Accomplishments

• Organized a coalition of Neighborhood Centers to successfully advocate for $176k in additional annual funding in the City of Madison budget for site-based school-age and early childhood programs throughout the entire city.

• Secured an additional $275,0000 in ongoing annual funding for Bayview’s operating budget since 2020 through various contracts, grants, and philanthropic commitments.

• Organized a successful grassroots effort of Triangle Neighborhood residents around the design of La Mariposa Lane.  Community members successfully advocated for their preferred traffic model in order to prevent increased pass-through traffic in their neighborhood.

• Supervised the development of the Youth Advocacy and Support (YAAS) Program at the Bayview Foundation. YAAS is a hybrid of group programming, individual support, and specialized resource referrals for Middle and High School youth.  Reaching  over 35 youth every year, this program destigmatizes conversations around mental health, increases feelings of emotional and social well-being, deconstructs daily challenges, and provides a robust system of support for teenagers.

• Expanded Big Brothers Big Sisters programming in St. Croix and Pierce County, most notably through a collaboration between UW-River Falls, River Falls School District, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Friends of BBBS, a site-based program at UW-River Falls, provides mentees with exposure to some of the university’s educational programming and resources in addition to a traditional mentoring relationship.

• Oversaw the creation and expansion of the Raise Your Voice project, which empowers high school students, particularly those from communities of color, to become their own advocates in the mental health world. 

• Coordinated successful advocacy efforts in preventing reductions to Federal and State Mental Health Block Grants in 2017.

• Increased program training output by 19% as the Executive Director at NAMI Wisconsin.  In 2017, NAMI Wisconsin affiliates offered:

  • • 1,532 support group meetings which reached approximately 3,000 people.

    • 86 education classes which reached 1,031 people

    • 529 awareness presentations which reached 14,660 people

• Managed the CIT/CIP Expansion Grant which provides 40 hours of training for law enforcement  and 16 hours of training for all other personnel on how to better respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis. In 2017, our program oversaw:

  • • 25 Crisis Intervention Team Trainings which trained 491 officers from 173 departments.

    • 16 Crisis Intervention Partner Trainings which trained 511 attendees.

• Increased private donations and event revenue by 49%  as Executive Director at NAMI Wisconsin.

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