Meta House: $40,000 in general operating support for mental health and substance abuse care for women and children in a residential setting.
Waukesha County Community Foundation: $10,000 for the United for Waukesha Community Fund to help support the needs of the individuals and families impacted by the tragedy that occurred during the Waukesha Christmas Parade.
African American Breastfeeding Network: $72,000 to fund doula services for African American mothers through 12 weeks postpartum.
HIR Wellness Center: $71,500 to fund a full-time therapist specializing in trauma-informed care to provide additional mental health services to American Indian and BIPOC clientele.
IFF Milwaukee: $1,081,750 for facility improvement grants to home and center-based early childhood education providers in the ThriveOn King neighborhoods.
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges: $75,000 to support efforts to plan and implement a community-driven neighborhood revitalization plan in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood.
Riverworks Development Corporation: $75,000 to support associated construction costs for the Connector Business Condo project, which includes Kuumba Juice & Coffeehouse run by a local business and community gathering space for educational, spiritual and physical programming for residents.
Safe and Sound: $100,000 for capital renovations for the agency’s new headquarters in Sherman Park.
TimeSlips Creative Storytelling: $100,000 to support the agency’s work with two Milwaukee-based social service agencies to address the needs of isolated, low-income elders. By training staff, drivers and volunteers at Goodwill/Meals on Wheels and United Community Center in its evidence-based communication method, elder clients most at risk for social isolation will show an improved sense of connection.
University of Wisconsin Foundation: $171,101 to support a research project led by the University of Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute Regional Milwaukee Office to engage African American women caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s in a group-based wellness promotion program.
Versiti Blood Research Institute Foundation: $150,000 to support services and an engagement campaign to help increase blood donations from diverse communities to improve the quality of life and treatment for individuals who have sickle cell disease.
Wisconsin Philanthropy Network: $75,000 for community organizing efforts to recruit, train and develop strong grassroots leaders in Milwaukee while supporting a coalition of leaders around their core values, structure of effectiveness and leadership.
Wisconsin Voices: $60,000 to support efforts to provide year-round community building and civic engagement for organizations and residents in the Foundation’s priority neighborhoods.
YWCA Southeast Wisconsin: $63,000 to support continuous racial equity and inclusion work including equitable employment, hiring and retaining people of color, training and development for employers.
United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County: $1,770 to support the agency’s Giving Tree program to cover half of the gift wishes at the Neighborhood House.
Johnson Foundation: $10,200 to support a retreat for cohort of nonprofits participating in the Foundation’s advocacy community.
ABCD: $50,000 for operating support.
Artists Working in Education: $25,000 to support its professional development programs for local artists, and youth interested in the arts, including the Rising Artists Council program for middle and high school‐aged youth, the Arts Envoy program for early career working artists and expanded career development for teaching artists who work with AWE's Truck Studio and Artist‐in‐Residence programs.
Artspeak Media LLC: $20,000 to support the production of "Out of the Picture," the first documentary about art critics in the United States, which is a Milwaukee‐made film with national significance. A local team led by Mary Louise Schumacher has followed the work of five art critics, including journalists of color and underrepresented writers, for a decade, with final production taking place over 24 days in eight cities in 2021.
Aurora Health Care Foundation: $20,000 to fund solutions-focused therapy professional education for a diverse student body to increase representation in mental health services.
Best Buddies – Wisconsin: $25,000 to support a job program for people with disabilities. The program consists of onsite training, teaching, job placement and employer education.
Betty Brinn Children’s Museum: $30,000 for operating support.
Black Arts MKE: $30,000 to support operating expenses, including a position related to its database management and executive level support.
Bread of Healing: $25,000 to provide trauma‐informed mental health care through individual and group counseling for individuals without insurance. The funds also will provide training for mental health practitioners in the clinic.
Center for Self-Sufficiency: $31,050for phases 1 and 2 of the community financial stability education and awareness pilot program. Phase 1 includes planning, message development and design of the pilot program. Phase 2 includes the training and execution of a pilot program of credible messengers to promote financial stability among target audiences.
City Forward Collective: $50,000 to support efforts to facilitate sustained family and community organizing to build a movement of Milwaukee parents and other residents to advocate for quality schools, state policies and systems that eliminate education inequities.
City on a Hill: $35,000 to provide additional capacity for community health workers serving children and their caregivers.
Community Warehouse: $25,000 to support a workforce development reentry model providing wraparound support to men and women returning from prison or jail returning to the workforce.
Fathers Making Progress: $7,500 to fund fatherhood coaches who provide training and support for new and expecting fathers. In addition to a 12‐week fatherhood course, participants are connected to career and family resources across a network of organizations focused on improving Milwaukee's birthing outcomes.
First Stage Children’s Theater: $30,000 for operating support.
Florentine Opera Company: $30,000 to support the production of "Bronzeville La Boheme" set in Bronzeville during the 1940s and 1950s and featuring an all African‐American cast. The Florentine's dramaturg Sheri Williams Pannell has captured numerous first‐person interviews with noted Bronzeville residents of all ages that have been incorporated into the script. The production will include a youth chorus comprised of students from Golda Meir, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and Rufus King High School. Community engagement includes a season‐long residency with the Bronzeville Arts Ensemble and a series of community discussions and listening sessions about the production.
