Connected

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Opportunities for Action

For Individuals

  • Improving our connections and understanding of others will require ongoing and intentional effort to visit other communities, reach out to those with backgrounds different from our own, and attend local cultural events.

  • Regularly talking to elderly neighbors, friends, and family will serve an important role in helping them connect and engage. In addition, look for opportunities to serve the elderly through volunteer programs.

  • Understand and experience the difficulty experienced by those without access to their own vehicle by relying on alternative transportation for a week.

  • Reach out to your neighbors. Consider planning a neighborhood block party or cookout.

For Organizations

  • In their effort to meet labor force needs, businesses have become more innovative and intentional about connecting with diverse populations. Continued work with schools, trade organizations and social service providers will help with that effort. Advancing the understanding of ethnic, cultural and generational differences will help employees connect and succeed.

  • The racial makeup of jail inmates to the population and the disproportionate number of minority school suspensions raise a host of questions that require answers. Law enforcement, public schools, and social service providers must research and work together to understand and address ongoing institutional disparities in punishment.

  • Employers should work closely with the Society for Human Resources Management and wage equity organizations to evaluate, confront, and address wage and earnings disparities. As the labor pool shrinks, addressing those disparities will become more important.

  • Local institutions will need to continue to adopt and expand the use of trauma-informed care principles in order to develop more empathetic and understanding approaches to connect with people at a personal and community level.

For the Community

  • Marathon County will need to ensure a diverse and culturally inclusive culture to secure its long-term future. Whether it is attracting millennials, including LGBTQ perspectives or tapping the contributions of minority populations, regional viability requires that everyone is welcomed, engaged, and connected in the community.

  • Community and business leaders have a responsibility to explore additional diversity and inclusion strategies to supplement those in process. Exciting opportunities exist to share ideas with other communities. Establishing additional benchmarks will help track progress and create parity for populations that have historically experienced disadvantages and discrimination.

  • Our region needs to develop an aggressive and collaborative approach to ensuring high-speed broadband. Marathon County has stepped up to evaluate needs and opportunities to improve Internet service. Municipalities must see past their borders and work together in support of efforts to attract vendors and establish competitive broadband services for the region.

  • Easily accessible public transportation is a critical way to connect our community to services, job opportunities and shopping centers. Each of our municipalities must adopt a broader perspective on the impact of public transportation — how it helps address regional labor shortages and keeps seniors in the community by ensuring accessibility.

View all data on the Connected Dashboard
View Connected Success & Progress and Calls to Action

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View all indicator reports for the Connected section below.

Sense of Community

Discrimination

Racial Disparities within the Justice System

Income/Wage Disparities by Race & Gender

Access to Transportation

Voter Participation

Social Isolation

Broadband Access

Culture/Arts

Marathon County Pulse