Additional Aurora programs that benefit southeast Wisconsin

Parish Nursing - Aurora Health Care provides nursing services in 40 parishes throughout the Milwaukee area. The annual cost to sustain this program is approximately $600,000.

Aurora Visiting Nurse Association -- For a century, the Aurora Visiting Nurse Association has been an important part of the area’s health care safety net, taking care of patients from all walks of life in their homes, helping them to live as independently as possible. The Aurora VNA is the only home health care agency in Wisconsin that serves people regardless of their neighborhood or area of residence.

In 2005 alone, through the Aurora VNA’s Shoo the Flu and Pneumonia, Too program, 100,000 area citizens, many of them seniors, received flu shots – helping to keep them healthy and to avoid potential hospitalization for the flu.

School Health Services - Aurora provides a range of school health services, from nurse practitioner care to medical assistant support in 16 Milwaukee schools. We are one of only 2 health care systems to provide these services. The annual cost to sustain this program is approximately $450,000.

Aurora further invests in the economic structure of the city through Aurora Family Services (AFS). This social service agency provides a range of services including in-home financial counseling to senior citizens to assist them in paying delinquent property taxes so they remain financially independent and in their own homes. A first time homebuyer's workshop is also provided, along with consumer credit counseling to facilitate home ownership. Aurora’s investment in AFS was $568,000 in 2005.

Over the past 5 years, Aurora has enabled 87 of its own caregivers to purchase homes in the City of Milwaukee through more than $10 million in low interest loans and $275,000 in direct financial assistance. In 2005, 28 Aurora caregivers completed $3.5 million in home sales in Milwaukee, stimulating $3.2 million in private mortgage investment. Moreover, Aurora provided $68,343 in loans to those caregivers, forgivable if they stay in their homes for 5 years or more.

In the face of significant reductions by private, government and not-for-profit mental and behavioral health services, Aurora Psychiatric Hospital is the only behavioral health system in the state that maintains a full commitment to comprehensive behavioral health services, including 2 inpatient and 12 outpatient facilities. This facility, which operates as many beds as the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, provides more behavioral health services to Medicaid populations than any other not-for-profit system in Wisconsin.

Aurora’s Kradwell School is the only school of its kind in the greater Milwaukee area to provide a full range of academic courses for 6th through 12th grade students who are unable to succeed in a mainstream school setting due to medical or behavioral difficulties. Aurora provides in-kind operational support to this unique school valued at more than $250,000 annually as well as capital expenditures for furniture, equipment and computers.

Each year, Aurora invests approximately $340,000 in a partnership with INROADS, Inc. to provide 30 internships for primarily African American and Latino college students. This investment represents more internships than any other participating organization (profit and non-profit). Aurora hires 95% of the graduating interns, developing talented young people who are being prepared to serve as tomorrow’s corporate and community leaders.