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May 19, 2022


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Post From Community: BBB Warning: Baby formula shortage leads to potential scams | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
BBB Wisconsin
May 22, 2022
BBB Warning: Baby formula shortage leads to potential scams
Shortages in the supply of baby formula are leading new moms to find other ways of finding the much-needed item – and risking themselves to potential online scams. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it is taking proactive measures to increase supply to help ease the shortage.
According to the 2021 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report, online shopping scams are the riskiest. With the current supply issues on many items, including formula, scammers are watching.
How it works
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An ad, post, or social media group posts they have baby formula available. The buyer contacts the seller via chat or direct message, showing photos of the cans available. The buyer makes a payment through a peer-to-peer platform such as PayPal (a BBB Accredited Business) or Venmo (a BBB Accredited Business), but the formula never arrives.
Signs of a potential online purchase scam include:
Check out the website before making a purchase:
Report suspected online shopping fraud to:
For more information
For more information or further inquiries, contact the Wisconsin BBB at www.bbb.org/wisconsin, 414-847-6000 or 1-800-273-1002. Consumers also can find more information about how to protect themselves from scams by following the Wisconsin BBB on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

source: news-milwaukeenns

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: BBB Wisconsin


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May 18, 2022

author: Name *


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5 things to know and do this week in Milwaukee: May 23 to May 27 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
May 23, 2022
It’s Monday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
The Milwaukee Public Library is building a new Martin Luther King Branch and will be presenting the interior design plans at this community listening session. Meet the architect Moody Nolan and give feedback on what you do and don’t want to see in the library. The session runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, May 23 at the current Martin Luther King Branch Library, located at 310 W. Locust Ave.
Public service comes in many forms. MCTS is hiring bus drivers at an on-the-spot hiring event from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, May 23 at 524 S. Layton Blvd. You can reserve a time for an interview or walk-in. More information and interview slot sign-up here.
Also, more than 20 nonprofits will be interviewing at this hiring event from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25 at Employ Milwaukee, located at 2342 N. 27th St. RSVP is encouraged to secure an interview slot, but walk-ins welcome. RSVP here. More information here.
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COA Youth and Family Centers, Amani United and the Dominican Center host this shared meal and conversation about responsible gun ownership. Jamaal Smith from the Office of Violence Prevention is the special guest. The meal and conversation runs from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24 at Moody Park, located at 2201 W. Auer Ave.
For mental health awareness month the Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center will be holding a drive-thru/walk-up event with mental health resources, food, health screenings and more. The event runs from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24 at 930 W. Historic Mitchell St. More information here.
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges and community partners are hosting a cleanup of Metcalfe Park from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25, starting at 3401 W. Center St. Volunteers are needed and community resources, music, masks, cleaning supplies and BBQ will be available. More information and volunteer registration here.
The next day, continue to support the organizing efforts of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges through the annual Bloom and Groom sale. You can purchase a variety of flowers, vegetables, and herbs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 3401 W. Center St. You can also pre-order here. Pre-orders from Metcalfe Park residents will be prioritized. More information on this and other upcoming Bloom and Groom fundraisers here.

author: Sam Woods


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Dwayne Burtin
May 22, 2022

author: Dwayne Burtin


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Deadline for Marquette University high school journalism workshop is June 3 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
May 24, 2022
The deadline is June 3 for students interested in applying to the annual Urban Journalism Workshop at Marquette University.
The program will run from Saturday, June 18, through Thursday, June 30. Also, upon successful completion of the workshop, Milwaukee-based participants will be eligible to participate in a month-long paid internship at a local news organization. Participating news organizations include the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Milwaukee Courier and the Milwaukee Community Journal .
High school students: if you’re ready to see what it’s like to be a journalist during challenging times, check out the Urban Journalism Workshop.
During the program, you’ll learn how to use digital equipment to cover events, gain interview skills, and create journalism in a variety of media. You’ll work in teams that focus on multimedia news gathering using your phones and iPad minis to record and shoot video.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Now in its 36th year, the Urban Journalism Workshop has offered aspiring journalists like you a sense of the real world of news reporting. Check out The Urban Voice to see past examples of student work.
Click here to apply.
For more information, e-mail Sheena.Carey@marquette.edu

author: Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service


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UJW | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Dwayne Burtin
May 23, 2022


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Pandemic benefits for children under 6 approved | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
May 24, 2022
Leer en español: Aprueban beneficios por pandemia para niños menores de 6 años
Residents in households that receive FoodShare and who miss meals because their child care facility closed or is operating with reduced attendance or hours will receive money on their QUEST card to be spent on groceries.
The program – Pre-6 Pandemic EBT or Pre-6 P-EBT – has been approved for the 2021-’22 school year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. FoodShare Wisconsin is the state’s food program for low-income households.
As of Sept. 1, 2021, a parent is eligible to receive Pre-6 P-EBT for each child 6 years old or younger who meets the following criteria from September 2021 through June 2022:
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According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which administers the program, parents who are eligible to receive benefits from September 2021 to June 2022 should expect to receive a letter in the mail notifying them of the amount they will receive in mid-July.
This program is technically different from a similar school-age P-EBT program for children who are enrolled in the National School Lunch Program but who missed school meals for at least five consecutive days due to learning virtually or because they could not attend school due to a COVID-19 reason.
This Pre-6 P-EBT program is geared toward filling a similar gap for children 6 and younger.
Benefits will arrive on the parent’s QUEST card, the same card FoodShare is loaded onto.
If parents believe that they are eligible for more than their letter says, they can email PEBTsupport@wisconsindhs.gov or call 1-833-431-2224. However, email is preferred so there is documentation of your request.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services estimated that the program will cost about $30 million and reach 90,500 children, according to its proposal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
If you need help with emailing, text “MKE” to 73224 and ask to speak to a reporter. News414, the joint project between NNS and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that uses innovative technology and research techniques to deliver crucial information to residents


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Dwayne Burtin
May 23, 2022


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11 cited during first weekend of ramped-up enforcement of Milwaukee’s curfew | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
May 25, 2022
By the end of the first weekend since Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Police Chief Jeffrey Norman announced that the city would ramp up enforcement of the curfew for minors, 11 citations have been issued, according to the Milwaukee Police Department.
Six citations were issued on May 17, the Tuesday the citywide policy was announced at a news conference, and five tickets were issued Sunday.
According to police, two of those citations were issued to parents, and some of the individuals that were cited were also cited for other violations. Information on where those violations occurred or whether the 11 was more than average was not immediately available.
The curfew requires anyone under the age of 18 and not accompanied by a parent or guardian be off the streets and other public property from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on other nights.  The daily curfew will shift to 11 p.m. from June 1 to Aug. 31. Fines for violating curfew range from $100 to $200.
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The policy was announced after 21 people, including two minors, were injured in three downtown shootings that occurred during and after a Milwaukee Bucks playoff game on May 13. No deaths occurred in the shootings, although three other people died that night in other shootings in the city. Of those who have been charged in the downtown shootings, the youngest was 19.
Originally, enforcement of a curfew was limited to the downtown area near Fiserv Forum, where the Bucks play, with citywide enforcement announced a day later.
So far this year in Milwaukee, there have been 83 homicides and 295 nonfatal shooting victims, according to data from the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission. Thirty-five minors were victims in nonfatal shootings and 11 were killed.
NNS spoke to more than 10 parents on the issue, but many didn’t want to go on the record. One who agreed to share her story and supports the curfew was South Sider Deborah Montano Luna. She said the curfew, which has been on the books for years but was not widely enforced, helps keep out-of-control kids off the streets.
“For their own safety, they should be at home,” said Luna, a mother of three adult children and one minor and grandmother of three.
Slyainia Jones of Milwaukee, whose four children range from four months to 8 years old,  also agrees with the policy but doesn’t know if it will reduce crime.
“The crime that’s been happening lately has been over petty arguments and people just need to take anger management or we need to be stricter on guns,” she said.
Many who responded to a post about curfew enforcement on the popular Milwaukee Southsiderz Facebook page also said parents should be held responsible when their child violates curfew.
“Parents still need to be held accountable for their children’s behavior,” read one post. “Who knows, fining the parents also just might start to help.”
Community activist Laura Manriquez said it’s hard to pin responsibility on all parents, considering some have children who sneak out at night and others work the third shift and depend on others to watch them.
One the flip side, she said she knows there are children who have irresponsible parents and youths who are violent and are a threat to the safety of others. Still, she said, those issues stem from larger societal problems, including drug and alcohol addiction and the lack of positive activities in the neighborhood.
“How about free programs to keep kids engaged like when I was growing up?” Manriquez said. “These kids need to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed with positivity in their life.”
Patricia Torres Nájera, executive director of the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, said while she thinks the curfew enforcement is a start in the right direction, work to keep youths safe begins much earlier.
“Are the parents involved? Do they know how their children are doing in school?” she asked.
She said both youths and parents need to become more involved in the community.
“It takes everybody to make this city a better place,” Nájera added.

