{"id":11882,"date":"2025-02-14T07:54:55","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=11882"},"modified":"2025-02-14T07:54:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:54:55","slug":"uwo-talent-vital-to-nonprofits-responding-to-community-challenges","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uwo-talent-vital-to-nonprofits-responding-to-community-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"UWO talent vital to nonprofits responding to community challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
The 26-member team serving Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services Inc. now includes 17 UWO alumni. Members transitioned the agency to a new shelter and agency headquarters (main entrance pictured) on Algoma Boulevard in 2024. (Photo courtesy of Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services Inc.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Name the community challenge: addiction, abuse, food insecurity, housing instability, neighborhood cohesion\u2026<\/p>\n

In Oshkosh, often not too far from the physical borders of the University of Wisconsin\u2013Oshkosh campus, Titans are helping agencies in the community confront them. And, in several cases, UWO graduates are leading these organizations, teams and missions.<\/p>\n

A quick scan of the UWO neighboring nonprofit landscape with agency ribbon cuttings and expansions, reveals an array of organizations brimming with, if not led by, Titans alumni. Key agencies comprising the community\u2019s and region\u2019s \u201csafety net\u201d\u2014a web of nonprofits founded and supported to help individuals and families struggling with food insecurity, homelessness, domestic violence, addiction and other challenges\u2014rely on Titans talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good majority of the folks that work at Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services were not originally from the Oshkosh area but were drawn to the city for college at UW-Oshkosh,\u201d said Alicia Wenger, \u201916, Executive Director of Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services, Inc. (CADASI) and a UWO Human Services Leadership alumna.<\/p>\n

The Oshkosh nonprofit centered several blocks from UWO and serving Winnebago and Green Lake counties moved into an expanded homebase in 2024, now operating a 64-bed emergency shelter for individuals and families fleeing abuse while continuing to provide a 24-hour help line and outreach services for teens\/children and community education. CADASI\u2019s shelter provided nearly 8,000 safe nights to more than 130 clients in 2023 while fielding more than 1,000 hotline calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith each year passing of undergrad, Oshkosh slowly began to feel like home, and a lot of folks decided to plant roots after graduation,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cThey ended up at CADASI somewhere along their journey, whether that was through a college internship at CADASI which turned into a position, volunteered while they were going to school, or they worked part time as a crisis advocate supporting survivors throughout their college career. Whichever avenue landed them at CADASI\u2019s door, a lot of those point back to UW-Oshkosh, and I am very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planting seeds of social assistance careers<\/h3>\n

From the class of 2022-23 alone, 48 UWO graduates signaled career launch in \u201csocial assistance,\u201d according to the university\u2019s \u201cFirst Destination\u201d survey of new alumni. Of those graduates, nearly 90 percent indicated UWO \u201cprepared me for the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Services Leadership alone has produced nearly 330 graduates over the last five years, according to the new alumni reports. UWO Director of Career & Professional Development Jaime Page-Stadler said Social Work and Psychology graduates, too, commonly enter social assistance careers throughout the region and beyond. But an expanding array of degrees are proving valuable to nonprofits and their missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTitans and the multifaceted knowledge, talent and leadership they provide are clearly a big part of the nonprofit ecosystem in the region,\u201d Page-Stadler said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not solely social-assistance-centered degree holders the many organizations draw from. They also need finance, human resources, marketing and other expertise. UWO and its many academic programs have long histories of developing relationships with nonprofits and helping develop the team members and leaders that continue to drive organizations vital to delivering some of the most fundamental services throughout the Fox Valley and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many cases, nonprofit internships that naturally draw upon the preparation within UWO majors transform into career-launch opportunities for students serving in the agencies. By graduation, talent developed becomes talent retained in both the organization and the community. That\u2019s a factor in UWO\u2019s strong hired-before-graduation rate, which, over the last few classes, has topped 81 percent.<\/p>\n

Wenger is just one example of local organization\u2019s team members ascending as leaders of the many flourishing, modernizing nonprofits.<\/p>\n