Chippewa Falls CESA 10 Hosts Governor Evers on Grant Funding

Governor Tony Evers visited Chippewa Falls this week, highlighting federal grant funding earmarked for violence prevention efforts in schools.

Governor Evers met with local teachers, administrators, and members of Cooperative Educational Service Agency 10 on Monday, hearing their accounts of how the grant funding will impact their ability to meet the mental health needs of their students.

Nearly $15 million in total will be awarded to school districts, law enforcement agencies, and other organizations across the state. That funding will be administered by the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention. CESA 10 will receive nearly $800,000 of funding through one of the school-based grant awards.

According to organization officials, the funding will be used to invest in trauma-informed school safety initiatives to reduce instances of school violence and self-harm. Over half of the funding will go towards training educators in neuroscience-based regulation measures, proactive violence prevention efforts, and ensuring the training program is sustainable for years to come. Nearly 20 percent of the funding will go towards building physical regulation spaces and telehealth rooms in schools, and the remaining funding will cover the personnel and administrative costs of the initiative.

Following a presentation by CESA 10 officials, Governor Evers expressed optimism about the impact the grant funding will have. “It’s about, kind of, following the science,” he said. “Especially the science that helps kids do better in school and absolutely it’s where it should be. We’re approaching the issue of violence in a good way by preventing it from ever happening in the first place.”

The main CESA 10 office sits in Chippewa Falls, but the area covers a wide range of school districts across the Chippewa Valley from Mondovi to Medford.