Our Work

A community-led strategy for long-term health equity

DEER's work starts from a simple idea: place matters. We're focused on Milwaukee neighborhoods where decades of disinvestment have shaped health outcomes, and where real, community-led investment can change what happens next.

Meet the Investment Committee

The challenge

In Milwaukee, a twelve-year life expectancy gap separates neighborhoods only miles apart. DEER begins from that reality and treats it not as a statistic to cite, but as a call to sustained, coordinated action.

Milwaukee's health gap, by the numbers

Raw life expectancy only tells part of the story. These are the compounding gaps DEER is working to close, drawn from Milwaukee-specific data.

Life expectancy: a 12-year gap

ZIP 53206 vs. ZIP 53217

ZIP 53206

71 yrs

ZIP 53217

83 yrs

Infant mortality

53206 vs. OECD average, per 1,000 births

ZIP 53206

17.1 / 1,000

OECD avg

4.0 / 1,000

Food insecurity

Focus corridor vs. countywide

~21,000

residents lost grocery access (focus corridor)

15.4%

countywide food insecurity rate

Housing instability

Low-income renters displaced in 2 years

Displaced (2 yrs)

13%

Youth sports participation

By household income

Under $25k HH

34%

Over $100k HH

69%

Sources: CDC PLACES (life expectancy); exploreMOhealth Milwaukee community health needs assessment data (infant mortality, food insecurity, housing instability, youth sports participation).

Where the work is headed

These are the targets DEER is tracking toward, not progress already made. Real measurement starts as the work scales.

Short-term · 1–2 years

Detection and access

Increase mental health screening completion by 25% across all five focus ZIP codes

Restore grocery access for ~21,000 residents near Silver Spring

Expand barbershop/salon health screening to 3+ new sites

Medium-term · 2–5 years

Structural repair

Reduce 53206 infant mortality by 30% from 2017 baseline

Reduce childhood lead poisoning by 50% in target ZIP codes

Cut eviction and displacement rates by 25% for low-income renters

Long-term · 5–10+ years

Outcome convergence

Narrow the 53206–53217 life expectancy gap from 12 years to 6

Establish and track a Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy metric

Achieve youth sports participation parity within 10 percentage points

The approach

DEER connects investment, partnership, and hands-on work across three neighborhoods, Washington Park, Silver Spring, and Walker's Square / Muskego Way, with a 2034 horizon. This isn't a short-term push, it's built to last, and to get stronger as it goes. Our approach marries trust-based philanthropy with metric-driven results: every dollar funds community-identified projects mapped against the social determinant framework below, and every investor commits to leveraging their own talents and services to resource these neighborhoods directly.

How the model works

DEER does more than move money. It helps raise funding, brings the right people together, backs community-led work, and holds everyone, including itself, accountable for results. That includes hands-on capacity building and leadership development with our community partners, raising the level of work acumen, sophistication, and effectiveness so neighborhood organizations can operate and negotiate as full partners, not just grant recipients.

Aggregate capital

Gets money to neighborhood organizations that might not otherwise see it.

Fundraising relief

Frees up our partners to spend more time doing the work, less time chasing funding.

Convene partners

Connects grantees to wider networks and opportunities.

Shared measurement

Gives partners and residents a shared, honest view of progress.

Community-led work on the ground

DEER's strategy depends on neighborhood partners who know this work firsthand.

See our work

A closer look at the neighborhoods and people at the center of DEER's work.

Looking for a clearer picture of how DEER is structured?