Improving Supports for African Americans and Latinos through Nonprofits in Kenosha, WI

The Kenosha conversation project was an internationally recognized community planning process designed to bring together everyone involved in supporting working families in Kenosha, WI to talk about implementation of their welfare reform system five years after it started. The model was featured on NPR and over 1,500 copies of the booklet describing the process were given away to government and nonprofit representatives throughout the U.S. and internationally within six weeks. The conversation project created a long list of potential projects – like child care for sick children, that were tasked to local workgroups to develop.   We worked with Kenosha government and leaders in Kenosha’s small African American and Latino communities on a follow up study called the Kenosha Social Capital Project that examined the dynamics among nonprofits and faith communities that supported community members in need in these two marginalized communities and Kenosha’s broader employment, social service, and education system.  The Social Capital Study provided an analysis of Kenosha systems and strategies that led to success for community members, providing concrete recommendations to improve both organization effectiveness and outcomes for community members.