The Highground Mission Statement:
Honor, Educate and Heal.
What we do: Support, Educate and Help Restore
The vision of The Highground Veterans Park is three-fold:
- To Honor the sacrifices of Veterans, active service men and women and their families through our memorial park and services
- To Educate the public about the service rendered, the hardships endured, the sacrifices made and the human cost asked of and proudly paid by our service men and women.
- To Heal Veterans and their families by providing a park as a place for fellowship, support and reflection
The Highground’s Campaign Vision:
- Increased opportunity to honor Veterans by educating large tour and school groups.
- Increased opportunity to Connect Veterans to essential health services and providers.
- Provides a Veteran-focused gathering space for events and holiday services.
- Increased opportunities for customized Veterans retreats.
The Highground provides an outdoor space designed solely to provide a quality experience for our Veterans, their families and all who visit. Most of the grounds, tributes and trails are accessible to mobility impaired individuals. Veterans and their families are offered retreats, outdoor sports activities and relaxation opportunities free of charge in the beautiful, tranquil setting. Current programs include:
- Retreats for those facing post-traumatic stress
- Veterans reunions
- PTS Peer Support Group
- Food and clothing drives
- PTS book program
Going above and beyond
The stories of Veterans are etched in minds and hearts—some to remain hidden forever. These are stories about heroes and heartache, honor and healing; but most of all, the stories are about HOPE. Over the last 35 years, The Highground has worked to honor Veterans, remember those who have died in service to our country, educate the next generation about the importance of Veteran sacrifice and create new ways to help returning service personnel heal and become whole again.
Support For Our Heroes | Disabled Veteran Assistance
Post-traumatic Stress Resources
Healing from wartime memories (Post Traumatic Stress) begins by reexamining the past and gathering new meaning from it. The Highground offers space for Veterans, service personnel and their families, to heal in both individual reflection and within the presence of others. The Highground is a safe space for service personnel to gain new perspectives, mourn, memorialize and share with others their stories, tears, or just a “welcome home”, on their path to healing from wartime memories.
The Highground allows Veterans to celebrate lives worth living and dying for, in their own space and time. The Highground is dedicated to connecting Veterans to vital services to help support healing.
Suicide Prevention
The Highground is resolute in the determination to help reduce the number of Veteran suicides through direct contact and provide more awareness to suicide prevention resources. The Park is staffed 361 days a year with knowledgeable individuals who are here with the Veteran as our number one concern. We do not have mental health professionals on staff or on site; however, we do coordinate with other organizations that provide assistance when needed. Our hope is to open the door to communication with those individuals, to help them realize they are not alone, that they have purpose and we are here with them.
Ongoing Veteran Support
The Highground also accepts nonperishable food, hygiene supplies and gently used and new clothes that are donated to Veterans in need, homeless Veteran programs and military care packages.
From our Board of Directors
To our many friends and supporters, we are “The Highground,” a not-for-profit, predominantly volunteer organization comprised of both Veterans and non-Veterans, dedicated to serving the needs of the greater Veterans community. We rely entirely on a small, efficient, dedicated, and overworked paid staff, whose daily efforts are enthusiastically augmented by a sizeable, capable, and ever-changing supporting cast of volunteers and an all-volunteer board.
Since its inception in the mid 1980’s, The Highground has primarily been funded by private giving from individuals and foundations, although early in its history some public funding was received from the State of Wisconsin through two sizable grants. While that arrangement has helped us maintain our independence and freed us from political constraints in the furtherance of our mission, this has simultaneously limited our activities and the scope of our effective outreach. It has now become apparent that a more significant level of private backing and funding from our private donors and friends is going to be necessary.
Riding the crest of over 35 years of successful growth and service, we find ourselves faced with the curious, but enviable dilemma of having done our job so well that we have begun to outstrip the operating capacity of our physical facilities. To continue serving the Veterans community in a timely and meaningful way and seek new, sustaining sources of capital, we are undertaking a carefully planned, necessary and focused expansion. We are seeking the help and relying upon the generosity of businesses, organizations and foundations to carry us toward that worthwhile goal.
You begin to understand why we are now endeavoring to enlist your financial support. This capital campaign is designed to help generate the income that we anticipate will be required to continue the pursuit and fulfillment of our mission. We are, indeed, grateful for any assistance you choose to provide.
Steve Maddox, Board of Directors