Making a Difference in Waukesha County in 2026
The stories of our 2026 grant partnerships showcase the many ways local programs contribute to the health and well-being, self-sufficiency, and empowerment of women and girls in Waukesha County. From specialized health care and safe housing to confidence-building workshops and food assistance, take a closer look at the people, programs, and services making a difference in the lives of women and girls in our community today.
Redeem & Restore Center
Redeem & Restore Center helps women release shame, embrace their true identities, and begin a new life of freedom.
At Redeem & Restore Center, the belief is that every woman deserves a safe place to heal and rediscover her God-given identity. The center’s restorative care home offers stable housing and personalized support for women recovering from sex trafficking, serving Waukesha County and communities across Wisconsin.
With the generous support of the WGF, Redeem & Restore Center continues providing safe, stable housing and trauma-informed care to every woman in the home. The WGF also makes it possible for the center to deliver community presentations, workshops, and training that strengthen prevention efforts in Waukesha County and throughout Wisconsin.
This outreach extends far beyond the women in the restorative home. Through educational prevention presentations, students learn to recognize grooming and exploitation, identify red flags in relationships and online spaces, understand trafficker tactics, and use practical tools to protect themselves and others.
Every woman Redeem & Restore Center serves begins a journey toward healing and restoration. And every community the center reaches becomes stronger, more informed, and better prepared to safeguard the girls and young women in their care.
Redeem & Restore Center is making Waukesha County safer, stronger, and more aware by building a community that actively protects its women, girls, and families. And as this work grows, the impact reaches far beyond the county, strengthening prevention, expanding awareness, and creating brighter futures for survivors throughout Wisconsin.
She never got to be a kid. Her own mother was both her abuser and her trafficker.
After 17 months living at the Redeem & Restore Center home, wrapped in safety, anchored in truth, and supported by care that honors her story and invites God’s restoration into every layer of trauma, her life looks completely different. She has hope again. She has a dream again.
She applied for college grants and will begin classes this fall, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in grief counseling. The fear of merely surviving is gone. Now she is building a future with excitement and purpose.
Her transformation doesn’t just change her life; it strengthens our community. When one woman finds freedom, it sends a message to every woman still trapped in exploitation: hope is real, healing is possible, and freedom is within reach.
The Women’s Center
For nearly 50 years, The Women’s Center has been a trusted source of safety, healing, and hope for individuals and families impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking in Waukesha County. As the county’s only organization solely dedicated to serving survivors of these crimes, The Women’s Center provides a comprehensive continuum of care designed to meet people wherever they are in their journey.
Its services include a 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency shelter, transitional living housing, legal and systems advocacy, counseling, support groups, prevention education, and specialized services for children through its nationally accredited C.A.R.E. Child Advocacy Center. Every service is offered free of charge and is centered on empowering survivors to rebuild their lives safely and with dignity.
The need for these services continues to grow. In 2025 alone, The Women’s Center served more than 18,000 adults and children across Southeastern Wisconsin, providing over 11,000 hours of support and nearly 40,000 instances of service. From answering a late-night hotline call to providing safe housing for families fleeing abuse, the team works every day to ensure that no survivor has to face violence alone.
At The Women’s Center, the belief is that everyone deserves to live free from violence and fear. Through compassionate support, advocacy, and community partnerships, The Women’s Center helps survivors find safety, healing, and the opportunity to build a brighter future. The Women’s Center is grateful for the WGF’s support, which helps make this critical work possible and strengthen the community for generations to come.
Community Smiles Dental
Community Smiles Dental believes everyone deserves access to a healthy smile. Since 2008, CSD has served Waukesha County, providing affordable dental care, preventive education, and advocacy for children and individuals with special health care needs who are uninsured or covered by Medicaid.
Its work is deeply connected to the health and well-being of women and girls in Waukesha County. Every day, Community Smiles Dental cares for girls who need a trusted dental home, pregnant women whose oral health directly impacts their overall health and the health of their babies, and patients of all ages with special health care needs who deserve compassionate, accessible dental care.
Through the support of community partners like the WGF, Community Smiles Dental is able to provide high-quality dental care in a welcoming environment. Its team focuses not only on treating dental needs, but also on helping patients and families build lifelong habits that support better health.
A healthy smile can mean relief from pain, confidence at school, fewer missed days, and a stronger foundation for the future. Community Smiles Dental is grateful for the WGF’s investment in this work and for the commitment to helping women and girls in Waukesha County thrive.
Lake Area Free Clinic
Since 2001, Lake Area Free Clinic (LAFC) has been dedicated to improving the overall health of those in need. LAFC provides free medical care, medications, transportation assistance, and health insurance enrollment assistance to uninsured, low-income residents of Waukesha County.
