The Office of Community Relations and the South Madison Partnership is pleased to offer a new funding opportunity for community-university partnerships. These awards will provide $5,000, $3,000, or $2,000 per partnership toward collaborations between a community organization and UW-Madison faculty, staff, or graduate students. Funding may be used to support any activities of the partnership, including but not limited to developing a partnership, community-based research or learning, developing new projects, or supporting ongoing projects or activities.
Funds may be used to support partnerships in any discipline that engage community organizations, public sector entities, or grassroots groups and UW–Madison collaborators. Specifically, proposals should:
- Address a community-identified priority originating within a community or co-created by university constituents and community members working together
- Include community partners at all stages of the partnership/project development process according to community interest and capacity
- Work to build community capacity and provide a sustained positive impact
- Work toward social change and justice.
Projects and partnerships can be at any stage of development. Funding may be used to begin community-based work, continue an ongoing project or partnership, or provide gap or bridge funding if additional funding is forthcoming or likely.
Funding cannot be used for faculty salary, but may be used to compensate staff members, undergraduate and graduate student employees, or community partners. Funds may also be used to purchase supplies and services necessary for the project. Proposals that use all or a portion of funding for community partner expenses will be given extra weight.
The application form is now closed.
Community partners (with or without nonprofit status) alongside UW–Madison faculty, staff, or graduate students.
Proposals are welcome from any discipline with the following stipulations:
- Project aligns with the Morgridge Center’s Community Engagement Commitments
- Each application must be co-submitted by both the community partner and campus partner (ie a team member from the community organization and campus unit have to submit one application)
The proposal should clearly describe the anticipated benefits to community partners and to the academy. Funding priority will be determined by the degree to which the project and/or partnership addresses an urgent community-identified priority or question, is co-led and developed by community partners, builds community capacity, and intends to generate results and impacts that will be useful to the community. Partnerships will be evaluated based on their commitment to respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relevance within the partnership. Before submitting a proposal, please review the program funding priorities outlined in the rubric.
A Community-Engaged Approach to Cardiovascular Disease
Key Partners: Forest County Potowatami; UW Dept of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine; WI Network for Research Support; Native American Center for Health Professionals
This is a partnership with the Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHP), the Forest County Potawatomi (FCP) Tribe, the Wisconsin Network for Research Support, and UW Cardiovascular Medicine. They established a first of its kind preventive cardiology outreach clinic, directed by community advisory boards of Tribal Elders and providers and staff from their clinic.
Their goal, which will be supported by funds from this award, is to establish a seasonally rooted lifestyle medicine program, incorporating Elder-delivered teachings around a seasonal food, preparing a meal based around that food and discussing a mental or physical health-related topic.
Broadening the Impact, Reach, and Sustainability of Restorative Justice
Key Partners: First Congressional CC Prison Ministry Project; Center for Healthy Minds
Restorative Justice (RJ) offers a paradigm shift, bringing together those who have caused and experienced harm in conversation with other community members, with the goal of repairing and preventing the future occurrence of harm. For over 15 years, the First Congregational UCC Prison Ministry Project (PMP) has facilitated a unique volunteer-driven RJ program within Wisconsin prisons, connecting with over 1,000 individuals. This award will support an emerging collaboration between PMP and the Cultivating Justice CoLaboratory at the UW-Madison Center for Healthy Minds to collect preliminary, mixed-methods data on the short-term impact of program participation, and to support the participation of formerly incarcerated individuals as group volunteers.
Where do the Babies Go?
Key Partners: UW School of Medicine, Dept of Pediatrics, JustDane
This collaboration is part of a Community-based Research project examining the decision-making processes used to place and arrange the ongoing care of newborn infants with caregivers when infants are born to mothers while they are incarcerated.
The overall goal of this project is to improve the health and well-being of mothers giving birth while incarcerated, their infants, and caregivers, and this research will be completed in partnership with community collaborators have extensive knowledge of working with pregnant women who have experienced marginalization, including those who are justice involved, those who’ve given birth while incarcerated, and caregivers who have cared for an infant of an incarcerated mother.