The Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Project Grants are one type of grant provided through the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment. Projects often seek to explore or expand new dimensions of existing translational outreach, community-based research, and public engagement activities. Projects are animated by innovative ideas and are shaped by the priorities, needs, and interests of the communities they serve.
A Whoopensocker of an Arts-based Literacy Program
Project Leaders:
Erica Halverson, Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education
Megan Monday, Director of Education, PBS WISCONSIN
A Whoopensocker of an Arts-based Literacy Program is designed for 3rd-5th grade classrooms across Wisconsin to access writing curricula that focus on creative expression as the foundation for building literacy skills. Since the performing arts have been all but eliminated in public elementary school classrooms artist-in-residence programs have stepped in to provide crucial supplements to standard elementary school curriculum. Our proposal brings together education researchers, professional artists and media makers, classroom teachers and community organizations to create writing and performance-based “arts oases” across the state. The Department of Curriculum & Instruction and PBS Wisconsin Education will partner with school districts to develop, test, and launch. We take the existing Whoopensocker artist-in-residence program and translate it into a series of media resources that will be part of the PBS Education series. To engage in the development and testing process, the Whoopensocker Design Team will work with Arcadia, Beloit, and Sun Prairie school districts to partner with groups of 10 3rd-5th grade classroom teachers through three in-person professional development and feedback sessions designed to help develop and iterate instructional resources. The classroom media resources will have two groupings: resources to spark creativity that will be used across thematic areas, and theme-specific writing unit resources focused on particular ELA writing goals and standards. Over the grant period, we will develop, test, and launch: 1) the resources that spark creativity, 2) one set of theme-based resources, and 3) a template for creating additional theme-based resources.
Creating an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for Refugees
Project Leaders:
Sarah Schlosser, Outreach Program Manager, Organizational and Leadership Development, Extension
Lindsey Farnsworth, Outreach Program Manager, Community Food Systems, Extension
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families reported 2,729 refugee arrivals between the federal fiscal year 2017 and 2021. This figure does not fully represent the number of individuals supported by Wisconsin’s resettlement agencies. The success of refugee/immigrant newcomers hinges on economic self-sufficiency and belonging, both of which enable them to contribute fully to Wisconsin communities. Entrepreneurship offers newcomers an opportunity to achieve both. Though Wisconsin has a robust small business development infrastructure, most small business assistance providers are ill-equipped to serve refugee/immigrant entrepreneurs. This project aims to increase business startup and success outcomes of refugee/immigrant entrepreneurs by adapting the health navigator model to the entrepreneurial ecosystem context and evaluating its efficacy and impact. UW-Madison’s Division of Extension and Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, along with Jewish Social Services of Madison, and the City of Madison Office of Business Resources, will identify and understand the needs of refugee/immigrant entrepreneurs and how existing entrepreneurship resources help or hinder their success; pilot a refugee/immigrant entrepreneurial ecosystem navigator model; develop a map of resources and partnerships that support entrepreneurs; and identify opportunities to partner and take action to address gaps in the existing entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ultimately, the project should lead to increased access to the knowledge and tools refugee/immigrant entrepreneurs need to make sound business decisions, and thus improve economic self-sufficiency as they transition away from refugee/resettlement support systems, and increase their sense of belonging as they establish themselves in the community.
Creating Worker-Owned Cooperative Businesses with Women, BIPOC, and Immigrant Workers
Project Leaders:
Charity Schmidt, Outreach Specialist, UW Center for Cooperatives, Extension
Courtney Berner, Outreach Program Director, UW Center for Cooperatives, Extension
The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives (UWCC) has been a national leader in co-op development, education, and research since 1962. In the last five years, UWCC has started 26 co-ops and has supported countless existing co-ops. In that time, it has also managed the Madison Cooperative Development Coalition (MCDC), an initiative to form worker-owned cooperative businesses. MCDC works to build meaningful relationships among campus and community partners that serve entrepreneurs and provide business development education. With support from the Baldwin WI Idea Grant, UWCC and MCDC will partner with Worker Justice Wisconsin (WJW), MadWorC, the Madison Public Library, and the UW Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, among others, to provide linguistically and culturally relevant cooperative education and technical assistance. We will support WJW in incubating cooperatives among their mostly Latinx and immigrant worker community, creating democratic workplaces and dignified employment among those who could most benefit.
Engaging Wisconsin’s Native Americans in Social Science Research
Project Leaders:
Yoshiko Herrera, Professor, Political Science, College of Letters & Science
Natalie Jones-Kerwin, Ph.D. student, Political Science, College of Letters & Science
Native Americans exhibit one of the lowest rates of inclusion in social science survey research in the United States. This disparity persists even in Wisconsin, a state with eleven federally recognized Native American tribes, where limited data resulting from low response rates and inadequate tribal identification excludes Native Americans from many studies, and also impedes tribes from learning about their own members. This research project aims to explore barriers to representation of Native Americans in U.S. social science surveys, addressing issues such as data sovereignty, privacy protection, and inadequate tribal identification questions. Building on these findings, our plan is to design a collaborative community-based survey with the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indian Tribal Nation that engages with and analyzes political attitudes, identities, and political participation. The ultimate goal of this research is to amplify the voices of Native Americans in the research landscape and to create an empirical model to do so.
