Monroe Area Community Closet
Partnered with Green County Family Promise and the Church of Nazarene in Monroe to create a community closet. Free clothing is available to any community member through this community closet. This has already helped several families who have experienced difficulties such as house fires. Extra clothes that are collected will be sold to a company in Milwaukee that reuses the clothes for various purposes. In other communities, the money made from these transactions have gone to the local school district. 

Promoting Inspire: Youth Career Programs
The Inspire program helps connect youth with career and apprenticeship opportunities in the Madison area, including Green County. However, at the start of the GCL year, only 8 businesses in Green County participated in this program. Through outreach and education, this group increased the number of participating businesses to 28. The group also worked with the Inspire program to develop marketing materials specifically for Green County to assist in increasing engagement. 

Expanding Access to Broadband
This group partnered with the Green County Development Corporation (GCDC) to reach out to municipalities across Green County to engage them in expanding access to broadband. Specifically, they asked municipalities to support the creation of a grant application to increase broadband in Green County. This required a financial contribution and a letter of support. These efforts made it possible for GCDC to contract with the Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to put together a grant application on behalf of Green County. The grant application is anticipated to be submitted in 2017.

Expanding Bicycle Benefits to Green County
This group worked with several area businesses to bring the Bicycle Benefits program to Green County. This national program involves bicyclists purchasing a special ticket for their helmet. They can then receive different benefits, such as discounts, from participating businesses. Because this is a national program, tourists in Green County will be able to also receive benefits, and Green County will be included in the national program map. 

Synthesizing the Monroe Arts Center Focus Group Study
In fall 2016 the GCL class facilitated 14 focus groups designed to get community perspectives on the Monroe Arts Center’s (MAC) programming. This project group analyzed that data, synthesized it, and wrote a report to inform the MAC board of the community perspectives. MAC will be using this information to inform their strategic planning process and their future programming.