Ensure Health
No matter where we live or what we look like, we all deserve to live safe and healthy lives. However, over decades, Wisconsin lawmakers have chosen the wealthy few over our communities. This has resulted in unprecedented disparities in education, income, housing and more—the social determinants of our communities’ health. And, some lawmakers have chosen to play politics instead of providing the health care that our communities desperately need. When we work together and address the root causes of health inequities, we give everyone the opportunity to live happier, healthier lives.
With partners at the Noble Community Health Center’s Children’s Health Day, August 2024, in Wautoma.
Badgercare vs Medicaid
Medicaid provides health insurance for more than one million people in Wisconsin. BadgerCare, one of several Medicaid programs, is health insurance for kids, parents, and adults with low incomes who typically don’t have access to coverage through their job. Medicaid also offers long term care for people with disabilities and older adults who need support to stay independent in their communities.
Learn more about Medicaid vs BadgerCare here.
Advocating for Health Care Coverage for All Wisconsin Residents
Physical and mental health care is a human right and access to care is essential for a just society. No matter someone’s race, how much money they make, or where they were born we all deserve comprehensive, affordable, quality health care. We are working for that future, but we know we have a long way to go.
Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act provides health care for one in four people living in Wisconsin. Through community and partner informed research, data-analysis, advocacy, and education we work to strengthen, protect, and improve Medicaid and access to affordable health coverage and care.
We team up with providers, patients, workers, advocates, and other stakeholders to push for policies such as extending postpartum Medicaid coverage, fully expanding Medicaid, and making it easier for people to get the care they need Medicaid and insurance providers covering care provided by doulas, community health workers, and other trusted sources of care close to communities.
Sharing personal stories that we can bring to the state capital is one of the most powerful ways to join the fight for a just healthcare system.
Guns Are Now Killing More Young Adults in Wisconsin than Cars
More young adults in Wisconsin have been killed with guns than with cars in recent years, a grim trend that demonstrates the degree to which state and national leaders lack the political will necessary to address gun violence in our communities.
Proposed Farm Bill Will Leave Millions of Kids and Families Hungry
Congress is expected to vote sometime this month on a bill that will leave millions of children and families hungry. The Farm Bill (H.R. 2), will cause an estimated 2 million Americans to lose food stamp benefits and threaten the health and well-being of Wisconsin’s children, families, and communities. Coming on the heels of tax legislation that provides a massive windfall for wealthy individuals and large corporations, this change would take resources away from working families and make it harder for parents to put food on the table for their children.
2017-2018 Legislative Summaries
Wisconsin state lawmakers wrapped up the 2017-2018 legislative session in March. During the session they passed several bills affecting K-12 education, health care, taxes, and public assistance. To learn more about specific bills, please read our legislative...
Healthy Food & Active Kids
Nourishing food and safe, inviting physical activity are a basic need for every child in Wisconsin. But, some lawmakers choose to line the pocketbooks of Wisconsin’s wealthy few instead of reinvesting our tax dollars back into our communities. Both Wisconsin’s urban and rural communities are too often in food deserts where healthy food is expensive and hard to access. Many communities and neighborhoods don’t have safe, inviting playgrounds and outdoor spaces. Mental health is suffering.
Kids Forward helps lead two statewide coalitions that work to improve nutrition security and physical activity, as well as opportunities for outdoor learning and play. Learning where our food comes from: gardening and cooking are essential as we “Grow Healthy Kids”.
Together we have developed resources and trainings, provided financial support, and partnered with state agencies and local organizations to get kids outside and eating locally grown food.
Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub
We have partnered with the USDA and Illinois Public Health Institute to launch the Lake Michigan School Food Systems Innovation Hub. We’re funding collaborations with farmers, food suppliers, food service directors, community-based program leaders and more to strengthen the K-12 food supply chain.
Healthy Early
A statewide, cross-sector partnership, Healthy Early is working to create equitable opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity for Wisconsin kids and families. Kids Forward currently serves as a convener for the coalition.
To learn more, contact Daithi Wolfe.
Healthy Early leaders at their first in-person retreat in April 2024.
Improving Language Access in Wisconsin
In 2024, Kids Forward and the Multicultural Coalition launched our Language Access Awareness Campaign. This partnership grew out of a need to address language barriers not only at the direct service level, but also at the systems and policy level. To ensure families can access services and meet their basic needs, communities must work collectively to provide meaningful language access services up front, not just translations by request.
Wisconsin currently does not have a statewide language access plan, although some counties and state agencies have prepared their own. Now is the time for local and state governments to get proactive about creating robust language plans and ensuring that all families, regardless of language, can access the critical resources they need. Contact your legislators and Governor Tony Evers to ask them to support the implementation of a statewide language access plan.
To learn more, contact Amanda Martinez.
With the Multicultural Coalition Inc, in October 2024 we brought together advocates and service providers in the Fox Valley to share challenges and solutions around language access.
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Research & Publications
Bills Scapegoating People on BadgerCare will not Improve the Workforce
Republican state legislators have proposed two bills they claim will strengthen Wisconsin’s workforce, but taking away health care from Wisconsinites struggling to get by will make our state sicker not stronger. These changes...
Good News on BadgerCare Enrollment and Budget
There have been a couple of items of good news this month for Medicaid and BadgerCare: enrollment is up, and projected spending is down. That’s an unusual but very welcome combination of trend lines. The increase in BadgerCare participation offsets a gradual reduction...
Video: Wisconsin Children Killed by Guns
You can read the full report here: Child Death Toll: Wisconsin Children Killed by Guns
Obama Administration Finalizes Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Rules for Medicaid
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published a final rule that seeks to strengthen access to mental health and substance abuse benefits for Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. The rule provides states with detailed guidance on how the Mental...
Too High a Price to Pay: Wisconsin Children Killed with Guns
About every two weeks in Wisconsin, a child is killed with a gun, adding up to more than 20 children a year. A new report by Wisconsin Council on Children and Families takes a look at the characteristics of those children who were killed and identifies common-sense...
Child Death Toll: Wisconsin Children Killed by Guns
PDF Version Every year, children in Wisconsin are killed by guns. They die from their own hands, when they use a gun to commit suicide, or by the hands of other adults and children, who intentionally shoot them. Some die when guns go off accidentally. Every time a...
Modest Progress this Session on a Few Health Care Issues
One of the positive developments in the Wisconsin legislature over the last several years has been the bipartisan work in a few areas of health care policy, such as behavioral health and dementia. Yet despite broad support for a number of bills in those two areas, the...
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