No Longer an Island

About

 
In July 2011, with funding from a Wisconsin Partnership Program development grant, Walnut Way and its partners launched the Lindsay Heights Men’s Wellness Council (MWC) to engage African American men who live, work, and serve in our community. For 18 months, 12 African American men met monthly for meaningful dialogue and to develop action recommendations for improving men’s well-being.
 
The Men’s Wellness Council was developed as a space for African American men to systematically explore the meaning of health, critical determinants of health, and areas of action in their community. The overall goals of the project were to:

• Assess the experiences of the men in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood to understand factors that promote or hinder engagement in health promotion activities
• Engage the Men’s Wellness Council in health promotion activities and exercise
• Develop an action plan for African American men’s wellness initiatives in the community based on project findings
• Create a video documenting the Council’s experience and the participatory process

 
While an initial project aim focused on increasing physical activity in men who live in Lindsay Heights, Council members quickly made clear that a more holistic approach to health was needed, one that focused on the emotional, mental, and financial well-being of men. Discussions by MWC members brought to light the tremendous isolation and pressure African American fathers and men experience in our community, highlighted by their self-definition as “an island of one.”
 
The men found that the Council’s meetings provided the critical space needed to express their authentic self, negotiate life stressors, and learn from experiences of other men.  Exceeding our expectations, the MWC proved to be a model for fostering transformative social connections and mentorship across generations. The Council’s efforts resulted in a documentary film to promote community dialogue and key recommendations for action.
 
One of the key recommendations was to develop spaces where African American men can express and explore authentic self-identify and support mentorship efforts between men that extend across generations. No Longer an Island men’s peer groups evolved from this recommendation and experience. The following is a toolkit to guide the facilitation of similar men’s peer groups.

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Aims

This project responds directly to the Milwaukee Lifecourse’s recommendations to strengthen father involvement in African American families and integrates evidence-based models for peer mentoring, social support, and community navigators to advance engagement and empowerment. Father engagement in their children’s lives is associated with positive cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes across the child’s life course. Fathers are more likely to have positive engagement with their children when they have less life stress and more social support. This project incorporates four social network interventions identified in the evidence base as linking social support to improve physical, mental and social health.
 
In response to the call from  men and community leaders, the following four
integrated objectives were drafted to provide embedded support at an individual, interpersonal and community level:

1. Strengthen community and academic partnerships to advance a network of support for men and families in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood.
2. Develop a Porch-to-Porch (P2P) outreach campaign to help connect men to a neighborhood network of support and increase a sense of empowerment.
3. Expand the peer leadership and support network to provide safe spaces for men to strengthen intergenerational relationships and mentorship.
4. Develop and disseminate peer communication materials that promote a community-wide cultural shift in how African American men view and value themselves.

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Expected Outcomes

 This initiative builds from the strengths and lessons learned from the Men’s Wellness Council during our prior successful WPP pilot grant. In response to the call from our men and grounded in the evidence-base for social support interventions, we are
implementing a neighborhood peer outreach and mentorship network to strengthen social support of African American men and increasing community and family engagement.
 
By employing a place-based social network intervention, we move beyond a single program intervention to impact the social environment and build individual and collective capacity for community change. This project is increasing engagement among African American men, the development of a neighborhood support network for men and fathers, and peer-led communication materials for citywide dissemination. The specific outcomes include:

1. Strengthened community academic partnership and enhanced connections between organizations serving men in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood.
2. Increased individual empowerment and community engagement among the Porch-2-Porch participants.
3. Increase in social support, social capital, global self esteem (i.e., self-worth), family cohesion (i.e., family engagement), and a decrease in social isolation among MWC and peer group participants.
4. Increased mental/health wellbeing among MWC and peer group participants.
5. Key themes emerging from the messages, neighborhood perception of messages including portrayal of African American men, and message exposure.​

Partners

• UW-Milwaukee Joseph J Zilber School of Public Health
• Walnut Way Conservation Corps.
• UWSMPH’ s Collaborative Center for Health Equity

Team

Principle Investigator 
Amy Harley, PhD

Academic Staff
David Frazer, MPH