This March, UniverCity Alliance highlights how University of Wisconsin–Madison students, faculty, staff, and instructors contribute to medical and scientific impacts around the state through local government partnerships. Because you Can’t Stop A Badger. Follow along using #CantStopABadger on social media.
A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison centers and departments, including UniverCity Alliance (UCA), and community partners also realized that a strategy and structure for developing and sending effective messaging on these public health rules were lacking. To fill this void, they formed the UW-Madison Communication Collaborative for COVID-19 Coronavirus Response. Their findings were published in the Journal of Science Communication on April 20, 2022. Read more here.
Green County implemented a substance recovery and mental health wellness navigator and a public health educator after reviewing research conducted during Green County’s partnership with UniverCity Year (UCY) from 2017-20. This position aims to be the “resource person” for those who may find navigating available services overwhelming. Green County also received a grant to develop an opioid use data dashboard. Read more here.
UCA is partnering with Thriving Earth Earth Exchange – an American Geophysical Union program that advances local solutions to scientific problems – to create the first state-based cohort. Fourteen communities across Wisconsin are working with volunteer project managers and university-based scientists to move forward projects. Read more here.
UCA convenes the Wisconsin Heat Health Network and its collaborators that include the City of Madison, Milwaukee County, City of Milwaukee, and Dane County. This group’s research will inform a warning system in Madison and Milwaukee based on health outcomes that considers mortality and weather data rather than only meteorology. Read more about the effort in Milwaukee Magazine and USA Today.
Marathon County partnered with UCY from 2020–23 to address road salt, among other topics. UW–Madison students in three academic disciplines – environmental studies, applied leadership in engineering, and geography – researched solutions. Read more here.