author: Edgar Mendez


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Dwayne Burtin
May 24, 2022


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Post From Community: AAPI Coalition of Wisconsin to host AAPI Heritage Month Celebration with Tony Evers | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jessica J Boling
May 25, 2022
The AAPI Coalition of Wisconsin will host a virtual AAPI Heritage Month Celebration Wednesday, May 25 @ 7:00 PM CST (register here)! This celebration will feature special guests Gov. Tony Evers, Rep. Francesca Hong, and Neng Now. Come learn about the “State of AAPIs in the State,” including celebrating our progress and wins as a community as well as the challenges we continue to confront.
The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Coalition of Wisconsin unites AAPI leaders throughout the state, serving as a conduit for AAPI communities and local/municipal/state resources to come together to stand against hate and racism.
Register here: tinyurl.com/AAPIWI
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author: Jessica J Boling


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May 20, 2022


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Post From Community: Milwaukee to Celebrate Independence Day in 2022 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Department of City Development
May 25, 2022
MILWAUKEE, WI – The City of Milwaukee’s Fourth of July festivities are scheduled for Monday, July 4, 2022. A tradition dating back to 1911, Milwaukee has long celebrated the Fourth of July with community events around the city.
Following the last two years of pandemic-related cancellations, Independence Day activities are returning to parks throughout Milwaukee this summer, including parades, picnics, games, talent contests, and fireworks, in celebrating this great American holiday.
“Independence Day is special in Milwaukee. We look forward to recognizing the Fourth of July and providing a safe, friendly celebration of America’s independence in parks throughout the city,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “I’m excited to continue the history of July 4 celebrations in Milwaukee with a focus on families, friends, and neighbors.”
Milwaukee celebrations will be held at: Alcott Park, Enderis Playfield, Gordon Park, Humboldt Park, Jackson Park, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Lake Park, Lincoln Park (fireworks only), Mitchell Park, Noyes Park, Washington Park (fireworks only), and Wilson Park.
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More information about Independence Day Celebrations throughout the City of Milwaukee is available here.
The Fourth of July celebrations are a community effort, including a city-wide Fourth of July Commission and neighborhood committees. The City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are partners in the planning and hosting efforts. The City is working with the Milwaukee Health Department and local public health partners in ensuring that activities are safely held in 2022.


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May 23, 2022


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Post From Community: Associated Bank Donates Office Supply Drive for Area Nonprofits | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Stephanie Carlson
May 26, 2022
To support organizations in need, Associated Bank donated over $6,700 in new and gently used Associated Bank office supplies to nearly 20 local nonprofits in Milwaukee.
Associated Bank is committed to giving back to its local communities and is proud to play an active role in helping communities grow and prosper. The excess office supplies were made available as a result of Associated Bank offering flexible work arrangements to its colleagues.
This unique donation will also help reduce supplies end up in a landfill and alleviate costs the nonprofit partners would incur purchasing these items on their own.
Over the past several weeks, 25 Associated Bank employees volunteered more than 50 hours to sort and prepare these materials.
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In 2021, Associated Bank renewed its formal Community Commitment Plan (CCP), which focuses on helping communities grow and prosper through the provision of sound financial services, volunteerism and community investment. With a focus on supporting low-to-moderate income communities and consumers and small businesses across Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, the new CCP represents a 40% increase in Associated’s lending and investments efforts over the 2018-20 Plan.
To learn more about Associated Bank’s commitment to the community, please visit https://www.associatedbank.com/about-associated-bank/in-the-community/community-development

author: Stephanie Carlson


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May 25, 2022


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Milwaukee makes progress with 10,000 Homes Initiative. But housing leaders say more can be done. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
May 26, 2022
Four years ago, the City of Milwaukee launched its 10,000 Homes Initiative to improve affordable housing opportunities for 10,000 households in 10 years.
By its own measurements, it is succeeding.
But housing advocates say the program, which counts the housing created by 27 different entities toward its goal, can better reach its target by including the work done by other entities in the city to put low-income Milwaukeeans into their own homes.
The goal, they said, should be counting the housing added because of the various nonprofits working toward more inclusive homeownership regardless of whether the housing is created with city aid or investment.
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The need for affordable housing opportunities is evident. While 52% of people in Milwaukee own their homes, only 29% of Black residents are homeowners, according to Matthew Desmond in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.”
A study done by lendingtree said Milwaukee is among the cities with the widest disparity between Black homeownership rates and Black population rates in the nation’s 50 largest cities. It said 16.47 percent of the city identifies as Black and 6.51 percent of homes are Black-owned — a disparity of 9.96 points. Census data from 2019 said 37.5 percent of Hispanic households own homes in Milwaukee.
In February 2018, former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett unveiled the 10,000 Homes Initiative, a plan to assist low- and moderate-income households in neighborhoods throughout the city. It includes projects ranging from single family home rehabilitation to large multiunit housing construction.
To achieve the 10,000 homes goal, the city provides resources to preserve or improve existing housing stock and prepares individuals for homeownership.
Katherine Pawasarat, the community analytics analyst for the City of Milwaukee Office of Equity and Inclusion, said based on the goal of 1,000 units per year, the city was on track with adding 2,506 units through the end of June 2020. These are the latest figures available from the city.
Pawasarat said 1,168 of those units were preserved and improved. This accounts for the largest proportion of the units the city has worked on.
“In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required local governments in Wisconsin and around the nation to pivot in administering their housing assistance programs,” a statement from a spokesperson for the Department of City Development said. “But in 2021, we witnessed strong activity in our housing programs that are helping fulfill the goals of the 10,000 Homes Initiative and promote homeownership among Milwaukee’s most disadvantaged communities.”
The spokesperson said several affordable housing projects received allocations of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
Challenges remain, including the growing cost of construction materials, but the city, the department said, is working to deploy new efforts. They include financial assistance and resources to create more housing options and improvements to existing properties.
According to the U.S. Office of Policy Development and Research, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits program gives state and local agencies the equivalent of approximately $8 billion in annual budget authority to issue tax credits “for the acquisition, rehabilitation or new construction of rental housing targeted to lower-income households.”
Bethany Sanchez, the senior administrator for fair lending at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council, a nonprofit civil rights organization, said more can be done.
According to Sanchez, the success of the initiative is relative to how it is measured. If one measures it by adding 1,000 homes per year, as the city says on its website, then the initiative has been a success so far. But she still sees a potential problem in how the initiative is evaluated.
“If they have a slow year or two, momentum will be lost, and it will be harder to make it up,” she said. “I would suggest trying to do more front-loading of the goals, so if they do run into some slow years, they don’t lose that momentum.”
In an interview with NNS in 2019, Sanchez said the program could be improved through city support of housing counseling agencies. The inclusion of more staff, she said, could leverage a bigger pipeline for homeownership and city support of organizations that do housing work such as Take Root Milwaukee.
Take Root Milwaukee is a consortium of more than 40 community organizations, neighborhood groups, HUD-certified housing counseling agencies, real estate agents and lenders promoting sustainable homeownership in Milwaukee.
“Working closely with city staff you can see that they really care,” Sanchez said. “They want to see these things happen, so they work closely with grassroot organizations to assure they do.”
Michael Gosman, the executive director of ACTS Housing, says he also appreciates the city for making affordable housing a priority. ACTS Housing provides HUD-approved homebuyer and financial counseling for individuals and families ready to buy.
He noted, however, that only a few of the housing transactions made by his organization counts toward the initiative.
“The way the initiative is constructed focusing on city investment in projects, only a small number of our transactions are a part of this initiative. But we certainly believe our effort is additive to the work that the city is doing,” he said.
He said, however, it ultimately doesn’t matter how these developments are counted.
“What matters is, as a city – whether it’s with city investment, or whether it’s with county investment, or whether it’s with private investment – how are we all coming together to create a community where individuals are likely to be able to find affordable housing that is decent and can help them create a stable platform for their family,” he said.
The idea of “coming together” is echoed in the neighborhoods as well. Denisha Tate-McAlister, project director at the Dominican Center in the Amani neighborhood, said the mayor’s office is one piece of many housing initiatives that are addressing the affordable housing issue.
“That’s the bigger thing. There are a number of housing initiatives overlapping in the same areas that are not aware of each other. I see the mayor’s office as one component of the entire ecosystem of those working on the housing initiatives,” she said.
Tate-McAlister also said that it can be difficult for people to understand how they can access housing resources because of the sheer number of them. There are different programs that fall under the 10,000 Homes Initiative, and city-run housing initiatives are not the only plans that are affecting Milwaukee neighborhoods.
“I think it’s appropriate for all of us to connect the dots a little closer,” Tate-McAlister said. “It’s not just about the home being affordable, it’s about the family that’s got to get into the home, and right now when it’s disjointed, there’s a lot of work for that family to do.”
According to Jeff Fleming, a communications director for the City of Milwaukee, leaders are working to connect the dots.
“The city has been working to both support and create programming that supports homeownership,” said Fleming.
He named supporting efforts such as working with Take Root Milwaukee and the STRONG Homes Loan Program as ways the city is working to ensure that the initiative excels.
According to a city website, the STRONG Homes Loan Program offers loans of up to $20,000 to owner occupants of family properties throughout Milwaukee.

