meet Reyna. She’s resilient, strong, and knows how to advocate for herself. Reyna struggled with a lot of trauma and anger issues throughout her life. She was feeling stuck in the system and starting to age out of foster care when she found Wisconsin Promise. With support from Promise including trauma-informed care, which is the center of Wisconsin First Lady Tonette Walker's Fostering Futures initiative, Reyna has begun to harness her independence.

She’s a youth with Promise, with plans to change the world. 
Community Forum
Image of a Promise Youth with his mom, counselor and two Promise administrators.
Employing Young Adults with Barriers: Finding Workforce Solutions
Businesses have workforce needs and young adults with disabilities and other barriers have the skills and the desire to work. Join the discussion to help identify how to make these connections.

We Have two Community Forum's coming up.

Where: SentryWorld, The Atrium
601 N. Michigan Ave., Stevens Point, WI
When: Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Where: Reuther High School Cafeteria
913 57th Street, Kenosha, WI
When: Saturday, April 6, 2019
Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Critical Window Podcast: The Impact of Trauma on Student Learning
female youth not smiling
This 29 minute podcast from Critical Window invited Michael Lamb, executive director of the Washington, DC office of Turnaround for Children where he talks about how students experience trauma, the impact it has on mental health and learning, and what educators can do to create an environment that effectively supports students affected by trauma.

What's Next?
image with different color boxes with age 14- age 18 written inside
Get started planning for your future! Here are some things you can do at each age to help you prepare for becoming an adult.

Five boxes that say: Career Planning and Job Exploration Find my Talents, Your First Work Experiences Explore Work, School Beyond High School Training and Education Options, Workplace Readiness Get Skills for Work, Self-Advocacy Improve my Self-Advocacy Sk
Start mapping your future! If you are a teen who has a disability, you have choices and things to do to prepare for life after high school. This training will help you find out who you are and what you're good at.

Promise Lessons Learned
Wisconsin Promise ended September 2018 and we learned several key lessons along the way.
  • It's important for youth with disabilities to have paid work experience while in high school.
  • Most Promise youth and families preferred benefits and financial counseling on an ongoing basis instead of receiving all the information at once.
  • Youth had higher employment rates when they and their families had higher expectations to what is possible to achieve after high school and who received training about how to access needed resources and services.


Phone
Contact Us


1-855-480-5618
Steering Committee Profile Members and Emails
Project Director
Meredith Dressel

Project Manager
Ellie Hartman