Our Mission: Explaining and Reducing Poverty in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
Community Advocates’ Public Policy Institute has clear and simple goals: To explain why so many Milwaukeeans are poor, and to develop and implement a practical strategy to reduce poverty throughout Wisconsin.
September Is FINAL Month for Former GAMP Members to Re-enroll in BadgerCare Plus
After Sept. 30, former GAMP members and BadgerCare Core Plan enrollees who have not obtained their required physicals, paid the $60 application fee and re-enrolled for coverage will be uninsured.
If individuals fail to re-enroll, they would be candidates for the BC Plus Core Plan waiting list, which currently contains 66,759 people.
To determine if you’re eligible to re-enroll in BadgerCare Plus, or to re-enroll, call the Enrollment Services Center at 1-800-291-2002, or dial 211 to be connected to the nearest Enrollment Site.
A full list of enrollment sites as well as income eligibility requirements is available here.
If you or your organization provides the aforementioned services, please post this flyer in stragetic locations.
Free Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Program Training -- Sept. 13
You are invited to participate in a free Wisconsin Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Program (HIRSP) training. This training is tailored to community health and social service professionals and will cover HIRSP's eligibility requirements, benefits, enrollment procedures and the new low-income subsidy program. The training is open to the public and is sponsored by the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership.
Training will be held from 10-11:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 13 at Aurora Family Services, 3200 W. Highland Blvd. RSVP to Mary Starr at mary.starr@aurora.org. Download a flyer here.
Milwaukee Common Council Passes Anti-Smoking Ordinance
On July 27, the Milwaukee Common Council passed by a 12-3 vote an ordinance that prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants and all other workplaces in the City of Milwaukee. On July 29 Mayor Tom Barrett signed the ordinance, which was co-sponsored by Aldermen Terry Witkowski and Michael Murphy, into law. Read more here.
Wisconsin Now Smoke-Free
On July 5, the Wisconsin Smoke-Free Act took effect, prohibiting smoking in bars, restaurants and all other workplaces. To commemorate this important new law, Community Advocates organized a celebration at Von Trier Tavern on Milwaukee's East Side.
Video:
- Remarks by David Riemer, Community Advocates
- Remarks by Rep. Jon Richards
(D-Milwaukee) - Remarks by Pastor Lee Shaw,
St. Gabriel's Church of God, Inc. - Coverage on Fox 6
- Coverage on WISN-12
Individuals wishing to report smoking violations should call the statewide complaint phone line at 1-800-NO-SMOKE or visit www.WIBetterSmokeFree.org.
Milwaukee suffers 730 smoking-related deaths each year, a full 15 percent of the city's deaths overall, according to the 2010 Burden of Tobacco Report recently released by the American Cancer Society and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Our Projects
- We seek to create Transitional Jobs to help unemployed Wisconsin residents return to the workforce.
- The Milwaukee Addiction Treatment Initiative (MATI) works to increase funding for addiction treatment and improve the delivery of addiction treatment services.
- The Mental Health Policy Initiative aims to improve state and local policies for individuals suffering from mental illness.
- The Community Justice Project aims to strengthen the quality and efficiency of the criminal justice system, both in Milwaukee County and statewide.
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The Tobacco Prevention & Control Program help to implement the Wisconsin Smoke Free Act in Milwaukee, a new law prohibiting smoking in workplaces.
- Pathways to Ending Poverty seeks to change the way we think about poverty, and develop and implement a specific package of policies to lower Wisconsin's poverty rate to low single digits.
Media Center
For all press inquiries, news releases and PPI in the Media, click here.
Joseph Volk Op-Ed: “A lesson in Kalamazoo’s ‘Promise’”On Aug. 15 Joseph Volk, Community Advocates Chief Operating Officer, published an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discussing efforts by advocates to return viability and success to Milwaukee Public Schools. According to Volk, a potential solution might look like the Kalamazoo Promise program, an initiative funded by three anonymous donors that provides full scholarships to any public Michigan college for all students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools. Read the full op-ed here. New Online Mental Health, Addiction Directory Includes 400 Agencies |
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David Riemer a Guest on Joy Cardin Show
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On July 20 David Riemer was interviewed about unemployment and transitional jobs on the Joy Cardin Show on Wisconsin Public Radio. Listen here (RealPlayer required) or download an MP3 here. |
State's New Transitional Jobs Project to Employ 4,000 Residents
On July 12, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Sec. Reggie Bicha announced a $34 million Transitional Jobs Project designed to get 4,000 Wisconsin residents back into the workforce. Through the program, made possible by federal Recovery Act dollars, unemployed adults would be paid the minimum wage for up to 40 hours of work per week for a maximum of 1,040 hours, or six months.
Watch a July 16 interview about the Transitional Jobs Project with Sec. Bicha on Wisconsin Public Television's Here and Now.
Creating transitional jobs for unemployed Wisconsin residents has been an important initiative of the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute. Read more.
Wisconsin Family Jobs Act
In May Gov. Jim Doyle signed the Wisconsin Family Jobs Act (AB-898/SB-653), which provides a 100 percent wage subsidy to employers that hire an eligible participant in the state’s Trial Jobs program. To view pictures from the signing, click here. Read Community Advocates' news release supporting the bill. Read analysis on the Wisconsin Family Jobs Act by the National Transitional Jobs Network.
