Green Bay's first 'community house' for neighborhood services is coming soon from Brown County United Way

GREEN BAY - Brown County United Way plans to establish Green Bay's first-ever neighborhood community house, a one-stop shop for services ranging from job training to mental health support.

"This will be a central place for neighborhood residents to gather, support and learn from each other," said Robyn Davis, Brown County United Way president and CEO. "It's a central place to gain streamlined access to services. It is a central place to encourage a stronger sense of belonging."

The project will be pushed along by a $1 million federal grant, which came from an omnibus spending bill with the help of Sen. Tammy Baldwin's office. The community house will be located somewhere within Navarino, Downtown, Joannes Park or Whitney Park, the four east-side neighborhoods identified by United Way as most in need of basic services.

It's a continuation of efforts that started at the beginning of 2020, when United Way said it would bring 10,000 people in Brown County up to the cost of living in 10 years. That effort stalled for a time when the pandemic hit.

Davis noted that one in three households in Brown County struggles with basic needs. That assessment comes from a report released in 2016 that focuses on residents who live above the federal poverty line but below the county's basic cost of living.

While the location is not yet known, the community house will be a space for services including help with job training, financial literacy, parenting, housing and mental health.

"It's extremely challenging for families to go from one place to another place and get referred to another to get support for a variety of things," said Christina Gingle, associate director of pupil services for Green Bay Area Public School District. "If they can just go to one place, and we see the full continuum of services to help support their most basic needs, that would be phenomenal for our families."

Brown County United Way is "still working behind the scenes" before it unveils more details, according to Davis, but because this is a 2022 federal appropriation, the money must be spent on buying and renovating a building, not to mention getting the house up and running, by the end of September.

Davis said they'll base programming on the neighborhood chosen for the location of the space, which they'll determine using asset mapping. It's a way for United Way to understand what needs the neighborhoods have, whether it's housing or economic support.

Operationally, United Way will rely on in-kind support from agencies such as UW-Extension that already offer classes. New programming will bring new costs. All of that depends on the next few weeks of asset mapping.

"This project is an extremely important one," Baldwin said at a Wednesday press conference at Brown County United Way. "It's a step forward in revitalizing under-resourced neighborhoods in Green Bay. And it will provide place-based focuses for neighbors to not only gather but also receive vital services."

Green Bay's basic needs shift depending on who you ask

Before he got word of the United Way grant, Joannes Park neighborhood association president Josh Lutzow had been working on a grant with Green Bay Action Sports Organization, or GBASO, to get free skating equipment to kids in the neighborhood. New skating equipment would mean more kids using Joannes Park's outdoor skatepark, free to the public.

But that grant fell to the wayside after GBASO lost its lease.

Skateparks aren't the first, second or even third thing people associate with equity, but for Lutzow, free and accessible skateboard equipment can mean the difference between building community and not.

At the height of the pandemic, the skatepark at Joannes Park was a favored spot for not just getting in a few kick flips, but meeting other people in the neighborhood.

It's this type of engagement that Lutzow wants to see more of, especially if it can lead to more active community engagement.

It was a feeling shared by Navarino neighborhood association president Kayla Branam, who said that after the city's Park Department finished a walking loop in Navarino Park in the fall of 2020, it opened itself as the neighborhood common grounds.

"Families would bump into someone that's lived down the street from them for years who they never met on the walking loop and then they'd get to know each other," Branam said. "It became a meeting spot."

The lack of such a community meeting place has meant dips into isolation that can lead to worsening problems.

As the county continues to recover from surge after surge of COVID-19 with the latest wave earlier this year, increasing struggles with mental health also continue.

"The number one thing we hear about in our youth is mental health, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic," said Gingle, from the school district. "We know that there has been, in terms of availability, a bottleneck created because our community has had difficulties meeting those needs."

An extensive waiting list for services can be a huge detriment for a child suffering from mental health problems. It's a problem that can quickly spiral into crisis, Gingle said.

Mental health support tends to get pushed to the side when community priorities shake out, but the neighborhood community house is planned to make space for those services.

Branam wants the neighborhood community house to focus on homeownership, a need with which so many residents in the Navarino neighborhood struggle. Branam said she knows of too many scenarios where adult sons and daughters live with their parents, a result of the housing market, money issues and intimidation factors.

She'd also like quality of life to go up for renters, who sometimes have landlords who don't maintain the properties in a conducive manner.

"I think in Navarino, we've got a good core group of neighbors who really watch out for each other," Branam said. "I'm hoping that whatever United Way does would foster and improve what we already have going on. I want more neighbors coming to Navarino and investing in it, being in community with each other."

Natalie Eilbert is a government watchdog reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her Twitter profile at @natalie_eilbert.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Brown County United Way to open Green Bay neighborhood community house