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Brighter Futures Initiative: Program Overview
While focusing on the legislative outcomes, Brighter Futures projects reflect the unique needs and resources of each community. Many projects consist of partnerships between agencies in order to maximize resources by using a cross-systems approach. These partnerships often involve: social services, health departments, school districts, juvenile justice, tribal agencies, police departments, community-based and faith-based organizations, local businesses, and youth-focused coalitions/alliances. The Brighter Futures Initiative (BFI) is the strategy, or catalyst, that encourages pooling of prevention funds including state, federal, county, local, and private grants; as well as "in-kind" services such as shared transportation, facilities, and staff.
Program participants include infants, children, adolescents, and parents residing in the following counties / *reservation: Douglas, Forest, Iron, Kenosha, *Menominee, Milwaukee, Racine, Rock, Walworth and Winnebago. BFI communities determine the target group for projects based on local needs and available resources. Services range from educational outreach, positive youth development, primary prevention and early intervention(secondary prevention). The projects focus on multiple aspects of a young person's life versus a single risk factor. Projects may change from year to year based on emerging needs in the community, new community partnerships, and program performance by service providers.
The number of individuals served by Brighter Futures collaborative projects vary widely depending on the type of projects implemented. Most BFI sites have a combination of youth development, primary prevention and early intervention projects. Together, BFI collaborative projects serve approximately 100,000 individuals annually.
*The Menominee Indian Reservation, for the most part, is coextensive (shares geographical boundary) with Menominee County.
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Last Revised: October 23, 2009