Milwaukee community leader will help implement Milwaukee’s public health approach to violence prevention
Marques D. Hogans Sr., MPH
Ascension Wisconsin is proud to welcome Marques D. Hogans Sr., MPH as the new project manager for the National BUILD Health Challenge for Sherman Park.
Hogans is a seasoned public health leader with more than a decade of experience. Most recently, Hogans served as the equity data analyst for the Milwaukee County Office on African American Affairs, conducting research and identifying data (facts, figures, racial equity metrics), those which aid in promoting equitable opportunities for African Americans in our community.
He has also consulted for Ubuntu Research and Evaluation, and Data You Can Use, and served as public health educator for the City of Milwaukee Health Department. Hogans holds a Master of Public Health from the Medical College of Wisconsin and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Kentucky State University.
Hogans, a Sherman Park resident, will engage community members around the Milwaukee Blueprint for Peace, a community-driven agenda for addressing the complex factors that drive violence in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood.
Last year, United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County, its partners, Ascension Wisconsin, City of Milwaukee Health Department’s Office of Violence Prevention, and the Sherman Park Community Association, Inc. received the BUILD Health Challenge® award.
The award provides $250,000 in funding and additional resources to support community-driven strategies in the Sherman Park neighborhood. The overall objectives of the project are to increase resident well-being and prevent violence.
In addition, Ascension Wisconsin has committed to provide $336,000 in matching support to ensure the project’s success.
“I look forward to working alongside the community to link neighbors with health resources, workforce development and healing activities,” Hogans said. “This important work will increase individual and community resilience, resulting in a reduction of violence and health inequities.”
Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood, long associated with the systemic inequities its residents experience, is poised for rebirth. BUILD Sherman Park will advance a community-driven process to implement the Blueprint for Peace, Milwaukee’s public health approach to violence prevention. BUILD Sherman Park focuses on empowering Sherman Park’s residents, fostering safe, strong neighborhoods, as well as strengthening capacity, coordination, and collaboration for health and safety. BUILD Sherman Park will be led primarily by its Sherman Park Community Council, a group consisting of residents and other stakeholders with vested interest in the historic Sherman Park Neighborhood, including youth.
The vision is that as residents increase access to and utilization of the neighborhood’s natural and built environment, community and health resources, community and government leadership, and healing activities, individual and community resilience will increase. The result will be a reduction of violence and an increase in health equity.
“Marques will help align our efforts with BUILD Sherman Park to achieve our shared vision of a healthy, safe and prosperous Sherman Park community,” said Reggie Newson, vice president of Government and Community Services and chief advocacy officer, Ascension Wisconsin.
“Marques will lead the way with this work, helping all of us to engage residents through BUILD Sherman Park to support partnerships and an authentic community voice as we work together to improve the health of our community.”
BUILD Sherman Park is currently working together through a number of health-focused partnerships, including:
• The nationally-recognized Milwaukee Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, which has influenced a 65% drop in teen birth rates since 2008.
• The Blueprint for Peace, Milwaukee’s first public health-informed violence prevention plan in fall of 2017.
• The Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee coalition, to reduce the impact of trauma in our city.
• Maternal/infant health programs, such as Blanket of Love, to address racial disparities in birth outcomes.
• The 414Life program, which implements the Cure Violence model by deploying violence interrupters to prevent retaliatory violence among shooting victims.
To watch a short video that explains the community partnerships behind BUILD Sherman Park, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooyi7ZTRqA0&feature=youtu.be
If you would like to learn more about the Resident Advisory Committee click here: BUILD Sherman Park Community Council Application
ABOUT ASCENSION WISCONSIN
In Wisconsin, Ascension operates 24 hospital campuses, more than 100 related healthcare facilities and employs more than 1,300 primary and specialty care clinicians from Racine to Eagle River. Serving Wisconsin since 1848, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., operating 2,600 sites of care – including 145 hospitals and more than 40 senior living facilities – in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Visit www.ascension.org.
ABOUT UNITED WAY OF GREATER MILWAUKEE & WAUKESHA COUNTY
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County fights for the health, education, and financial stability for every person in our local community.
ABOUT THE BUILD HEALTH CHALLENGE
The BUILD Health Challenge is a unique national program focusing on bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven projects that can improve community health. The BUILD Health Challenge award provides funding, capacity-building support, and access to a national peer learning network to enhance collaborative partnerships here locally to address our community’s most pressing health challenges. Special thanks to the BUILD Health Challenge for its support of this initiative.
The BUILD Health Challenge is made possible with the support of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, de Beaumont Foundation, Episcopal Health Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., New Jersey Health Initiatives, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
ABOUT SHERMAN PARK COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
The mission of Sherman Park Community Association is to make Sherman Park an attractive, interesting neighborhood where people of all races, religions, and national origins come together to celebrate and respect our differences, as well as our shared values.
ABOUT THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION
The Office of Violence Prevention provides strategic direction and oversight for City efforts to reduce the risk of violence through linked strategies in partnership with government, non-profit, neighborhood, and faith organizations.