Uplifting the voices of overshadowed and underserved individuals is central to our vision of an inclusive and equitable society. We intentionally center these voices to both provide a space for marginalized individuals to feel heard and to educate the broader community about ongoing issues of pervasive harassment, discrimination, and inequities. We would also like to use this space to thank the brave youth who have stepped forward and used this tool as a way to report harassment and discrimination in CFAUSD and other districts. Without you sharing your story we would not have made this much progress in combatting discrimination in public schools.

At Cultivative Coalition, we are dedicated to stepping up our efforts in educational outreach. We know this is not an easy feat, but through community engagement and empowerment we believe we can facilitate progress in this area. Too often, primary schooling fails to address the deeply rooted injustices in society that continue to be at play today. To help fill this gap in knowledge we provide and share educational posts related to the history of marginalized groups in the United States. We hope this knowledge empowers folks to keep educating themselves and encouraging others to do the same. We are happy to provide any further resources and answer educational questions folks may have.

The youth we work with often face additional barriers to healthcare and wellbeing resources, education, affordable housing, Many of the youth face Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) which are known to raise your risk for depression and chronic illness. We help connect youth to additional resources such as peer mentoring, community groups, and more in the Chippewa Valley.

The Community Table & Cultivative Coalition will be hosting the 3rd Annual Black History Month Gala on February 1st, 2025 from 6 pm - 11 pm. Proceeds & donations from this event will be used to provide the Chippewa Valley Black Excellence Scholarship again next year and ensure the longevity of this celebration for years to come.

Applications for the 2025 Black Excellence Scholarships are open until January 12th, 2025 at 11:59 pm. These (4) one time scholarships of $500 will be awarded to students who may have financial need, are active and involved in their community, and demonstrate Black Excellence.

This rally was sparked by a recent racist incident in the district. However, the rally was in response to years of bullying, hate, and racism that has gone unchecked by the district.

In 2024, at a CFAUSD football game students threw popcorn at and used racial slurs to harass a biracial student. Despite this occurring on school grounds, CFAUSD staff did not intervene immediately. Instead, the 9th grader was left to respond to this act of violence on his own. After repeatedly asking the harassing students to stop the student reacted and punched the instigting students. The CFAUSD did not intervene until the 9th grade boy punched one of the 8th grade boys. In other words, the district’s failure to intervene during the racist violence created a dangerous environment that culminated into a physical confrontation. The CFAUSD endangered all of its students by creating an environment in which racial violence is seen as acceptable and de-escalation is not utilized.

In response to this, the CFAUSD utilized the School Police Officer to remove the 9th grader from the game whilst onlookers yelled at the child. The lack of intervention up until the student being attacked chose to respond, is evidence once again that the CFAUSD lacks training in cultural humility and is not prepared to support and protect students holding marginalized identities.

In 2024, we co-hosted the 2nd Annual Black History Month Gala with Community Table. We brought communtiy together in celebration of Black resilience and joy. We had incredible performers like Uncommon Denominator, Amina Dagons, Elijah Vanderpool, and our very own Casaiya Keyser. Additionally, we were excited to provide 2,000 dollars worth of scholarships to outstanding Black youth in the area. Thank you to our incredible organizers, volunteers, donors/sponsors, performers, scholarship recipients, and attendees. Stay tuned for news on the 2025 Black History Gala

In 2022, we were invited to present at the Wisconsin Public Education Summitt. We talked about the formation of Cultivative Coalition to prevent what happened to us from happening to future students. To do this, we created an online platform for individuals to share their experiences with discrimination and harassment anonymously. This allowed people to see the stories of hundreds of current and former students who experienced discrimination and harassment. This helped to gain attention and more supporters who helped us to advocate for change, and created a safe space where people could share their own experiences and read the stories of others who may have had similar experiences. We discussed what we are doing now through partnerships with ACLU, Black & Brown Womyn Power Coalition, CC We Adapt, conversations with CFAUSD administration, legislative action, training and toolkits, and broader advocacy. We provided our plans of actions and steps that can be taken to make disenfranchised students and communities feel safer in our public schools.

In 2021, a CFHS teacher, that many students confided in, was let go. We knew that CFAUSD lacks in safe spaces for students of marginalized identities and losing another one that was so prominent was difficult for many youth.

In response to this we hosted a rally for a safer community and school for students.

We started at the Chippewa Falls Middle school where speakers shared their experiences of discrimination in the Chippewa Valley. We then walked to the high school together and students chalked the sidewalk with their own experiences and changes they wanted to see from the school district.

Despite CFAUSD telling us to 'Cease and Desist' and forcing us to clean the chalk, students stories were heard and documented by Cultivative Coalition. Our organization leaders closed out the rally with resources and welcomed suggestions from the community on ways we can help invoke change.

In 2021, we were asked to celebrate with the ACLU all that we have accomplished in the past year! We shared about the work Cultivative Coalition has done and heard from incredible organizers throughout the State of WI.

Our GoFundMe was able to raise $562 for hygiene products, food, bedding sets, and money for other organizations in our community.

We were able to donate $150.99 of food and hygiene products to the Career Development Center in Chippewa Falls and $134.47 of bedding to Sleep in Heavenly Peace of Eau Claire. $130 was donated to Agnes’ Table of Chippewa Falls to purchase food for meals and $130 was donated to The Community Table in Eau Claire, which was matched by Bon Iver.

We know that youth have enough to handle without worrying about where they will get their school supplies. In 2021, the Cultivative Coalition hosted a fundraiser in Chippewa Falls to ensure that all youth had the school supplies they needed to thrive in the CFAUSD. We handed out school supplies at Irvine Park and dropped supplies off at households for those who could not attend our Irvine Park Giveaways.

In 2021, we were invited to speak about how the Cultivative Coalition is fighting harassment, bullying, and hate in Chippewa Falls.