2017 Game Changer Awardees
December 18, 2017
Health Connect Corp was the recipient of the December Game Changer Grant from Forward Community Investments. Every month FCI awards a Game Changer grant to a nonprofit organization or program in the state of Wisconsin that is doing outstanding or noteworthy work to reduce racial and socioeconomic disparities.
November 20, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for November 2017. These grant funds will be used to help heal the divides and provide resources to residents in the Sherman Park Neighborhood of Milwaukee. Program the Parks has implemented programs and services to give the youth structure and provide them with constructive things to do during their idle time. Vaun Mayes, Program the Parks Director, estimates that since his program has been in existence that crime has reduced by 80%
October 16, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for October 2017. These grant funds will be used to help support the Madison Chapter of Voces and their advocacy efforts to thwart impact of legislation that would disproportionately affect immigrant and LatinX communities.
September 18, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for September 2017. These grant funds will be used to build Fondy Park in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood of North Milwaukee. The project will feature the artistry and innovation of Evelyn Terry, an award-winning artist who has been honored by the Milwaukee Arts Board and contributed to hundreds of corporate art collections.
August 21, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for August 2017. JONAH has two primary purposes at the moment. On one hand they work with a group called EXPO (Ex Prisoners Organizing), trying to reform re-entry into the community for ex-prisoners. EXPO is comprised of volunteers who have been incarcerated who saw the challenges faced with men and women trying to integrate back into the community as well as trying to reform crime sentencing.
May 29, 2018
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for July 2017. The Grant will allow a public event to take place in Beloit scheduled for September or October that will help educate the community about stopping usage of the word Nigger. The Beloit Historical Society wants to host an event that will symbolically both bury the use of that word along with educate people about the full breadth of its destructiveness.
June 19, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for June 2017. The FCI grant will be a boost to “We Are Icons,” a photography campaign and educational website that seeks to educate and empower people of color by recreating iconic images using people of color. The photos will become a calendar and eventually a coffee table book. The Justices hope to create income through their projects and they will create youth programs giving children of color access to the arts and other programs that teach tangible skills that are otherwise inaccessible to children with limited means.
FCI’s Game Changer Awardee for May is the Latino Academy of Workforce Development
May 15, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for May 2017. These grant funds will help expand its Bilingual Construction Program, a 7-week intensive training that helps prepare students for a broad range of careers and trades. Students graduate with potential starting earnings of $15/hour and access to further opportunities and career advancement.
FCI’s Game Changer Awardee for April is the Neighborhood House of Milwaukee – Teens on the Move Canvasing Project
April 17, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for April 2017. These grant funds will aid the Canvassing Project which employs and empowers teens of color from working class backgrounds, who often have not been employed before to canvass thier neighborhood door to door surveying their community on the needs that Neighborhood House could fill. In addition, the teens also share with their neighbors the services that are already offered.
FCI’s Game Changer Awardee for March is the Growing Urban Leaders in Food Systems (GULFS) Program from the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
March 20, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for March 2017. These grant funds will go towards this pilot program that will provide curriculum and resources to community organizations and schools to engage youth, especially youth of color, in new ways of thinking about food, food production and most importantly food justice.
FCI’s Game Changer Awardee for February is the Workers' Rights Center's Wage Theft Monitor Program
February 20, 2017
They are the recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for February 2017. This grant will further the actions the WRC is taking to end wage theft, workplace discrimination and workers' compensation issues.
FCI’s Game Changer Awardee for February is the Workers' Rights Center's Wage Theft Monitor Program
January 16, 2017
Fit Oshkosh is the first recipient of FCI's Game Changer Grant for January 2017. They will use the $3,000 grant to provide racial literacy training to three Oshkosh-area nonprofit organizations.
The mission of Fit Oshkosh is “To increase the racial literacy of the residents of Winnebago County, WI and beyond through, education, advocacy, consulting and research,” says Tracey Robertson, the organization’s founder..