IT'S WHAT CONNECTS US

Community Powered is our initiative to provide training to local leaders and support for community-led cultural projects across the state.

Winner of the prestigious Schwartz Prize in 2024 for outstanding work in the public humanities, the Community Powered initiative results in projects that are locally designed, sustainable, and replicable. The results speak for themselves: local traditions revitalized across generations, hometown tours celebrating architecture and history, and youth-led projects that create community pride. These efforts succeed because they build on existing community strengths - whether that's expertise, cultural traditions, or neighborly relationships.

Making Communities Healthier

The Community Powered approach builds resilience from within by starting at the heart and soul of a place - the people and the stories. The launch of our Community Powered Tribal Health Initiative marks a significant expansion of our award-winning Community Powered program. Starting in 2025, WH staff will be working directly with tribal communities to design culturally-relevant solutions that honor traditional wisdom while addressing contemporary challenges.

The Community Powered Tribal Health Initiative addresses the mental health epidemic in tribal communities caused by historically deep-seated and pervasive health disparities and made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tribal and academic partners from around the state, along with Wisconsin Humanities staff, will adapt and hone Wisconsin Humanities’ existing Community Powered toolkit to be culturally responsive to a Native context and Indigenous conceptions of health. By working closely with impacted communities and local leadership, the initiative will maintain, document, and deepen a sense of community-wide belonging, well-being, and health.

Funding for this initiative was provided by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP), which offers grants to support community-led partnerships that seek to improve health and advance health equity across Wisconsin.

Building Local Leadership

The Wisconsin Humanities Fellows Program equips local leaders with the tools and support they need to bring neighbors together and to build a more connected Wisconsin. WH Fellows are passionate about where they live. As part of our program, they learn new skills to harness their communities’ strengths, challenges, and histories. Using our uniquely responsive Community Powered model, we are creating the next wave of public humanities leaders and impactful grassroots programs.

Our Fellows receive training and ongoing mentorship as they bring their ideas to life. They facilitate dialogues, hold workshops, and design community events that build lasting connections among neighbors.

➔ Six months of training - A combination of virtual and in-person workshops provide Fellows with skills and resources for documenting local history, appreciating cultural resources, and gathering energy and input to design meaningful public humanities projects.

➔ Six months of mentorship - Fellows receive seed funds to put their training to work in their communities. The class meets with WH staff and a statewide network that reflects five decades of WH’s community work.

Subscribe to the WH Enewsletter to be notified about when the application opens for the next Fellows Program!