Pierce County Public Health (PCPH) is looking to make a difference in the county’s outdoor physical activity, allocating over $100,000 in funds to local non-profits for seven community-led projects.

PCPH received American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services with a few choices for how they could use it. They opted to use it to improve public health infrastructure in the county by helping to fund projects.

The county held an application process where 19 submissions were made and seven projects were selected through a ranking process.

The awards are $4,600 to the Prescott Lions Club for a shaded seating space and bike rack at Public Square Park, $15,000 to the Ellsworth Public Library for outdoor shaded seating, $20,000 to the School District of Elmwood to help fund a track and walking space at the school, $17,900 to Elsie’s Barnyard to develop an outdoor space with a gazebo, seating and threshold ramps as well as expanding the driveway and parking, $20,000 to Plum City Middle and High School, creating a socialization area outside for students, parents and the community, $10,000 to Healing Play in Prescott for the purchase of playground equipment and $18,000 to the School District of River Falls for a new access road to the school forest.

“We didn’t purposefully say these grants had to go to every single community, but it actually worked out that way,” PCPH Nutrition and Physical Activity Manager Brittany Mora said. “We were really pleased to see that they were spread out throughout the community.”

ARPA was put into place in March 2021, using $1.9 trillion to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. Mora said while that funding source might be a one-time thing, PCPH hopes they will receive a source of funding again in the future to do something similar.

“We really hope it will happen again,” Mora said. “This was kind of a unique funding stream that came out of COVID, and we’re hoping to get something like it again.”

Mora said they liked the process and it was a good way to get interaction between their department and the community.

The department looked at the Community Health Needs Assessment as well as lessons learned during the pandemic to decide on projects, which led to a focus on outdoor spaces.

“We identified that we really wanted to support community organizations in their efforts to improve, specifically creating outdoor spaces that support physical activity, social engagement and mental health,” Mora said.

Using all the funding on one massive project would have had an impact, but Mora said they can reach a much wider base by spreading the funding across projects.

“The idea is that we want to make being healthy, or being physically active, or having social engagement, those types of things, we want that to be really easy for people in our community,” Mora said. “If we have opportunities where it’s easy to make healthy choices all around us in our community, then that adds up to healthier people in our community.”

To find recreation spaces in the county, Pierce County’s Places to Play guide shares information on parks and outdoor spaces in the area and can be found on the county’s website.