author: PrincessSafiya Byers


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Dwayne Burtin
May 24, 2022


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New violence prevention efforts underway in anticipation of summer months | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Matt Martinez
May 26, 2022
A new initiative from 414Life, the city’s community-based violence interruption program, will be a key part of Milwaukee’s strategy to prevent shootings heading into the summer months.
Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention hosted a Call to Action meeting on Tuesday to address violence in the city ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. At the meeting, community members gathered to share their thoughts and discuss grassroots efforts to curb violence in their neighborhoods.
Rates of gun violence have increased in Milwaukee since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Reggie Moore, director of violence prevention policy and engagement for the Comprehensive Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, noted that from 2016 through 2019, the city saw a decrease in non-fatal shootings and homicides. Since 2020, both metrics have increased dramatically.
According to data from the Milwaukee Police Department, 2020 and 2021 saw 764 and 873 non-fatal shootings, respectively. There were 190 homicides in 2020 and 193 homicides in 2021.
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“It’s not that we’re doing something wrong or that Milwaukee is broken,” Moore said. “Cities around the country, and I can tell you personally through my work in Cincinnati and Cleveland, are experiencing the same trend.”
Arnitta Holliman, director of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention, which is based in the Milwaukee Health Department, said the meeting was called to develop a plan for the upcoming holiday weekend.
Among the new efforts is a 12-week program that will train residents to provide mediation services, resources and host events in an effort to curb violence.
414Life, a program of the Office of Violence Prevention, aims to hire 50 people to be present in the community with “resources, hope and activities” for residents.
Jessica Butler, community engagement coordinator with 414Life, said the program will run from the start of the summer through Labor Day.
“This city needs to be saturated with people who want to make change,” Butler said.
Butler said the initiative will focus on seven neighborhoods:
414Life also partners with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and other community partners
Moore, the previous director of the Office of Violence Prevention who served in that position until April 2021, said it was important to understand the underlying causes of violence in the city.
For example, during the weekend of May 13 to May 15, a series of shootings occurred near the city’s Deer District, an entertainment plaza by the Fiserv Forum.
Moore said roughly 69% of the shootings that occurred during that time period stemmed from an argument or fight. Most shootings occur between people who know each other, Moore said.
Moore also warned against linking minors to the rise in violence in the city. Before the pandemic, the average age of a shooter in the city was 29 years old, he said. While that age has gotten slightly younger during the pandemic, Moore said young people were not driving shootings and homicides in Milwaukee.
“There are conditions and environmental factors that contribute to the concentrated violence that we see, not just in Milwaukee, but if you can go to a hood in St. Louis, a hood in Cincinnati, a hood in Cleveland, they all have similar factors that hinder them from being neighborhoods — and so, people call them ‘hoods,” Moore said.
Camille Mays, founder of Peace Garden Project MKE, a community gardening and wellness project that aims to provide healing and peace for residents, called for more funding for grassroots efforts, using herself as an example.
Mays, who lost her own son to gun violence in 2019, has worked to help others recover from such trauma. Mays said she was tired of seeing the same people on the ground doing the work without getting proper funding, and that more support was needed for efforts around the city.
“I’m an angry mom,” Mays said. “My son is not here. A lot of mothers are out here, boots to the ground — a lot of people in this room. They have sons or daughters, nieces or nephews, someone who was murdered and they still can’t get any support. That is sick and that is sad.”
David Muhammad, deputy director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services and a former staffer with the Office of Violence Prevention, said the need for commitment to funding the office was critical. He pointed to city and county budgets as “moral documents” that must reflect a commitment to life.
Muhammad also noted the difference in response to the Deer District shootings as opposed to the everyday violence that occurs in the city.
“When the shooting happened downtown … it was all hands on deck. People are dying and getting shot every day on the North Side and the South Side,” Muhammad said. “We need that same energy continuously.”
(An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the relationship between 411Life and the Office of Violence Prevention — 411Life is a program of the Office of Violence Prevention).
Those interested in the 414Life initiative can contact Jessica Butler at jebutler@mcw.edu.

author: Matt Martinez


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Dwayne Burtin
May 25, 2022


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5 things to know and do the weekend of May 27 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
May 27, 2022
It’s Friday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
Rodrigo Sanchez from Legal Aid Society answers your questions about renters’ rights in this open conversation, hosted by VIA CDC. The talk starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 27 on Zoom. Register here. If you have any questions, please contact Cassandra Morales, VIA’s housing outreach manager at 414-409-3474 or at cassandra@viacdc.org.
Heal the Hood is back, and it would not be summer in Milwaukee without it. Come for free food, live performances and community resources. The party and resource fair lasts from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 28 on Wright Avenue between 1st Street and 3rd Street. Sign up to volunteer here.
On its face, gardening may look like simply planting seeds, watering and harvesting. But for Hafiz Shafique, imam at Masjid Al’Quran,,  gardening is a “collaboration of social, spiritual, emotional, cognitive and physical attributes that unify people and nature.” Learn more at this event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 28 at 11723 W. Brown Deer Rd. There will also be a barbecue and raffle organized by Ma’ruf Center for Youth Innovation.
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If you’ve ever wondered what a snake feels like or how a turtle eats, this is your chance to learn. Come visit the animals from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 28 at Havenwoods State Forest, located at 6141 N Hopkins St.
Calling all fashionistas to this runway show featuring items from the Classic Shoppe and Ratchet Luxury. Catch the show from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 29 at Sherman Phoenix, located at 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave.


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Dwayne Burtin
May 26, 2022


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African American Roundtable calls for more resident participation in the spending of American Rescue Plan Act funds | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
May 27, 2022
The African American Roundtable on Thursday called for residents’ participation in budgeting as the City of Milwaukee receives the second half of American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The second round of funding arrived Thursday as well, bringing the total the city has been allocated in American Rescue Plan Act funds to $394.2 million. The Common Council and then-Mayor Tom Barrett decided how to spend the first half.
According to the city’s website, the city’s goal is “to use the funds to enable the city and community to recover from the pandemic, address the needs of residents, families and neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic, and to put our city on a path to a strong, inclusive and equitable recovery.”
Here is how the first set of funds were planned to be spent.
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The arrival of the second installment of $197.1 million is prompting the African American Roundtable, which works to include and educate Milwaukee residents on the causes that affect them, to suggest other ways to use the sum.
The funds arrive as the city projects a $50 million increase in the annual pension payment starting next year as well as increased costs due to inflation and other factors.
“Mayor Cavalier Johnson is proposing to spend 80% of the second tranche of funding on revenue replacement, which would not expand community services,” a news release by the Roundtable said.
The Journal Sentinel reported on May 5 that, under a plan endorsed by the council’s Finance and Personnel Committee, $75 million of the second installment would be used to maintain service levels in 2023 with additional funding for services in 2024 left undetermined.
The Roundtable met Thursday for a rally and suggested different ways to spend the money and to advocate that residents be included in spending decisions.
Angela Harris, an educator with Milwaukee Public Schools, said youths should be front and center when deciding how funds will be allocated.
“These funds could help create educational enrichment opportunities that prioritize and benefit young people,” Harris said. “We no longer should allow decisions to be made top-down, they need to be made bottom-up.”
Richard Diaz, the chairperson for the Coalition on Lead Emergency, focused on how funds could help with lead abatement efforts.
The city has 70,000 lead service lines, many of which are concentrated in the central city. Exposure to lead in water has been tied to health problems, including behavioral health, cognitive function and neurological effects in children.
“There are studies that show when a child tests at 6 micrograms for lead poisoning, they are 60 times more likely to commit a violent crime,” Diaz said. “It just so happens that the same neighborhoods that are more affected by lead poisoning are the same ones affected by joblessness, poverty and low education. If we truly hope to combat some of the issues in our city, we have to combat the lead poisoning crisis in children.”
And Markasa Tucker, the executive director of the African American Roundtable, also called for a different spending strategy.
“We can longer be more invested in the police than people,” she said.
Throughout the rally, members of the group discussed the way the city had invested in policing. The City of Milwaukee allocated about $280 million to the Milwaukee Police Department in its 2022 budget.
“We’ve seen residents ask for investment in public services that are needed in our communities,” said Devin Anderson, the membership and coalition manager for the African American Roundtable. “Instead of that investment, we’ve seen elected officials doubling and tripling down on investment into policing.”
Tucker pointed to Boston as a starting point for participatory budgeting.
“They allow young people ages 12-25 to participate in how to spend funds,” she said. “What is Milwaukee waiting for?”
You can find the full video of the Thursday event and keep up with what the Roundtable is doing on its Facebook page.
The Roundtable plans to continue discussions with city leadership on participatory budgeting.
“People are on our side,” said Anderson. “Just a year ago Milwaukee protested for a year straight, what have you done for a year straight?”