A major gap in access to affordable dental care existed for low-income adults in Waukesha County. To address this need, LAFC opened a six-chair reduced-fee Dental Clinic in 2017, providing a dental home for uninsured and Medicaid-enrolled patients. Today, the Clinic offers comprehensive services, including education, exams, cleanings, fillings, extractions, root canals, crowns, dentures, partial dentures, and select implant procedures.
Since opening, the Dental Clinic has provided over 40,000 patient visits, with about 60% of patients being women. Access to quality oral health care strengthens women’s overall health, self-confidence, ability to work, and capacity to care for their families.
Support from the Women and Girls Fund of Waukesha County helps LAFC ensure low-income women receive needed dental care regardless of ability to pay, improving health outcomes and strengthening futures across Waukesha County.
Journey21
Every girl deserves the opportunity to belong, build confidence, develop leadership skills, and create lifelong friendships through experiences like Girl Scouts. Yet for many women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), those opportunities were never accessible during childhood.
That’s why Journey21 partnered with the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast to launch the nation’s first intergenerational Girl Scout troop created specifically for adult women with IDD. Designed for women ages 18 and older, the troop brings together members of different ages and life experiences to participate in the traditions of Girl Scouts while building community, confidence, and independence.
For many troop members, this is their very first opportunity to wear a Girl Scout uniform, earn badges, participate in service projects, explore the outdoors, develop leadership skills, and experience the sense of belonging that Girl Scouts has provided to generations of young women. While some members may have missed these experiences because appropriate supports or inclusive opportunities weren’t available when they were children, Journey21 believes it is never too late to discover new passions, build friendships, and continue growing.
More than a monthly activity, the troop is creating a community where women with IDD are encouraged to lead, serve, advocate for themselves, and celebrate one another’s achievements. The experience strengthens confidence, communication, teamwork, and independence while fostering meaningful relationships that extend beyond troop meetings.
Thanks to the generous support of the WGF, Journey21 can provide uniforms, badges, activity supplies, transportation, and staff support so every woman has the opportunity to participate regardless of financial or logistical barriers.
Journey21 is demonstrating that empowerment, leadership, friendship, and adventure don’t have an age limit, and that every woman deserves the opportunity to experience them.
Bloom360 Learning Community
When traditional classrooms couldn’t meet her daughter Morgan’s unique learning needs, Laura Rauman knew there had to be a better way. Working alongside educators and therapists, she helped create a learning community where neurodivergent individuals could be understood, supported, and empowered to grow according to their own strengths and interests.
That vision became Bloom360 Learning Community.
Since opening in 2017, Bloom360 has grown into a nonprofit school and adult learning center serving neurodivergent individuals and the people who support them. Through a developmental, strengths-based approach, Bloom360 helps learners build confidence, skills, and meaningful relationships while nurturing the joy of learning.
Morgan was one of Bloom360’s first learners. Last spring, she earned her high school diploma and graduated from the Day School after years of growth and perseverance. Today, she continues her journey through BizPath, Bloom360’s adult program, where participants build business, social, and life skills through hands-on microbusinesses and real-world experiences.
Thrive Together
Thrive Together is a prevention-focused nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the mental and emotional well-being of youth, families, and communities across Waukesha County and beyond. Founded and led by licensed therapists and trained facilitators, Thrive Together delivers evidence-informed workshops, resilience-building programs, and accessible resources that empower young people with the skills they need to navigate stress, build confidence, form healthy connections, and thrive in their daily lives.
Thrive Together also partners closely with schools, community organizations such as the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Wisconsin, and local businesses to ensure its services are responsive to community needs and available to youth and families who may face barriers to traditional mental health support.
As a growing grassroots organization, Thrive Together is committed to sustainability, collaboration, and long-term community impact.
With support from the WGF, Thrive Together will be able to continue reaching thousands of local girls each year through its Beauty Inside and Out workshops. Thrive Together believes that when girls are given tools, support, and safe spaces to grow, they become more resilient, confident leaders, and have higher self-esteem and a positive self-image.
Friends with Food
Funding will help Friends with Food find a new box truck, which is a critical part of its food rescue program. The truck is used throughout the week to pick up donated food from local stores and community partners so Friends with Food can bring those items back to its pantry and get them out to families in need.
For many of the women Friends with Food serves, especially mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers, weekly food support helps ease the pressure of trying to keep their households fed and stable. Having a reliable truck allows Friends with Food to rescue more food, reduce waste, and provide families with more choices, including fresh produce, dairy, meat, bread, and other items that help stretch their budgets.
One thing Friends with Food likes to say is that food assistance should feel less like standing in line and more like being welcomed by a neighbor. Its choice-based pantry gives families the dignity of selecting the food and supplies that work best for their household.
Revitalize Milwaukee
Revitalize Milwaukee is committed to helping low-income female homeowners in Waukesha County remain safe, healthy, and independent by providing critical home repairs and accessibility modifications that preserve affordable homeownership. Women, particularly older adults, widows, single mothers, veterans, and women living with disabilities, are disproportionately affected by housing instability due to limited financial resources and the rising costs of home maintenance. Many have lived in their homes for decades and struggle to address repairs that directly impact their safety and quality of life.
