As Waupaca’s demographic landscape shifts, the city faces greater challenges in providing equitable access to essential services for its Spanish-speaking and multilingual communities. As of the 2023-2024 school year, there are a total of 70 immigrant students, which accounts for a sharp increase from the only 4 immigrants three years prior. The increase in these families highlights the need for improved communication, resource coordination, and culturally responsive initiatives to better serve the engagement of the community-at-large.
Currently, language barriers hinder many residents from fully utilizing city services, schools, and community resources. These disparities can be witnessed in domains such as healthcare, education, and overall economic development. This policy brief builds upon the insights gathered from key stakeholders, including
school district officials, local business owners, and community members, to identify the strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement across the community of Waupaca. The initial drive of this project was to specifically explore opportunities to improve English-Spanish partnership, but through interviews and exploration of a School District grant, it revealed that there was a variety of national origins from the new community members. This requires an individualistic approach to broadly improve overall communication and engagement efforts, while simultaneously targeting key community leadership to garner trust within the City of Waupaca.
Key considerations that shaped these proposals include funding limitations, adjustments to existing workflows, and the spectrum of meaningful interactions and engagement among new community members.
Contact: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu