A Happiness Index for Greater Green Bay?
We can Learn from Bhutan and Nordic Countries

Gratzia Villarroel, Ph. D.; Envision Board member

What can we do in Brown County to improve the quality of life for everyone and promote greater happiness in our community? What can we learn from them that we might adopt in our community? A brief look at the trajectory of the Southeast Asian country of Bhutan, that of Nordic countries, and the United Nations (UN) sponsored World Happiness Report might give us some clues. As we will see below, the south-central Asian country of Bhutan was instrumental in creating the World Happiness Report in 2012, while Nordic countries have consistently been considered the happiest.

(Click here to read entire article.)

(more…)

A Growing Energy In Northeast Wisconsin: Latinx/Hispanic Youth On The Horizon

by Dr. Gratzia Villarroel, Associate Professor of Political Science St. Norbert College and Envision board member

*In this article we use the gender-neutral Latinx next to the term Hispanic to acknowledge the growing use of this term by younger, US-born, bilingual, or predominantly English-speaking Hispanics, who are also likely to be more progressive and college-educated. Latinx has received criticisms from all sides of the political spectrum and is still only used by a small percentage of the Hispanic population. The more common names are either Hispanic which typically includes Spaniards as it is based on the use of the Spanish language and Latino which typically refers to people from Latin America.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In 2019 at Paul Demuth’s suggestions, I had the opportunity to participate in Garry Golden’s Foresight Analysis Workshop sponsored by the Bay Area Community Council (today Envision Greater Green Bay). The workshop was instrumental in redefining how I viewed the experience of the Latinx/Hispanic population in Northeast Wisconsin. While I already knew that the population was growing and that education was important, after completing the workshop, I realized just how important educational attainment is not just for Latinx/Hispanics but for Northeast Wisconsin and the nation.

(more…)