Through its comprehensive home repair programs, Revitalize Milwaukee provides services such as plumbing and electrical repairs, furnace and water heater repairs, accessibility modifications including grab bars and ramps, step repairs, weatherization improvements, and emergency repairs that eliminate immediate health and safety hazards. These repairs allow homeowners to age in place with dignity while preventing deferred maintenance that can lead to displacement or significantly more costly repairs in the future. In addition, eligible households may receive lead hazard reduction, asthma trigger remediation, and energy efficiency improvements that create healthier living environments and reduce utility costs.
By investing in female homeowners, Revitalize Milwaukee strengthens families, preserves neighborhoods, and protects one of the most important assets many women possess: their home. The organization’s services reduce financial hardship, improve physical safety, promote long-term housing stability, and empower women to continue contributing to their communities. Through collaboration with community partners, volunteers, and licensed contractors, Revitalize Milwaukee ensures that low-income female homeowners in Waukesha County have access to the repairs they need to live safely and independently for years to come.
Parent’s Place
The Supervised Visitation Program at Parents Place provides safe, professional supervised access and exchange services that protect children while preserving critical family connections during times of crisis. The program serves families referred by the courts, child welfare agencies, attorneys, and other professionals when concerns such as child abuse or neglect, domestic violence, substance use, mental health challenges, or other safety risks make unsupervised contact inappropriate or unsafe.
In a safe, child-centered environment, trained staff monitor visits, document interactions, and provide guidance that promotes healthy mother-child relationships. Parents also receive individualized coaching, education on child development and positive parenting practices, and connections to community resources that support long-term family stability.
The program removes barriers that prevent vulnerable families from maintaining meaningful contact, helping children preserve important relationships while supporting mothers in developing the skills necessary for safe and successful reunification when appropriate. Through consistent, trauma-informed services, Parents Place strengthens protective factors, reduces the risk of future abuse and neglect, and improves outcomes for mothers and their children.
Funding will ensure that mothers, regardless of their financial circumstances, have access to safe visitation services and the support needed to rebuild healthy relationships. Investing in the Supervised Visitation Program helps protect children, strengthen families, and promote safer, more resilient communities.
Family Service
Family Service was established in 1968 through a local community-driven effort to encourage citizens to address the needs of people struggling with their mental health. For over 60 years, Family Service has helped individuals and families overcome life’s most difficult challenges through compassionate, trauma-informed mental health, prevention, and education services that strengthen lives and build healthier communities.
Its licensed therapists provide flexible, individualized mental health counseling for all ages, couples, and families. Services are available in-clinic, online, or at local schools to maximize accessibility. Financial assistance ensures everyone receives care regardless of their ability to pay.
Beyond counseling, Family Service addresses the root causes of family and community challenges. The Center for Prevention of Family Violence provides evidence-based group psychoeducation to help domestic violence offenders change harmful beliefs and behaviors, parent education to prevent child maltreatment, and classes that help children successfully navigate divorce and other life transitions.
Strong communities need a strong behavioral health workforce. Family Service’s Counselor Training Program prepares graduate students and post-graduate clinicians through intensive supervision and evidence-based clinical training, creating a pipeline of highly qualified mental health professionals for the community.
This year, Family Service merged with Addiction Resource Council, expanding its impact by adding comprehensive substance use prevention, education, assessment, and recovery support services to the agency’s service array. Together, the combined agency now provides prevention education on vaping, marijuana, alcohol, and fentanyl, along with evidence-based programs such as PRIME For Life, helping individuals and families make healthier choices before problems become crises.
Waukesha Free Clinic
For nearly 50 years, Waukesha Free Clinic (WFC) has served as a critical healthcare safety net for individuals in Waukesha County who are uninsured, underinsured, and living with limited incomes. Its mission is to provide compassionate, high-quality healthcare at no cost to patients while removing the financial, language, and cultural barriers that too often prevent people from receiving the care they need.
With support from the WGF, WFC has strengthened access to essential healthcare for women who may otherwise delay or go without care because of cost or lack of insurance. Its Women’s Health Clinic provides specialized OB/GYN services within WFC’s established continuity-of-care model, allowing patients to receive women’s health services alongside primary care, chronic disease management, medications, laboratory and diagnostic services, and individualized care coordination.
This support is particularly meaningful because many of the women WFC serves face multiple barriers to navigating the traditional healthcare system. WFC’s bilingual staff, volunteer medical providers, and community partnerships help ensure that patients receive care in an environment where they feel respected, understood, and empowered to participate in decisions about their health. Funding from the WGF allows WFC to address an important gap in the local healthcare safety net while advancing its larger goal: ensuring that a woman’s income, insurance status, or circumstances never determine whether she can access the healthcare she needs to live a healthy life.
