THE VALUED VOICE

WHA Foundation Executive Director Leigh Ann Larson awarded two WHA member hospitals and their community partners 2021 Global Vision Community Partnership Awards this week.
 
Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-St. Joseph Campus
The interdisciplinary Maternal Health Social Systems Initiative team and partnering hospital Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-St. Joseph Campus were recognized for a program to identify broken social systems and develop solutions as a pathway to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
 
The program connects pregnant women and recent mothers with social services and care they need to support good health outcomes for themselves and their babies. The maternal health team identified perinatal visit care as a key determinant in maternal morbidity and infant mortality. Early and adequate prenatal care promotes healthy pregnancies through screening and management of a woman’s risk factors and health conditions, while encouraging healthy behaviors during pregnancy.
 
Aurora Medical Center Sheboygan County
Aurora Medical Center Sheboygan County (AMCSC) and the Lakeshore Regional Child Advocacy Center (LRCAC) received the Global Vision Community Partnership Award for a collaboration that began in 2015 to provide children and families the protection and support needed to navigate tough situations brought on by sexual violence. AMCSC and LRCAC work together to provide community trainings on how to care for and work with victims of crime using trauma-informed care. This includes sexual assault response team training for law enforcement, abuse training, and Department of Justice sexual assault nurse examiner training, in addition to other areas of support.
 
The Global Vision Community Partnership Award recognizes community initiatives that may serve as models for addressing community needs in other regions of the state. Recipients are nominated by a WHA member hospital and demonstrate viable partnerships with community entities, utilize creative approaches to meet the documented need and are active, ongoing enterprises at the time of nomination, allowing the WHA Foundation to acknowledge the initiative as sustainable and producing measurable outcomes.
 
These deserving award recipients received a plaque of recognition and a $2,500 grant to continue to fulfill their programs’ mission and activities.