Community Resource Navigator service guides individuals to support

MARINETTE – Now offered by Marinette County Public Health, Community Resource Navigator services are available at no cost to community members of Marinette and Menominee counties who need help finding resources like transportation, food assistance, childcare and housing.

The service begins with a one-on-one meeting with a resource navigator, making sure that each person who walks through the door gets individualized support.

“We find out what sort of resources they are looking for,” Community Health Educator and Resource Navigator Megan Mueller said.

“Sometimes — probably a lot of the time — there might be other things, too. Once we get one thing tackled, we have to work on another thing. We are kind of managing the case, and continue to help people as long as they need help, really,” Mueller explained.

The new service was developed after the Community Health Needs Assessment was conducted in 2025. It found that healthcare access ranked as the first concern by online survey respondents, according to a press release from Marinette County Public Health.

Transportation and financial instability were both found as barriers to healthcare access as well. Mental health was also identified as a health priority for the community in previous years, Mueller explained.

“We also heard from a lot of the key stakeholders or leaders in the community that we interviewed one-on-one that finding resources and using resources in the community was also something that they felt could be better. So, with that, we created this resource navigator position to help people find resources in the community,” she stated.

While Mueller believes the service will be helpful for the individuals it serves, she explained that it may take a while to see a big community change and patience while working with each other is important.

“The effect that we’re hoping to see is that people are getting connected to the resources they are looking for and that they need,” she said.

“Just kind of doing that full circle, so helping them find the resources, but also following up to make sure that they’re using the resources, finding out what those barriers are to help them break those down and really get connected to use the resources that we have in the community already.”

The Community Resource Navigator service is funded by a grant from the Provident Health Foundation, which allows for the service to work out of not only the Marinette County Public Health office, but the Stephenson Library in Marinette and the Niagara Library in Niagara as well. In the future, if funding is available, Mueller hopes to expand to other libraries throughout the county.

“We know that as you go north farther into our county, that it’s just really rural, and there’s a lot of people that don’t travel, so we want to try to get better at meeting people where they’re at,” she explained.

Office hours for the Community Resource Navigator service at Marinette County Public Health — located at 2500 Hall Ave., Marinette — are Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Additionally, office hours at the Stephenson Library — located at 1700 Hall Ave., Marinette, in the WPS room — are Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Office hours at the Niagara Library — located at 1029 Roosevelt Rd., Niagara — are the second Friday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon.

For more information on the service or to make an appointment, call Marinette County Public Health at (715) 732-7670 or stop in during office hours.