Building a healthier, more resilient Wisconsin is going to take all of us. That means people who have faced stress, trauma, risk factors like harmful substance use and other adversities aren’t in this effort alone.
Resilient Wisconsin is connecting and collaborating with community partners around the state—in health organizations, as well as state and local agencies and departments—to promote resilience-building ideas and efforts across a variety of interconnected priority areas. We use a continuum of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention methods, from early upstream prevention efforts to intervention care and treatment. This is all done to identify and normalize effective help-seeking and resilience-building behaviors, address the interconnected causes and consequences of chronic, toxic stress, and help reduce the stigma experienced by those who live with or are affected by trauma in all its forms.
Pursuing health equity through upstream prevention
Everyone deserves the same opportunities for a healthy life. But our ability to thrive is often impacted by social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and grow. These upstream factors influence health outcomes throughout our state.
According to the Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 Baseline and Health Disparities Report, racial and ethnic minorities, those with less income or education, people living with disabilities, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community, and people living in rural areas and Milwaukee County are among those populations that experience disparities in health risk behaviors and health outcomes in Wisconsin.
Their lives are connected by the root causes of Wisconsin’s health disparities and the underlying, often interconnected, causes of trauma and its related harms. That’s why Resilient Wisconsin is working to address mental and behavioral health challenges with early interventions that improve people’s social, economic, and environmental conditions. Because we believe upstream prevention can take us another step closer to reducing Wisconsin’s health inequities and preventing our toughest health challenges before they can take root.
Learn more about upstream prevention
Our brochure on upstream prevention tells a simple story about one community’s broken bridge that can help you understand:
- The three stages of public health prevention
- What interventions look like at every stage
- The impact of early prevention efforts
- Why upstream prevention matters
*The brochure is designed to be printed and folded.*
Education and training
Resilient Wisconsin offers education and training for organizations and professionals working at the intersections of trauma, its associated risk factors, and the root causes of public health challenges.
*These webcasts are offered for general education only. There are no certificates or continuing education hours offered for viewing these webcasts.*
Trauma-Informed Care: Putting Humanity Back Into Human Services
This training webcast for people working in helper professions provides an overview of trauma, explores trauma in the workplace, provides an overview of trauma-informed care, and explores trauma-informed supervision. Watch the video.
Resilience: The Path to Hope and Meaning
This training webcast for people working in helper professions provides an overview of adverse childhood experiences and trauma, explores adverse childhood experiences data in Wisconsin, and highlights strategies to build resilience. Watch the video.
Hidden Trauma
This training webcast for first responders explores adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress, risk factors for trauma and stressors, signs of struggle, stigma, and resources for self-care. Watch the video.