Phenological Initiatives for INdigenous Peoples in Limnology (PhIN) Project
Project Leaders:
Raymond Allen, Honorary Associate/Fellow, Center for Limnology, College of Letters & Science
Gretchen Gerrish, Scientist III, Center for Limnology, College of Letters & Science
Centering the goals and needs of Indigenous peoples is systemically forgotten or an afterthought in dominant science. We at UW-Madison’s Center for Limnology, in partnership with the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Natural Resources Department, outline four new seasonal workshop and internship opportunities at UW-Madison’s Trout Lake Research Station in northern Wisconsin that prioritize Indigenous peoples and their research interests in freshwater. These workshops will focus on research topics and practices, aquatic organisms, and lake health relevant to Indigenous Nations within the region and train a total of 20 Indigenous workshop participants over the course of two years. This project will lead to the co-production of lake phenology (seasonality) knowledge between Tribal Nations in the upper Midwest and UW Madison’s Center for Limnology, train Indigenous scientists and University students in place-based phenology research and methodologies, bioethics, and science & technology studies, and build upon a community of researchers composed of UW affiliates, Tribal employees, and Indigenous peoples from, living and working in, and attending schools in the Great Lakes region. We propose to do an assessment of the program through surveys and feedback from participants and community members, and to publish a methods paper on workshop logistics that helps Indigenous folks outside the upper Midwest recreate the workshops customized to their locations.
Supporting Locally Meaningful Chemistry Learning
Project Leader:
Ryan Stowe, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, College of Letters & Science
Despite decades of reforms extolling the potential of STEM education to prepare students for using science in their later personal and professional lives, most K-16 science classes focus on mastering a pre-established collection of canonical facts and skills. Students and teachers have little to no say in what is considered “canon” – they are meant to trust that the status quo will be useful in their later lives. Unfortunately, research in Science and Technology Studies has demonstrated that knowing more science content has little bearing on the practical decisions of real people. Accordingly, our courses frequently serve as arcane hurdles that gatekeep access to STEM and STEM-adjacent careers. Here, we seek to re-imagine chemistry learning in Wisconsin by working with teachers to create and enact high school courses that support students’ use of science tools to create more just and sustainable social conditions. Specifically, given the project team’s expertise in chemistry learning, we will create and sustain a research-practice partnership which helps high school chemistry teachers engage their students in considering how/whether molecular-level thinking will be helpful in advancing the goals of the class community.
Supporting Survivors of Tech-Enabled Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Wisconsin
Project Leader:
Rahul Chatterjee, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, College of Letters & Science
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is pervasive across communities, including rural areas. Tech-facilitated IPV (TIPV) has emerged as a new form of abuse within intimate relationships, utilizing technology for control and harassment. Abusers use seemingly benign technology tools like iCloud, Google Map, or AirTag to spy, stalk, or harass their victims. While research and services for TIPV victim-survivors have primarily focused on urban areas, little is known about the challenges faced by rural victim-survivors. Through an integrated research-practice partnership, this proposal aims to understand the unique challenges of TIPV in rural Wisconsin and co-design a remote tech clinic program with key stakeholders to support survivors in remote locations. This will serve as a reproducible framework and open-source tools for other states. Ultimately, this initiative will enhance resource accessibility, reducing the rural-urban resource gap for TIPV victim-survivors. PI will work with Victim service providers (VSPs) around the state, focusing on those serving rural populations. VSPs are already reaching out to PI to establish collaboration for piloting in the remote tech clinic program.
Wisconsin Latino Immigrant-Serving Organizations Project
Project Leaders:
Carolina Sarmiento, Associate Professor, School of Human Ecology
Armando Ibarra, Professor, School for Workers (Department of Labor Education), Division of Continuing Studies
The primary purpose of this action research, designed collaboratively with Project Respect and Voces de la Frontera, is to map and connect potential and existing immigrant serving organizations in the state of Wisconsin. This would be the first state-wide effort of this kind to identify organizations’ key priorities, strengths, and needs in serving immigrant communities in their local contexts. The effort builds on existing partnerships among the School for Workers, Project Respect, Voces de la Frontera, and the School of Human Ecology that focus on supporting immigrant survivors of human trafficking, and building on essential worker experiences in addressing threats to health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the growing and diverse needs of migrant communities, the effort will enable organizations to collaborate and better support immigrant communities and, specifically, strengthen the capacity of organizations, such as Project Respect and Voces de la Frontera, to provide immigrant survivors of exploitation of various forms with advocacy and support. The mapping of immigrant serving organizations is the basis to support increased coordination and collaboration between organizations, state agencies, and other stakeholders, as well as identify case studies that other organizations can learn from. Case study visits will also provide a time to present preliminary results in local settings. Together, the survey, map, and case studies will help produce a concrete tool for the organizations, social workers, teachers, and migrant workers recurring to them.