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Achieve Brown County Receives AmeriCorps Serve Wisconsin 2020 Program of the Year Award

Achieve Brown County has been selected as the 2020 AmeriCorps Program of the year by Serve Wisconsin. We are honored by this distinction. This is a honor and we are proud of the AmeriCorps Vistas that have contributed to the vision and mission of Achieve Brown County over the last four years!

 

Service Description: With a goal of creating a more equitable Brown County, the AmeriCorps VISTA team at Achieve Brown County provides invaluable support to facilitating collaborative efforts by businesses, non-profits, schools, government agencies and individual community members to create positive outcomes across the county.

The VISTA members have dedicated their service to supporting action plans among multiple community partners to improve kindergarten readiness, high school graduation rates, and post-secondary enrollment and completion. This research and data collection, outreach to community partners, and support of multiple action plans have yielded results for the people of Brown County. They have aided implementation of a universal developmental screening through an ages and stages questionnaire across all three healthcare systems in the county for children birth to five allowing for referrals for children needing additional support. They implemented a standardized system of mentoring supports for middle and high school students that are identified as most at risk of dropping out of high school.

The Vista member’s actions have contributed to outcomes that impact all kids and young adults in Brown County. An increase of 5 percentage points in kindergarten readiness and 2 percentage points in the high school graduation rate. The Achieve Brown County AmeriCorps VISTA team additionally supported the newest action teams growing out of the response to COVID-19, focusing on increasing digital access for students across Brown County, the growing childcare crisis during school closures, as well as the creation of online mapping of community resources available during the pandemic.

Click on link to view the video interview with Spencer Bonnie and the Award’s Service and list of all recipients.

Published: October 15, 2021