2019-2021 LIFE REPORT CALLS TO ACTION
Alcohol continues to be the most frequently consumed substance of use and misuse in Marathon County, among both teens and adults. Increase awareness of continual impact of alcohol misuse and abuse on children, families, and individuals.
Marathon County has experienced a significant decrease in child care programs and their capacity. Our community needs to have accessible, affordable, high-quality child care programs for families to live in Marathon County. We need to explore how our community can support child care.
- Create outside investments to support our early childhood teachers and our children.
- Explore how businesses and school districts can support quality child care for their employees is important.
- Address the cliff of eligibility requirements in public benefits in regards to childcare (and MA, FoodShare, etc.). A benefits cliff is what happens when public benefit programs taper off or phase out quickly when household earnings increase. The abrupt reduction or loss of benefits can be very disruptive for families because even though household earnings increased, they usually have not increased enough for self-sufficiency.
Create a community that is diverse, inclusive and everyone has a sense of belonging.
- Combat discrimination (in 2019, more than one-third of LIFE Survey respondents reported one or more experiences of discrimination; this is a 7% increase since 2017)
- Ensure a welcoming and inclusive community (LIFE Survey respondents reported a continued decline in satisfaction with how welcoming their community is in 2019. Satisfaction with how welcoming the community is has fallen more than 20 percentage points since 2013).
- Fewer than half of 2019 LIFE Survey respondents said they were satisfied with the level of tolerance in the community.
There is no community-wide plan to address the treatment and recovery of substance abuse to ensure continuum of care in recovery.
- Create more options in Transitional Housing units for individuals coming out of substance abuse treatment program.
- Expand Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) outside of the correctional settings. The majority of the persons impacted by opioid addictions are not in our jail, but are being treated at local medical facilities.
- Expand addiction treatment services wherever possible. A 2018 Wisconsin Professional Police Association survey identified 77% of respondents feel law enforcement should treat people addicted to opioids as needing care and treatment, rather than only as criminal offenders.
Housing
There is a need to expand quality, affordable, diverse housing. This includes access to rental housing for all incomes, condos, and housing for mid-life professionals.
Marathon County has gained new residents from surrounding rural counties but has lost residents to larger urban areas in the Midwest. There is a need to continue to develop and promote quality, engaging, entertaining places and amenities that attract people and are accessible to all.
- Promote opportunities for local employers to enhance recruiting and retention strategies.
- Develop, attract, and retain the younger, well-educated workforce, who are critical to a strong Marathon County workforce.
- Our region’s economic success requires action to enhance and promote efforts to support diversity and inclusion where culturally diverse communities feel welcome and are provided access to high growth-high wage jobs through development of relevant skills, knowledge, and abilities.
The community needs to engage key stakeholders and decision makers to address the options, costs, and opportunities to reduce phosphorous from agricultural runoff to surface waters to acceptable levels.