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Dwayne Burtin
May 26, 2022


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5 things to know and do this week in Milwaukee: May 30 to June 3 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
May 30, 2022
It’s Monday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
Forget Everything and Run, or FEAR MKE, meets every Tuesday to run in the community with other young professionals. Meet at 6:30 p.m. at Company Brewing, located at 735 E. Center St. RSVP required here.
READ: NNS Spotlight: How one group provides a safe space for Milwaukee’s runners of color
The Indaba Band Shell, located on St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care’s campus in the Amani neighborhood, will be hosting live entertainment and performances every Wednesday from this week through Aug. 31. This week, Cache MKE performs Latin American music from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1 at 2450 W. North Ave. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Food vendors will be present.
The Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative is organizing a housing resource fair from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 2 at Prince of Peace School, located at 1114 S. 25th St. The fair will include resources from banks, the City of Milwaukee and others.
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Enjoy virtual story time in Spanish, organized by the Milwaukee Public Library and geared toward kids up to age 9. The recurring virtual event takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. every Friday on Zoom. Register here.
“The Milwaukeean: A Tale of Tragedy and Triumph” is a book about local artist Kellen “Klassik” Abston and “the song of an American city struggling to save its soul.” Abston and the book’s author, Joey Grihalva, talk about the book and the themes explored in it at this talk organized by Boswell Book Company. The talk runs from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3 at 2559 N. Downer Ave. More information and RSVP here.


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Dwayne Burtin
May 29, 2022


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Milwaukee County renews program that doubles FoodShare purchases at farmers markets | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
May 31, 2022
Milwaukee Market Match, a program that doubles the amount FoodShare participants spend at farmers markets up to $20 per day, was unanimously approved by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors on Thursday for funding through 2024.
All that is left for the program to begin is for approval by County Executive David Crowley and an official contract to be drawn up between the county and the Fondy Food Center, which will administer the program.
Fondy Food Center is the founder of Fondy Farmers Market.
After the Board of Supervisors approved funding, Crowley’s office sent out a press release praising the program and saying his office “is expected to sign the County Board file in June.”
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“Today’s vote is another step forward in our journey to bridge the gap in health disparities and achieve race and health equity in Milwaukee County,” Crowley said in the statement.
The Milwaukee Market Match program allows FoodShare participants to double their purchasing power at a participating Milwaukee County farmers market, up to $20 per FoodShare account per day. FoodShare helps low-income residents buy food.
The total approved is $1.1 million, which would fund the program through 2024. Dollars are to be taken from approximately $183 million American Rescue Plan Act dollars allocated to Milwaukee County by the federal government to address needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The original proposal asked for $1 million to fund the program, but the Milwaukee County Finance Committee approved a bump up to $1.1 million on May 19. Drawing on the county’s experience overseeing the emergency rental assistance program, this bump will cover additional county staff for oversight, quality assurance and fiscal reporting on the program.
During a 10-week pilot of the program in 2020, Milwaukee Market Match was used by 793 households to purchase $19,653 worth of goods from vendors at five markets across Milwaukee County, according to data compiled by KaHoua Yang, who compiled the figures evaluating Milwaukee Market Match as part of the Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Milwaukee Market Match was renewed for 13 weeks in 2021 and was used by 1,697 households to purchase $78,077 worth of goods from vendors across four markets, nearly four times the amount of money spent in 2020.
About 93% of the transactions in 2021 went to farmers vending at the Fondy Farmers Market in Lindsay Heights, according to Yang’s data.
Previous coverage of the Milwaukee Market Match program can be found here.
Read the full original proposal to Milwaukee County here.


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Dwayne Burtin
May 30, 2022


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Post From Community: 3 Mile Stroll & Popsicle Flight | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
David Snell
June 1, 2022
(For everyone) Join us for a 3 mile stroll (round trip) from Washington Park to Pete’s Pops to celebrate summer!  We’ll stroll through the Washington Park neighborhood, learn about Park history, and meet our friends at Pete’s Pops for a three-flavor popsicle tasting flight! Each person will stroll back to Washington Park slurping a Pete’s Pop of their choice.  Participants will take home a few DIY popsicle recipes to continue these chill vibes throughout the summer season!
For questions about this program, please contact Augie Rodenbeck at arodenbeck@urbanecologycenter.org.
Registration is required for this event and will close 24 hours prior to event start time.
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$10 to $15. See website.
Website: https://30781a.blackbaudhosting.com/30781a/3-Mile-Stroll–Popsicle-Flight

author: David Snell


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May 31, 2022


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Post From Community: 5th Annual Promise Zone Bike Ride – Saturday, June 4th @ 10am | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sarah Bregant
June 1, 2022
Celebrate Wisconsin Bike Week on Milwaukee’s North Side this year at the 5th Annual Promise Zone Bike Ride!
Join Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, Alderman Ashanti Hamilton, Alderman Khalif Rainey, and several community partners on the 5th Annual Promise Zone Ride through the 30th Street Corridor on Saturday, June 4th from 10am – 12:30pm! The ride is FREE and open to the public.
The slow-paced, family-friendly ride will start and end in Garden Homes Park (2600 W. Atkinson Ave), featuring stops throughout the 7-mile route to highlight various developments in the neighborhood. There will be a free mobile repair station sponsored by DreamBikes, so come early to get your bike tuned up and ready to ride! We also have a limited number of bikes available to rent for the ride, free of charge, courtesy of Bublr Bikes. There will be snacks & lots of great prizes. The rain date is June 11.
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For more details contact NWSCDC’s Planning & Community Development Manager, Sarah Bregant, at 414-444-8200 x.8104 or via email at sarah.b@nwscdc.org

author: Sarah Bregant


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May 25, 2022


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Post From Community: Canoeing for Beginners at Washington Park | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
David Snell
June 1, 2022
(For families, age 6+) Interested in paddling but just trying to learn the basics? The Urban Ecology Center has you covered! Join us for a guided session to learn a C stroke, J stroke and back paddle as you maneuver a canoe across the Washington Park Lagoon! Space limited, pre-registration is required.
$9 to $12. See website.
Website: https://30781a.blackbaudhosting.com/30781a/Canoeing-for-Beginners-at-Washington-Park
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For questions about this program, please contact Augie Rodenbeck at arodenbeck@urbanecologycenter.org.
Registration is required for this event.


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May 25, 2022


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Post From Community: Green Thumb Gardening with Core El Centro | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
David Snell
June 1, 2022
(For families) Green thumb gardeners are invited to explore the creative gardening spaces at Core El Centro and at the Menomonee Valley Urban Ecology Center. We’ll start on the green roof at Core El Centro and embark on a family friendly sensory garden experience. Then take an Urban Ecology Center bus to Three Bridges Park for a visit to the community garden beds in the valley. Transportation between Core El Centro and Menomonee Valley Urban Ecology Center included, space is limited, pre-registration required.
Free to $4. See website.
Website: https://30781a.blackbaudhosting.com/30781a/Green-Thumb-Gardening-with-Core-El-Centro
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
For questions about this program, please contact Augie Rodenbeck at arodenbeck@urbanecologycenter.org.
Registration is required for this event.


