The Official Blog of Communities at Oshkosh North

Junior, Autumn Kephart, is partnering with Damascus Road to create awareness and raise funds to help fight human trafficking in our community. Damascus Road is a non-profit organization that focuses on helping to locate and help victims of human trafficking, specifically women over the age of 18. According to nationalhumantrafficking.org, in 2017 there were 91 cases of human trafficking in Wisconsin alone, 8,524 nationwide. Milwaukee was tied with Las Vegas for the number of young people rescued during FBI raids, according to theguardian.com. Autumn and Damascus Road are working towards creating a large event in order to raise the maximum amount of funds possible to help the young victims of human trafficking. The money will go towards not only helping to locate these young women but also towards relocating them. As reported by polarisproject.org, the number of human trafficking cases has increased by 13% in 2017. This is becoming a large problem in our community, but people like Autum

29% of the youth ( ages 3-17) in the Fox Valley are overweight or obese, according to the website the Weight of the Fox Valley. For this next semester, I am partnered with Dani Stolley, founder and executive director of Growing Oshkosh. Growing Oshkosh is a local urban farm that is branching out and giving back to the community by creating school gardens at local public elementary schools. The goal of school gardens is to encourage healthy eating in our community. By creating gardens at elementary schools we are not only educating children how to create their own gardens, but teaching them healthy eating habits at a young age.

As you walk into the room, you see the multi-colored lights flashing and dresses swaying to the beat of the music. Prom is a night that every girl dreams about during her high school experience. Some girls may not be able to attend because of financial problems, but Oshkosh North High School has a way for every girl to be able to attend prom. Oshkosh North hosts a prom dress closet during the month of April every year. The prom dress closet provides free dresses for girls who cannot afford a dress or simply just need a dress. Within our variety of dresses, we have a large selection of different sizes, colors, and styles. It’s important to have the dress closet available for local girls. According to the ALICE Report in 2014, 50% of the Oshkosh area is in poverty. Not only is it important to have the dress closet available to girls in Oshkosh, but to other surrounding schools as well. Last year over half the attendance was from other schools such as Winneconne, Omro, and Menasha High Sc

Lonely. Depressed. Socially Awkward. This is social isolation. In partnership with Park View Health Center, a nonprofit county run skilled nursing facility, I am serving a semester of my time volunteering to help end this epidemic. My time spent with the residents is more than just volunteering, it is a solution to the increasingly large amount of elders who are becoming isolated. Just in the Winnebago County 13.4% people are over the age of 65 years according to the United States Census Bureau Website (datamapper.geo.census.gov). Generations keep growing as well as the demand for nursing facilities, which can result in a constant increase of social isolation. The Population Reference Bureau website, states that the aging of the baby boom generation could fuel a 75% increase in the number of Americans ages 65 and older requiring a nursing home, to about 2.3 million from 1.3 million (prb.org). While residents may spend their last stop at a nursing facility, they may start to socially

I can remember coming into Communities as a freshman and hearing about bikes and their importance. It didn’t really connect or click for me. Then my Sophomore my classmates and I took on this project BikeOsh. We took a trip to Madison to experience the bike-friendly community. I enjoyed this, but it wasn’t the biking, it was the city. Not until my summer of sophomore year did I understand. Everyday biking towards work I saw health benefits. Stronger legs, better cardiovascular endurance. For my terrible eating happens this was something I liked to do keep a good frame. The start of my Junior year I really began to understand the why behind biking and this time biking became important. Every morning I have the choice of catching the bus, biking or driving. After days of waking up early for the bus, I began to sleep in. The thing was though my mom needed her vehicle every day, so I rode my bike. For the next months until winter came, I road my bike. I began to understand why bikin

As you walk into the room you see the multi-colored lights flashing and dresses swaying to the beat of the music. Prom is a night that every girl dreams about during their high school experience. Some girls may not be able to attend because of financial problems, but Oshkosh North High School has a way for every girl to be able to attend prom. Oshkosh North hosts a prom dress closet during the month of April every year. The prom dress closet provides free dresses for girls who cannot afford a dress or simply just need a dress. Within our variety of dresses, we have a large selection of different sizes, colors, and styles. It’s important to have the dress closet available for local girls. According to the ALICE Report in 2014, 50% of the Oshkosh area is in poverty. Not only is it important to have the dress closet available to girls in Oshkosh, but to other surrounding schools as well. Last year over half the attendance was from other schools such as Winneconne, Omro, and Menasha High