Project Report
| Oct 7, 2026
HERS and Fitness
By Ajer Qureshi | Program Manager
Our HERS Program is celebrating the month of October with an emphasis on wellness and healthy living for women in our community. For many of our African single mothers and women out there, life and stresses can often lead them to sometimes forget about their own health and wellness, which can add more stress, pain in their bodies, and feeling more tired throughout the day. It's always important to encourage a more healthy and active lifestyle, where they can improve their bodies to be efficient energy machines to help them throughout the day.
Over the next four weeks, our HERS gatherings will be about improving women's wellness and fitness thanks to help from fitness instructor partners we've teamed up with. We started with a session on yoga and breathing exercises, and plan to have future sessions with more active exercises such as Zumba dancing as well as discussions on healthy eating and stress relief.
This is an exciting time for HERS and we're looking forward to continuing it.
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Jun 10, 2026
Congrats to SFP Grads
By Ajer Qureshi | Program Manager
Recently, Community Initiatives of Wisconsin (CIW) proudly celebrated the successful completion of our annual Strengthening Families Program, with 12 families graduating after several weeks of participation. Throughout the program, parents, caregivers, and youth came together to learn practical strategies, communication techniques, and family-strengthening principles designed to build healthier relationships and create more supportive home environments. Participants engaged in discussions and activities focused on trust-building, conflict resolution, stress management, and positive family communication.
The Strengthening Families Program aims to promote family stability, improve emotional well-being, and reduce risk factors associated with youth substance abuse, mental health challenges, and family conflict. By equipping families with valuable tools and resources, we hope to foster stronger connections that lead to long-term positive outcomes for both parents and children. Every family that participated completed the program with new knowledge, greater confidence, and a renewed commitment to strengthening their relationships. CIW is grateful to all of the families who took part in this year's program, and we look forward to continuing this important initiative and serving even more families in the coming year.
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Feb 17, 2026
HERS and SFP: A New Location and a New Approach
By Ajer Qureshi | Program Manager
CIW continues to host our regular HERS and SFP meeting groups, and in our new location at Leaven, we have adapted to a new structure we find to provide great investment from both our members that attend our programs and for our overall management of both programs.
We now schedule for Friday afternoons, during a period relatively open and free for most of the attendees compared to the Thursdays we used to operate on. We also start more earlier in the afternoon to make sure everything is clean and ready before we depart from our office space.
We first do our HERS Group program, with a focus on lessons of reaffirmation, self-love, and overall mental health acceptance. We feel that is important for women to learn to love themselves better as the first step towards learning to overcome their struggles and show their strength and resiliance to a community that isn't giving them many opportunities as they'd hope.
Following a quick lunch we provide, we move on to our next SFP lesson, giving those who attend hands-on lessons in strengthening family bonds and building healthier homes. These lessons prove to be a highlight for the women who attend, and after the lessons are done, we provide diapers for those that have called ahead and registered for them, and gift each lady that attends an all-purpose gift card to help them get some much needed supplies that they may need.
Overall, this new structure is much better organized and better paced, leading to a truly memorable and impactful session for everyone involved. We look forward to continuing to evolve and shape up these sessions to improve things such as our registration process and presentation skills to make sure they are captivating and motivating to the best of their abilities.
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