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May 31, 2022


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NNS Spotlight: New leader of Neighborhood House seeks to empower residents, youths | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
June 1, 2022
Martha Collins moved to Milwaukee as a child to escape the negativity consuming her family.
The move, Collins said, saved her life, and she has spent her career trying to give back to the city what it gave to her through community service work.
“When we moved from Chicago, my mother was escaping an abusive relationship. I had siblings joining gangs and getting involved in other things,” Collins said. “I want to make Milwaukee better because Milwaukee made me better.”
As the new executive director of Neighborhood House of Milwaukee, she hopes to give back by empowering the residents and youths she serves.
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Neighborhood House, 2819 W. Richardson Place, is a community center that provides several services, including early child care and after-school programs for youths and teens. It also offers adult education for refugees, parenting support and a food pantry.
Friends said the role was made for Collins.
“I know that she is a dynamic leader with a broad reach that she could use as a vehicle to enhance not only the center but the surrounding area,” said David Sinclair, a program coordinator for WestCare Foundation who encouraged Collins to apply for the position.
Sinclair said Collins has the drive to change the world and she acquires any knowledge she may need to address issues head-on.
Glendale Alderwoman Tomika Vukovic, who is a longtime friend of Collins, shares Sinclair’s sentiments.
“When she combines her knowledge with her understanding of the plight in the communities she serves, Martha makes a difference,” said Vukovic. “Her value is evident in how many organizations and people she’s touched already.”
Collins, 42, said she fell in love with community work before she even knew how to define it.
“I was preparing to graduate from Washington High School and major in computer engineering,” she said. “I already had an internship set up with Northwestern Mutual when my mom started having me come in to help her at work because I was good with computers.”
Her mother, Patricia Collins, worked as an office administrator.
“The more time I spent in their office, the more I learned about nonprofits and management leadership,” Martha Collins said.
Collins earned a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Cardinal Stritch University in 2009, a graduate certificate from Marlboro College Center for New Leadership and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Business Administration from Alverno College. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector for over 20 years.
She started in her current job in April after working at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, where she managed a community-based outreach program for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.
Collins believes nonprofit and policy work go hand in hand.
“You can’t do one without the other,” she said. “If we as an agency are fighting hunger and hunger is a systematic issue, we have to directly engage policy to truly address the issue.”
One of her goals in her new role is to create a space to empower those discussions among the youths with whom Neighborhood House works.
“If you think about any major change that has occurred in this country, there are always youth and young adults leading the charges,” she said. “We want to create that pipeline to leadership through our programming.”
In addition, Collins serves as a commissioner with the Equal Rights Commission with the City of Milwaukee to advance accessibility, racial and gender-based equity and inclusion for all residents. And she is on the board of directors of the Nonprofit Academy of Wisconsin, a local group aimed at helping nonprofits perform their missions better. She’s also served on the City of Milwaukee Ethics Board.
Outside of work, Collins spends her time with her two sons, Sean, 21, and Seth, 15.
“My boys are my best friends,” she said. “They keep me young. My relationship with them always aids in the community work I’m doing.”
“Every teacher, every mentor, every co-worker and every childhood friend that I’ve had since coming to Milwaukee has led me to this work,” Collins said. “I just want to be that for someone else.”


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Dwayne Burtin
May 31, 2022


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Post From Community: Free Men’s Health Month Webinars – June 2022 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Maria M. Flores
June 1, 2022
New Concept Self Development Center, Inc. is hosting three (3) webinars for Men’s Health Month 2022. There are fewer resources for men’s health and male-focused issues, and we seek to bring information to a wide audience.
All webinars begin at 5:30 p.m.
June 6: Men’s Health Screenings with Darryl Davidson (City of Milwaukee Office of African American Affairs).
June 13: Healthy Lifestyles with Terry Evans (Urban Ecology Center – Washington Park) and Greg McBeath (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center).
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June 20: Men & Mental Wellness with Corey Fells and Darius Smith of Black Space.
Please contact Maria M. Flores for more information: mariaflores@ncsdc-inc.org

author: Maria M. Flores


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June 1, 2022


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Post From Community: Rock the Block to foster community, beautify Amani’s Beta Block | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Christina Chronister
June 1, 2022
MILWAUKEE  – Residents, along with staff and volunteers from local organizations and businesses will come together to clean and beautify the 2800 block of North 22nd Street on Saturday, June 4.
WHO: Amani United, Dominican Center, residents, volunteers, and Block By Block partners.
WHAT: Rock the Block! This neighborhood beautification event will be held to engage neighbors on the Beta Block as part of the Block-by-Block initiative. There will be a clean-up, small home repair and/or beautification projects, fellowship and food!
WHY: A concentration area in the resident-led Amani Revitalization plan is Housing and Economic Development, which the Block-by-Block initiative and Rock the Block parties support.
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WHEN: Saturday, June 4, 2022. 10am-12pm: Block clean up. 12-2pm Rock the Block (small home repairs, painting projects, block beautification efforts, cleaning and mowing residents’ lawns).
WHERE: North 22nd Street and Locust Street (2800 block of N. 22nd St.)
TO HELP: Volunteers and organizational vendors are being sought for this event and there’s still time to sign up. To sign up, volunteers can visit http://bit.ly/VolunteerDominicanCenter and vendors can visit http://bit.ly/DCvendors
VISUALS: Photo opportunity of the Beta Block in Milwaukee’s Amani neighborhood being cleaned and beautified. Residents, volunteers and local organizations will be present. Interview opportunities with residents, volunteers and neighborhood partners.
CONTACT: For more information about Rock the Block contact Dominican Center at 414-444-9930 or email amanda@dominican-center.org.
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About the Dominican Center
Dominican Center is located at 2470 W. Locust Street, in Milwaukee’s Amani neighborhood. It works with Amani residents and partners to build a better future. DC serves as both neighborhood convener and the community anchor for the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, Building Neighborhood Capacity Program and is the lead community partner for the US Department of Justice’s Innovations of Community Based Crime Reduction grant for Amani. Contact Christina Chronister for additional information at (414) 444-9930 or christina@dominican-center.org

author: Christina Chronister


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Post From Community: Conference Will Focus on Learning How to Engage Students and Helping Them Develop Into Ethical Citizens | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Kelly Cole
June 2, 2022
The 17th annual Character Education Conference will take place at Alverno College on June 16 with an option for virtual participation. The theme is Rebounding with Character, and the focus will be on the important role that character education and social emotional learning play in improving school culture and academic achievement.
The opening keynote will be given by Dr. Michele Borba. Her research found that the difference between those who struggle and those who succeed comes down to seven teachable character strengths, and she offers practical, actionable, evidence-based ways to develop these character strengths. An educational psychologist, best-selling author and regular TODAY show contributor, Borba has spoken to over a million participants on five continents about child development issues, and is recognized globally for her work in bullying and youth violence prevention.
Andy Vitrano, who served in education for over 20 years as a teacher, assistant principal and principal, will give the luncheon keynote. He will explore different forms of stress and how your body and mind responds to them, teaching attendees how to recognize stressful situations and apply six supportive practices during stressful situations.
The Character Education Conference will include breakout sessions led by national and local experts in the field. Topics will include building equity, interpersonal staff relations, healing anxiety and stress, and improving school climate. School administrators, counselors, K-12 teachers, pupil services professionals, coaches, school board members, parents and community leaders are encouraged to register. The conference is sponsored by the School District of South Milwaukee in partnership with Alverno College and the Wisconsin Character Education Partnership (WCEP). For more information or to register, please visit alverno.edu/Character-Conference.
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About Alverno College
Founded in 1887 by the School Sisters of St. Francis, Alverno College promotes the academic, personal and professional development of its students in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Undergraduate programs for women are offered in more than 60 areas of study, and graduate programs in education, nursing, community psychology, school psychology, music therapy, music and liturgy, and business are open to women and men.
A leader in higher education innovation, Alverno has earned international accolades for its highly effective ability-based, assessment-as-learning approach to education, which emphasizes hands-on experience and develops in-demand skills. The college, Wisconsin’s first Hispanic-Serving Institution, ranks among the top schools in the Midwest for its commitment to undergraduate teaching and innovation by U.S. News & World Report. For two years, The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education named Alverno the country’s most inspiring college.
Based in Milwaukee, Wis., Alverno College is a four-year independent, Catholic, liberal arts college.

