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.
Weakening Assistance for Families Would Weaken the Workforce
The COVID pandemic and the recession it caused illustrated the tremendous importance of public benefit programs like BadgerCare, FoodShare, and Unemployment Insurance. Yet a number of Republican legislators are trying to hurriedly pass a package of bills that would...
Opportunity Wasted: Legislature Removes Nearly All Items Promoting Racial Equity from the State Budget
Introduction The events of the past year have made the deep, longstanding racial disparities in our nation much more obvious. The COVID-19 pandemic and the current recession have not only shined a light on those disparities, but have also made them much worse. On...
Legislature’s Health Budget – Missed Opportunities for a Healthier, more Equitable Wisconsin
The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee put forward a budget that in many ways continues the status quo while providing substantial increases for personal care services and boosting funding for certain Medicaid providers, such as dentists and emergency physicians....
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
Eight Wisconsin Awardees To Receive Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub Grants
Eight Wisconsin organizations will receive funding from the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub to create more local, nourishing, and loved school meals.
Legislature’s Health Budget – Missed Opportunities for a Healthier, more Equitable Wisconsin
The legislature’s Joint Finance Committee put forward a budget that in many ways continues the status quo while providing substantial increases for personal care services and boosting funding for certain Medicaid providers, such as dentists and emergency physicians....
Unpacking Wisconsin’s Coverage Gap and how BadgerCare Expansion Can Help
Wisconsin lawmakers still refuse to expand BadgerCare. Instead they are relying on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace to cover low-income individuals and parents who would otherwise be eligible for BadgerCare if Wisconsin joined the 38 states that have expanded...
Wisconsin Legislature Shows Budget Priorities by Voting Against Expanding Health Care, and For a Tax Cut for the Wealthy
Last week the budget committee of the Wisconsin legislature removed a provision from the state budget that would have provided health insurance to almost 100,000 Wisconsin residents with low incomes, while saving the state more than a billion dollars in tax revenue...
BadgerCare Expansion Won’t Go Away – It’s Too Good a Deal
Republican legislators would like to kill off the idea of expanding BadgerCare eligibility by removing it from the Wisconsin budget, but it won’t go away that easily. It will keep coming back because the case for expansion is so compelling. Most significant budget...
Systemic Solutions Required to Address Pandemic’s Devastating Impact on Children and Families
It has been an unimaginable past twelve months since the nation and the state of Wisconsin came to a standstill to begin what would be the worst crisis to hit the country in over a hundred years. COVID-19 has killed over 540,000 Americans and over 7,000 Wisconsinites....
Systemic Solutions Required to Address Pandemic’s Devastating Impact on Children and Families
It has been an unimaginable past twelve months since the nation and the state of Wisconsin came to a standstill to begin what would be the worst crisis to hit the country in over a hundred years. COVID-19 has killed over 540,000 Americans and over 7,000 Wisconsinites....
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