Efforts to address issues such as youth obesity, teen pregnancy and school readiness are taking root in the Menominee community.
The Menominee Community Engagement Workgroup includes more than 30 agencies developing partnerships to build a healthy future for the community.
“It’s amazing how this community has taken the lead,” said Jerry Waukau, tribal clinic health administrator. “It’s cutting edge. There are a lot of good things happening.”
The Menominee Indian School District initiated the effort in 2005 as part of comprehensive reforms to address academic barriers and challenges. It soon became apparent that the challenges were rooted in community socioeconomic factors as a result of poverty and historic trauma. To address these issues, MISD needed to collaborate with families and the community.
The first partnership was formed with the Menominee Tribal Clinic to help address youth obesity issues and then moved into other areas such as teen pregnancy, alcohol and drug use and smoking.
The effort then spread to other agencies such as Menominee County and Shawano-Menominee County Health Department. Now there are more than 30 departments and agencies involved in the effort. The partners formed the workgroup dedicated to addressing outcomes described in the Wisconsin County Health Rankings for the Menominee community.
According to the rankings, Menominee County ranks last out of the state’s 72 counties in health outcomes. The statistics showed that 44 percent of the children were living in poverty, 44 percent of the households were single-parent families, 31 percent of the community was overweight or obese, and the unemployment rate was 13.7 percent. The high school graduation rate was 95 percent.
Based on the rankings, the community engagement workgroup identified childhood obesity, teen pregnancy and school readiness as its top priorities.
One of the first steps taken was the creation of a community engagement grid, which identified stakeholders, health outcomes, health determinants, health care, health behaviors, socioeconomic factors and physical environment. It helped the workgroup see who was providing what services and why, and with further analysis will reveal duplications of and gaps in services.
The group also has created 90-day implementation plans focused on the priority areas, documenting what they want to accomplish, how they will do so, who will lead the effort, and when and where the efforts will take place.
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