author: Kelly Cole


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June 1, 2022


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Milwaukee, women of color, would disproportionately feel effects if Roe v. Wade is overturned | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Matt Martinez
June 2, 2022
If abortions were banned in Wisconsin today, Milwaukee County and its residents of color would be strongly impacted, statistics suggest.
Milwaukee County had the most abortions in the state from 2018 to 2020, according to the latest data available from the state Department of Health Services. In that three-year span, the county saw an average of 2,969 abortions completed. An average of roughly 1,500 abortions per year in that period were within the Black community, accounting for over half of the totals.
The average for people of color in those years, including the Black, Latinx, Laotian, Hmong, Asian, Pacific Islanders and “other” and Native American communities, was 1,936. This accounts for 65% of all abortions in Milwaukee County.
Access to abortion services could face a serious threat in the coming month.
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A leaked draft opinion from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito released in early May indicates that the court may overturn Roe v. Wade in a decision expected by the end of June. This would allow states to determine the legality of abortion for themselves. Roe v. Wade is the landmark high court decision that legalized abortion services across the United States in 1973.
Amplifying the effect of dismantling Roe v. Wade, some states have “trigger laws” that would go into effect immediately if Roe is overturned. In Wisconsin, the state’s 1849 abortion ban would be automatically reinstated without action from the state legislature. And the state’s politics currently do not provide the environment that suggest compromise
Under the ban, health care workers could be prosecuted for providing abortions. The ban does not prosecute women who receive services.
In addition, as abortion access is threatened in Wisconsin, Illinois is poised to become an island for abortion services in the Midwest, setting the stage for an influx of those seeking services.
Sarah Noble, founder and principal partner of the BeNOBLE Group, an organization that focuses on health and wellness for community leaders, worries about long wait times and services getting overrun in states where abortion remains legal. Those seeking care will need help getting it, she said.
Noble was also the founder and managing director of the Reproductive Justice Collective, an organization no longer active that was a collective of women of color and others that advocated for reproductive health issues. She said the potential abortion ban could “make a complicated life more complex” for women in the city who are already facing economic and health disparities, particularly Black women.
“It’s not as though everything else in the world will shift because of this,” Noble said. “It doesn’t mean more access to child care, more access to health care or safer neighborhoods for someone who already doesn’t want a child.”
Gracie Skogman, legislative/PAC director of Wisconsin Right to Life, an advocacy group, said that if the ban were to occur, the need to support pregnant women facing hardships would become even more vital.
Her group wants to “make abortion not just illegal, but also unthinkable.” The group’s goals also include alleviating economic hardship and medical concerns for women.
Ultimately, she said, the group hopes to make a society where women do not need to consider abortions as an option.
Noble said there was a need for everyone in the community to get involved with ensuring access to services — not just reproductive justice leaders. She said that this wasn’t just an abortion issue and could signal a shift to other rights being taken away, she said.
“It’s unconscionable that someone would even have to think about that when they have a pregnancy they don’t want,” Noble said.
Michelle Velasquez, director of advocacy and services for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said the organization is “100% committed” to providing support for those seeking out-of-state abortions, including transportation assistance, guidance on receiving care and child care services if needed.
Velasquez said a ban on abortion would affect communities with pre-existing health inequities even more, including low-income and rural communities and communities of color.
“In Milwaukee, for example, we already have really high maternal and infant mortality rates that are affecting the Black community more than others,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez said the state already faces challenges with restrictive access to abortion. Obstacles such as a 24-hour waiting period, a restriction on telehealth consultations and a lack of sick leave from employers already hinder women in the state from receiving services.
Velasquez also identified lack of access to affordable child care and lack of coverage for abortion services in the state’s Medicaid program. Such restrictions can present major obstacles – especially for those who don’t make a living wage, she said.
“Those are some of the reasons why it’s already just not a reality for a lot of people,” Velasquez said. “These restrictions always affect the communities who face the most health inequities.”
Skogman said, “As pro-life individuals, our role has always been to uplift women with challenging and unexpected pregnancies.”
She added: “The reality is there are women in need of resources, medical support and housing in this state.”
To find a Planned Parenthood clinic near you, visit its website and enter your ZIP code, city or state.
To schedule an appointment by phone, call 800-230-7526. You’ll be asked for your ZIP code and date of birth. Services are also available in Spanish.
There are locations around the city:
Planned Parenthood Wisconsin Avenue Health Center, 2207 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Planned Parenthood Mitchell Street Health Center, 1710 S. 7 St., Suite 300
Planned Parenthood Capitol Drive Health Center, 801 E. Capitol Drive
Planned Parenthood Northwest Health Center, 5380 W. Fond du Lac Ave.
Planned Parenthood Water Street Health Center, 435 S. Water St.
You can also schedule an appointment online on the Planned Parenthood website.
The Milwaukee Health Department’s Keenan Health Center offers free condoms and emergency contraceptives. It is located at 3200 N. 36 St. It can be reached at 414-286-8840.


