Winona Together

Let’s get together!

Winona Together was a series of fun, free gatherings in summer 2024 to advance equitable civic participation, well-being, and mental health resilience in Winona County.

Total attendance at the five events was 256 people, and attendance at each event ranged from 20 to 78 people. We held the events at a local, all-ages outdoor event space named Peter’s Biergarten. Thank you to Winona County PartnerSHIP and United Way of Olmsted County for their financial support of this event series!

The Winona Together gathering series supported community goals of healing from the pandemic through social connection and trauma-informed principles. Winona Together covered topics that community members identified as important to them in our recent listening projects, leading to the following five gathering concepts:

• July 9, Kickoff: Connect and Belong, a cafe-style conversation where community members answered questions about belonging in small groups.

• July 16, Discussing race and inclusion to make a more welcoming community: also a cafe-style conversation, where community members shared their experiences of race, racism, and privilege in the community. This event had Spanish interpretation, and we partnered with local Black-led community groups Our Voices and ROAR to facilitate this conversation.

• July 23, Mental Health Community Care, facilitated by local trainer and therapist Sarah Johnson of The Joy Labs, was a conversation designed to normalize talking about mental health and connecting with each other.

• August 6, Mental Health Resource Fair, a collaboration with over a dozen community agencies and nonprofits that offer mental health-related resources, from LGBTQ+ support to occupational therapy. We partnered with Resilient Winona County for this gathering, which was our most highly attended.

• August 13, Growing a healthy local food scene, a collaboration with 4 local entities that support small food businesses - MN Farmers Market Association, MN Department of Agriculture, SBDC, and Red Wing Ignite. This event featured each guest entity giving a short talk about the resources that are available to support local food businesses. This event also had Spanish interpretation.

What attendees had to say

Connect and Belong - July 9

• “Realize it's a lot easier to make relationships and feel a sense of belonging” 

• “Good conversation, some diversity, x-generational convo, variety of experiences.”

Discussing race and inclusion - July 16

• “I think it's extremely important to have these conversations. I think it has been meaningful to hear all the different experiences people had.”

• “Hearing specific examples of various experiences of racial bias in Winona, hearing different ideas of ways to increase awareness in the community”

Mental Health Community Care - July 23

• “Almost everyone in my group is involved in serving and building community spaces in winona! which was super neat to learn about! I got to put some faces to names and be heart warmed and surprised by all the reasons that drew my group members here today.”

• “yes, it was very meaningful for me. I think my biggest takeaway is that our community can do more to provide informal support to each other through more connections.”

• “learning different strategies from others in my group about self care to help me through rough days”

Mental health resource fair - August 6

• “Getting to connect with others and talk with the vendors. Glad that an event had this focus in such an inviting atmosphere.”

• “It was nice to be included. I am shy and getting out to meet people in a new community can be daunting.”

Growing a healthy local food scene - August 13

• “I did appreciate the latino turnout and getting Project Fine involved. I didn't realize there were these types of services for small business starters. 

• Potential collaboration between service clubs (VFW, Elks) with commercial kitchens and fledgeling food businesses!”

More about the project

These gatherings were designed to build the community’s capacity to address current and future challenges affecting social determinants of health. A primary way we accomplished that goal was by building community members’ connections with each other and with resources. Our primary focus area for this series was systems change, as we sought to advance a culture shift in how people view their community, moving toward a bigger sense of what’s possible, and a deeper understanding of services and supports that exist. 

Getting a representative, robust audience for this gathering series was our goal from the beginning, and we conducted specific outreach to target populations including folks of color, folks with low incomes, folks with lived experience, and broad community networks including nonprofits, faith groups, and the general public. We also posted flyers, published a press release, asked attendees and partner organizations to spread the word about the series, and advertised the events on the radio and on social media.

We conducted evaluation of the event series via exit surveys for attendees. About 33 percent of attendees took the time to tell us about their experience. Surveys asked folks if they felt welcome, made or deepened connections, and what was meaningful to them. 100% of attendees said they definitely or somewhat felt welcome, and 99% of attendees said they definitely or somewhat made or deepened a connection at the gathering they attended.

Among participants who filled out the exit survey, ages ranged from 21-77 years old, and income levels were 40% below $50,000; 42% $50-100,000; and 18% more than $100,000. Winona County’s median household income is $66,162 for reference (MN Compass). BIPOC participation rates ranged from 10-20% per event.