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Dwayne Burtin
June 1, 2022


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The slow fade of youth sports in Milwaukee | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
June 2, 2022
First of two parts
As any Brewer fan will tell you, Milwaukee is a baseball town. Yet, many baseball parks across the city sit unkempt and unused, void of the youths that used to fill them in prior decades.
Once firmly atop the perch of recreational youth sports in the area, youth baseball is fading in a major league city with a long history in the sport. Youth baseball leagues have shrunk. The South Side stalwart, Felix Mantilla Little League, now run by Journey House after years at the United Community Center, fielded 22 teams in 2016. It’s down to 12 this season.
Other leagues, including the Milwaukee Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, or Milwaukee RBI, program have lost players, dropping from seven to four teams in the past few years. The Beckum-Stapleton Little League, a North Side mainstay that has boy’s and girl’s teams, has now reached pre-COVID levels of participation, but faces other challenges. Each league recruits most of its players from the South and North sides of the city.
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The lack of participation has seeped over to impact the sport at the high school level. During a recent game between Riverside High School, a Milwaukee Public School, and St. Augustine Preparatory Academy, a local private school, both teams had just 10 players, only one more than the bare minimum of nine needed to play a game.
The waning numbers are another example of the distressing inequities in opportunities between inner city and suburban youth. Youth sports, advocates say, offer another pathway to higher education and to develop skills, such as discipline and teamwork, that benefit youths as they move into adulthood.
And, if Milwaukee inner city youth are losing interest in baseball, it could be because there is less of an opportunity for them to discover the joys inherent in playing the sport.
Some of the decline in youth baseball was spurred by COVID, which canceled or delayed local Little League baseball seasons in 2020 and 2021 and deterred some from playing youth sports. But the decline really began years before the pandemic. In fact, the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities initiative was created in the 1990s by Major League Baseball to stem the decrease in urban participation, especially by Black and brown youths, in the sport and to stave off the type of scenario that is playing out in Milwaukee.  The Brewers, asked about its level of support for youth baseball in Milwaukee, did not provide comment for this story.
Those most involved in youth baseball locally say the biggest challenge they face is a resource gap that makes baseball less competitive and appealing for kids in the city to play than it is for those in the suburbs.
“We just don’t have the money to compete in the city,” says Julian Haliga, who is program coordinator of Milwaukee RBI.
Its teams are run by volunteer coaches and the fee for each player to play in the league, the majority of whom are Hispanic or Black, is $1,500, Haliga said. The fee covers league play, six tournaments a year, uniforms and winter instruction.
No player is turned away, Haliga added, but those whose families can’t pay the fees work the concession stands at American Family Field during some Brewer games to raise money, while volunteers and others also help in fundraising.
The money they raise and a $25,000 contribution from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, which administers the RBI program, is not nearly enough to cover the true cost of being competitive in youth baseball, said Haliga, who also coaches baseball at St. Augustine Preparatory Academy on the South Side.
“There are league fees, every team has to have their own equipment like catcher’s gear, bats, game balls, travel and everything else,” said Haliga, who added costs for each team run in the thousands.
Jim Brey has served for the past 20 years as president of the Beckum-Stapleton Little League. He said his league, which charges players $125 to play – a fee that  includes uniforms – is also short on supplies.
“Go to the suburbs and each kid has a backpack, two bats, their own gloves and their own helmet, cleats and everything,” said Brey, whose league also fields girls’ softball teams. “That’s not going to happen here, so we deal with donations.”
The impact of a lack of resources is felt far beyond the equipment. Another reason city baseball is struggling, advocates say, is because local leagues can’t afford the type of training players need to cultivate skills they need to compete at higher levels.
“Baseball is a tedious muscle-memory sport that is extremely technical,” Haliga said.
To hone those skills requires instruction from professional coaches, most of whom are experienced ballplayers.
“They teach the kids the nuances of the game, but we can’t afford to hire them so we get volunteers; we get dads,” Haliga said. “I started coaching as a dad 16 years ago.”
Current and former pros do meet on occasion with players at local leagues, including former Milwaukee Brave Felix Mantilla.
Alan Duran, 16, who plays summer ball at Milwaukee RBI and also plays for Ronald Reagan High School at MPS, said even just meeting players who have reached the highest levels of the sport can have an impact.
“It’s cool to meet them and talk a little bit about baseball,” he said. “It’s not enough time to have a long conversation, but you do get to learn about their journey.”
Another challenge that city leagues face is that they can’t afford to train at high-level baseball facilities.
There is one facility on the near South Side, called Heavy Hitters, 415 S. 3 St. It offers monthly memberships and also personal training. But the majority of such facilities are in the suburbs.
They include the Milwaukee Baseball Academy in Menomonee Falls, Prospect Training Academy in Oak Creek and Hitters Baseball in Caledonia. Hitters is a 44,000 square-foot indoor facility with 16 batting cages, a major league infield, four pitching mounds and a 2,300 square-foot strength training area.
In 2012, when Haliga was coaching the Felix Mantilla Junior All Stars on the South Side, his team received a large discount to train at Hitters. He credited training at the center with helping his team win the first district championship in the Felix Mantilla Baseball League’s history. He said his league can’t afford to train at the center any longer but understands how playing in leagues with access to those types of facilities makes baseball more appealing to young players.
“We lose kids to these places because they offer a different level of training and scholarships and exposure,” he said.
Suburban leagues also play on better baseball fields such as the Rock Complex in Franklin, which is part of Milwaukee County Parks system. “The Rock” is a sports and entertainment facility that features fields that meet major league specifications.
Haliga said his teams pay $100 a game to play at more affordable fields at Milwaukee County Parks. He said the fields are often in bad shape, and that they also save some money by scheduling games during the day.
“We play without a scoreboard and without lights,” he said.
The current situation is a far cry from the days that Sam Keller, Milwaukee native and current head coach of the Wauwatosa East High School varsity baseball team, remembers fondly from his childhood on Milwaukee’s North Side.
“In this city, we played ball,” he said. “All my friends were in Little League, and we played together or against each other, three games a week and two practices.”
As a youngster, Keller played at Beckum-Stapleton and then the North Central Little League, which fields teams from Wauwatosa and the Northwest Side. He went on to earn a scholarship to play baseball at Grambling State University and played ball for UW-Whitewater before joining the travel league circuit as a semi-professional baseball player.
“I’m not going to lie to you; yes, those kids are leaving the city of Milwaukee for better baseball, better coaching and better facilities in the suburbs,” Keller said.
All of these issues combined, advocates say, have now resulted in many local leagues being populated by players who have never played the sport, Brey said.
“Most of those kids that came out last year had never seen a baseball game before,” Brey said. “These kids have drive, but you may have five kids that played before and five kids that have never touched a bat.”
The challenges at the Little League and travel-team level have carried over to affect baseball at Milwaukee Public Schools, said Matt Turner, coach at Riverside High School, 1615 E. Locust St.
Turner has been outspoken about the challenges youth baseball in Milwaukee faces. He said the field his teams play on is unsuited for high level baseball.
“The plate was coming out of the ground, the pitching rubber was about three inches above the ground level, and we have horrible overgrowth,” Turner said.
He also said the players who sign up to play at the high school level are often novices. In the past, players would already have years of experience playing organized baseball under their belts.
“Many kids that we get played baseball in third grade and played one summer and are now trying to get into baseball as a freshman in high school,” he said. “In Milwaukee, we just haven’t done a good job.”
He cites the same challenges as others involved in the sport: a lack of involvement and resources and poor facilities.
“Riverside kids walk half a mile to practice,” he said. “At other places, they are busing to the practice facilities.”
Duran said his team at Reagan has to travel to practice while many of the suburban teams they play against have high-quality fields right in back of their schools.
“It’s a struggle and I guess it holds us back in a sense because when you don’t have places to be in, it makes practice difficult,” said Duran, who’s been playing competitive baseball since he was 9.
A recent report from the Milwaukee Youth Sports Alliance that looked at youth sports highlighted these challenges. The alliance, which includes Bader Philanthropies, the Milwaukee Bucks, America Scores and the Milwaukee Kickers, was created to ensure access to high-quality sports programming in the city as a way to improve mental and physical health.
Barriers to engagement identified in the report included safety and transportation, increased privatization of sports leagues, which reduced access to low-income and low-resource communities, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report also offered steps that can be taken to help improve and sustain Little League baseball and other sports opportunities in Milwaukee. Many of those steps include changes in the way leagues are funded, but they also include intangibles such as increasing the number of role models who encourage youths to become involved.
Youth Sports Alliance Executive Director Quentin Prince believes youth sports can be a bigger catalyst for change in Milwaukee and said he hopes the community will rally around historic leagues such as Felix Mantilla and Beckum-Stapleton.
“Back in the day, nine out of 10 kids had connections to Little League baseball,” he said. “We need to bring that engagement and those opportunities back.”
In the meantime, Haliga, Turner, Brey and others continue to push hard in the city to return baseball to its former prominence.
For Turner, it’s about continuing a legacy of competitive baseball at Riverside and about baseball in the city thriving again.
Haliga wants local youths to have access to higher education and scholarships through baseball.
As for Brey, he believes the most important thing is just for kids to have an opportunity to play the game.
“On the North Side here, I think baseball has a special, special place,” he said. “There’s a character development piece of baseball that’s so important for our youth just to make it in today’s society.”
Duran, who said he plays baseball because he loves the sport, offers other suggestions.
“Baseball has its own struggles in terms of popularity with younger people and it starts with the top, the MLB (Major League Baseball),” Duran said. “You look at other leagues and their players are looked at as personalities and celebrities and you can get behind them, but in baseball it’s like you have to be a die-hard fan to be a fan of these players.”
Tomorrow: What can be done to increase access to and  participation in baseball and other youth sports?


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Dwayne Burtin
June 1, 2022


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Dwayne Burtin
June 1, 2022


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Dwayne Burtin
June 1, 2022


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5 things to know and do the weekend of June 3 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
June 3, 2022
It’s Friday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
Make collages and learn about environmental health at the first workshop of this summer’s “Green Talks at the Lounge” series, hosted by Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers and other community partners. The workshop lasts from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3 at Pete’s Community Garden, located at 1561 S. Muskego Ave.
You may know Tia Richardson from her murals throughout Milwaukee, but she is now also a published author and illustrator. Get your copy of the children’s book, “Caring All Around Me,” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 4 at Arts @ Large, located at 1100 S. 5th St. More information here.
The second annual Viva Marketplace includes a free event with local vendors, artists and musicians alongside a margarita fundraiser for Mexican Fiesta, which is the group that organizes the annual party by the same name at the Summerfest grounds. The marketplace and fundraiser run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 4 at Flores Hall, located at 2997 S. 20th St.
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Tour the 30th Street Industrial Corridor on two wheels, with community leaders, including Aldermen Khalif Rainey and Ashanti Hamilton. The ride goes from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, starting and ending at Garden Homes Park, 2600 W. Atkinson Ave. There will be snacks and prizes, and DreamBikes will be present for tune-ups and light repairs. The event is free. The rain date is Saturday, June 11 at the same time and location.
This workshop, led by “daydreamer, educator and elected official” Ariel “Ari” Owens, will help participants become more comfortable discussing topics such as race, gender, sexuality, religion or other “sensitive subjects.” The workshop is from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 4 at the Sojourner Family Health Center, located at 619 W. Walnut St.


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Dwayne Burtin
June 2, 2022


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Post From Community: Get on board! Connecting leaders to nonprofits | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Young Nonprofit Professionals Network
June 3, 2022
The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network – Greater Milwaukee Chapter, in partnership with United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County’s Project LEAD and Jobs That Help, is hosting Get On Board: Connecting Leaders to Nonprofits, a board matching event with 30+ local nonprofits on June 22nd from 5:30pm-7:30pm at the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
Participants interested in pursuing an opportunity to join the boards or committees of local nonprofits will have the opportunity to connect with representatives from nonprofit organizations of their choice, choosing from 30+ nonprofit organizations in our community.
Registration is now open for board seekers, and the event is free to participate in. Register today!
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author: Young Nonprofit Professionals Network


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June 2, 2022


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Report outlines inequities, challenges for youth sports leagues in the city versus the suburbs | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
June 3, 2022
Second of two parts
Baseball stands out in this regard, but the sad truth is that youth athletic organizations across the board in the city suffer from lack of resources.
It is part of a bigger picture of inequities in resources, generally, between inner-city youths and their suburban counterparts.
Youth athletic organizations in the city are struggling to maintain access and engagement, which means fewer young people can benefit from the opportunities sports provide.  These issues were highlighted in a report by the Milwaukee Youth Sports Alliance, or MYSA.
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They include:
MYSA, which includes Bader Philanthropies, the Milwaukee Bucks, America SCORES and the Milwaukee Kickers, was created to help ensure access to high-quality sports programs in the city and to empower leaders to utilize sports as a development tool.
The report pointed to some solutions, things that have to be overcome to approach a level playing field for youth baseball and other sports.
Why is this important?  Sports, experts say, help youths learn life skills, improve academic performance, provide top athletes access to college scholarships and support physical and mental health, among other benefits.  Youth sports also are underutilized as a tool for youth and community development in the city, according to the MYSA report.
According to data included in the report, 34% of children from families earning less than $25,000 played a team sport at least one day in 2017, compared with 69% from homes that earn more than $100,000. In 2011, that percentage was 42% and 66%, respectively. Those gap has almost certainly dropped over the last five years.
“We’ve got kids that want to participate but can’t because of the barriers they face,” said Quentin Prince, executive director of MYSA. “Our kids have reduced access and less choices, and our goal is to change that.”
Youth baseball in the city is a prime example of the challenges that leagues face. Once atop the hierarchy of youth sports in a city with a long history in professional baseball, local leagues now struggle to find players and pay for the coaching, facilities, and other resources needed to be competitive.
The South Side stalwart, Felix Mantilla Little League, fielded 22 teams in 2016. That’s down to 12 this season. The Milwaukee Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, or Milwaukee RBI, dropped in recent years from seven to four teams, and Beckum-Stapleton Little League, a North Side mainstay, has also struggled to reach pre-COVID levels of participation.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled or delayed leagues, hurt youth participation. But teams are also having trouble finding coaches, much less those with experience. Taken together, the result is a gap in opportunities for youths from the inner city compared with those in the suburbs, advocates say.
MYSA, in its report, developed a list of priorities that could help close that gap. One area of support it currently provides is to work with organizations to help cover or defray fees for players and to provide free equipment. Some examples include a collaboration with Nike and Wilson that provided 250 free basketballs and another partnership that resulted in 300 hijabs being donated to girls who wanted to participate in sports.
Still, Prince knows that the bigger challenge is to help organizations secure enough funding to develop and to create an infrastructure that helps them not only become sustainable but enables them to thrive.
“These organizations need finances, investments in the field,” said Prince, who serves on the board for Felix Mantilla. “Kids don’t want to play on a patch of dirt. They want to get excited and play on high-quality facilities.”
His alliance is working to help connect organizations to donors, secure funds and also to develop frameworks that help organizations create succession plans to facilitate leadership changes.
“Senior organizations have succession plans so why don’t we have that for youth sports?,” he said. “What happens when you don’t have that is you see drop-off in participation as they work to fill the gap.”
It’s also working to develop strategies to recruit more adult role models and to increase participation of girls in sports.
Jim Brey, who has served for more than two decades as the president of the Beckum-Stapleton Little League, said his league and others need more support from the community.
“We need to make sure every kid has that chance, that support, the equipment and the coaching and opportunities to succeed,” said Brey, whose league also has girls’ softball teams.
His league relies on donations to buy limited equipment and supplies. It also can’t afford to pay coaches or trainers. So, it relies on alumni, including former college players, to come back and provide coaching on hitting and fielding.
“It’s a big deal for us to get guys to come back,” he said. “There are professional baseball players that do training for money, but anything they do for us is donated.”
Jon-Anthony Caban, 24, won a district championship as part of the Felix Mantilla Little League back in 2012 and came back to the city to support the next generation of players.
He’s the volunteer head of player development for Milwaukee RBI and is employed as an assistant coach at St. Augustine Preparatory High School on Milwaukee’s South Side, where he works alongside Julian Haliga, his old coach at Mantilla.
Caban left the city to play two years at Madison College, winning all-conference and playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series. He then earned additional scholarships to play at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Carthage College. In between, he spent a summer playing for the Kenosha Kingfish of the Independent League.
He brought back a wealth of experience and hopes to inspire young players to take advantage of the opportunities the sport provides.
“Competitive baseball is just an avenue to different things in life,” Caban said. “It’s also an opportunity to surround kids with people who are caring and want to see them succeed.”
Still, Caban acknowledges that the gap in resources between city and suburban leagues is a huge hurdle to overcome and can make all the difference for a baseball player trying to move on to the next level.
“We could have had way many more guys go to the next level if we had the type of facilities and the exposure they needed,” he said.  “There are places here that provide that, but kids are not able to attend because of the financial burden or maybe they can go once or twice but not regularly.”
Matt Turner, baseball coach for Milwaukee Riverside High School, said he would like to see different entities in the city, including the Milwaukee Brewers, become more intentional about supporting baseball in the city. The Brewers, asked about its level of support for youth baseball in Milwaukee, did not provide comment for the story.
“There are other major league cities that have made major investments in the sport,” he said. “It’s going to be really hard to be competitive when we don’t have the support to give these kids the best chance they can to participate and be successful.”
Caban said he will continue to do his part and hopes that others around the city rally around the sport as a way to support youths.
“Growing up in the inner city, it’s difficult to find something you can be attached to and build a community around,” he said. “Baseball does that and we have people here in the city that can do something and not let the game die.”
You can help support baseball and other youth sports in Milwaukee by donating to MYSA. A $100 donation provides youngsters access to sports equipment; $300 sponsors one coach to attend a training based on trauma-informed sports or social emotional learning; and $1,000 to $3,000 supports a large-scale training event for up to 200 coaches or you can provide in-kind event space.
The Felix Mantilla, RBI Milwaukee and Beckum- Stapleton Little Leagues all need volunteers (coaches, coordinators, mentors), and donations of funds, equipment, warehouse space, and batting practice time at an indoor facility.
In case you missed it: The slow fade of youth sports in Milwaukee


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Dwayne Burtin
June 2, 2022


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Dwayne Burtin
June 2, 2022


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Are abortions ever medically necessary? Wisconsin doctors say yes. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Phoebe Petrovic / Wisconsin Watch
June 5, 2022
Pro-Life Wisconsin, a Christian-based organization, opposes abortion in every case, even when it is not “‘politically correct,’” per their website. Legislative Director Matt Sande says the group considers any legal or medical exception a “loophole,” and it favors doctors providing “equal care” to the pregnant person and fetus — even if it is nonviable.
But The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says “induced abortion is an essential component of women’s health care.” And a recent fact-check by Reuters ruled the statement, “Abortion is never medically necessary to save a woman’s life,” as “false.”
Even the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which lists five doctors from Wisconsin as members, acknowledges that when “extreme” life-threatening emergencies arise, “premature delivery” may be indicated. But unlike in an abortion, the group said, “Every reasonable attempt to save the baby’s life would also be a part of our medical intervention.”
Dr. Abigail Cutler, an obstetrician and gynecologist who practices in Wisconsin, and Dr. Douglas Laube, a Madison physician who is the former president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, describe myriad circumstances in which an abortion might be necessary to prevent disease or death.
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Laube and Cutler note that pregnancy can make any underlying condition worse, such as chronic kidney disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, connective tissue disorders, or recent heart attack, stroke or brain bleeds.
“There is a tremendous physiologic burden on the pregnant woman,” Laube says. “This oftentimes begins very early in pregnancy.” Any condition “which can be made worse” by pregnancy is a “potential threat to the life of the mother,” he says.
Cutler says risky medical conditions can also arise during pregnancy. And the point of no return — the moment at which a physician must intervene so as to prevent death — isn’t always so clear.
“Generally speaking, the line at which point, you know, a patient is imminently about to lose her life, sometimes it’s more obvious than others,” she says.
One potentially deadly complication that worries many OB-GYNs, Cutler says, is preterm premature rupture of membranes. In this scenario, the water breaks prior to fetal viability. That can lead to a fatal sepsis infection or dangerous hemorrhaging for the patient — but not immediately.
Cutler says physicians must decide “how far along on that spectrum” a patient must be “before you, as a physician, say, ‘I’m worried that if we don’t end this pregnancy now that she could die from sepsis, or that she will lose too much blood bleeding out and we won’t be able to resuscitate her,’ ” she says.
Physicians practicing under those circumstances will face an “untenable” choice over whether to perform a life-saving abortion that could put them at risk of criminal prosecution.
“Who decides that? How many people must agree? How much time do you have to make that decision? How critically ill or on the threshold of death does the patient have to be?” Cutler asks.
And she says doctors will have to ask themselves, “Do I risk facing prison time and thousands of dollars to intervene with what I think is my best medical judgment? Or do I hold off doing what my medical judgment and experience and training is telling me to do to ensure that what I do will be considered legal? And then, what if she dies because I didn’t act? Or what if she dies because I didn’t act quickly enough?”
Nearly all deaths under those circumstances, Laube says, would be “preventable,” adding, “It’s more politics than it is medicine at this point.”
And if people are forced to carry unwanted or risky pregnancies to term? They face severe injury or death during or shortly after birth. Hundreds of women in Wisconsin experience one or more “severe maternal morbidities” — which the Department of Health Services calls “near misses” with death — each year. At least 25 women die annually during or within one year of pregnancy, DHS reports.
For Black women, the risks are far higher. Compared to their white counterparts, non-Hispanic Black women in Wisconsin are five times more likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy.
Adds Cutler: “I think the laws need to make room and trust physicians, with all their medical training and expertise, to have their patient’s best interests at heart, and to know what the appropriate interventions are to ensure that a patient gets the care that they need.”
The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

author: Phoebe Petrovic / Wisconsin Watch


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Dwayne Burtin
June 3, 2022