FORGE: $29,530 for a peer support group that will provide mental health services utilizing creative expression. The project will culminate with two performances for the public.
Friends of Lakeshore State Park: $18,323 to support the salary of a park educator as well as educational materials at Lakeshore State Park.
Grand Avenue Club: $25,000 to support arts programming for adult members who have experienced mental illness.
Hmong American Peace Academy: $50,000 for development of an old parking lot to a green space that includes outdoor classroom aspects as well as a playground to be used by the school and the surrounding community.
Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee: $50,000 in general operating support for the resident‐led Health & Wellness Ambassador team.
i.c. stars Milwaukee: $25,000 to support its technology-driven workforce development training and career readiness program in Milwaukee.
Imagine MKE: $5,000 for operating funds.
International Association for Human Values: $23,000 to provide social‐emotional learning curriculum to students at Auer Avenue school during the 2021‐2022 school year. This grant will further allow a summer institute for 25 school leaders in 2022, providing them with SEL strategic planning and evaluation capacity.
Kids Matter: $25,000 for support for children who have survived the death of a caregiver due to homicide. Mental health services, peer support networks and legal advocacy will complement timely access to care for children in crisis.
Lead2Change: $50,000 for general expenses including hiring a part‐time program manager for Dream. Explore. Build., an 11‐month career‐readiness program that engages high school juniors and seniors.
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts: $40,000 to help it continue addressing barriers to access, such as cost and transportation, for Milwaukee's diverse public, to its multi‐faceted and increasingly multicultural programming. The center will provide opportunities for students and preprofessional artists to meet and work with internationally‐renowned performing artists featured on its Broadway, dance, jazz and National Geographic Series through meaningful educational engagements such as master classes, clinics, lecture/demonstrations, and outreach instruction.
Mequon Nature Preserve: $17,021 to support and supplement the partnership with Fondy Food Market farmers, who are predominately Hmong, to farm land at MNP and sell their goods at summer and winter farmers markets.
Milwaukee Center for Children and Youth: $50,000 to enable various therapeutic modalities to help youth navigate trauma and build resilience in a culturally responsive way. Additionally, the project will provide advocacy and case management.
Milwaukee Chamber: $10,000 to support the production of a 2015 play that recounts the controversy surrounding playwright Sholem Asch's "The God of Vengeance,” a play that was shut down upon its 1906 Broadway premiere and, when produced in 1923, found the producer and cast arrested and convicted on grounds of obscenity. It explores themes that remain resonant today, including the treatment of immigrants, homophobia, anti‐Semitism and artistic censorship. MCT will partner with community organizations to create conversations around the play's themes that will inform its educational programs.
Milwaukee Christian Center: $50,000 to provide general operating support as the agency continues to plan and execute its Muskego Way Forward community-driven neighborhood revitalization.
Milwaukee Community Business Collaborative: $25,000 for general operating expenses for the employee development program and Pathways to Healthcare Careers (Pathways) operations.
Milwaukee Consortium for Hmong Health: $50,000 for participation in the Advocacy Community cohort.
Milwaukee Environmental Consortium: $50,000 to support the integration of the arts into Adams Garden Park, co‐founded by Sharon and Larry Adams and deeply informed by residents of the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. This initiative will bring together residents and artists with several community‐based partner organizations to create a welcoming environment for artist and community workshops and residencies, community arts programs and the creation of public art, including art benches for a poetry park, and commissioned outdoor public sculptures.
Milwaukee Food Council: $50,000 to build capacity to be the backbone organization for an equitable food system.
Milwaukee Innercity Congregations Allied for Hope: $50,000 for operating support to help continue work in the areas of COVID‐19 vaccination sites, health equity for those served by St. Joseph's Hospital, mental health courts, transitional jobs for those returning from prison, equitable treatment concerning truancy for students of color, in the Foundation’s priority neighborhoods.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater: $40,000 in support for its education & engagement programming, including Reading Residencies, the Next Narratives Monologue Competition, Community Conversations and neighborhood partnerships in Amani, Metcalfe Park, and Muskego Way. Funding will also support ED&I staff trainings and events to create a more inclusive culture and celebrate the dimensions of diversity among artists and staff.
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra: $30,000 to support MYSO's music training programs that directly reach nearly 800 youths, ages 8 to 18, impact an additional 6,000 children through outreach performances and draw 25,000 audience members to concerts. MYSO addresses local students' need for access to music education through its Community Partnership Programs, in which 11 innovative programs remove barriers to music training and engage many students of color and urban youths in ensemble experiences.
National Coalition for Healthy Black Families: $50,000 to support the Valor Creative Collective building development renovations. The coalition will operate from this shared creative space. Valor will provide business development sessions for artists.
Notre Dame School of Milwaukee: $50,000 to support renovations to transform the existing chapel located on the primary and middle school campus into a dedicated performing arts space.
On the Wing: $20,000 to support an exhibition which will feature the art work of approximately 30 incarcerated artists who turn to art to survive. A first of its kind, the project will showcase several room‐sized installations, an environment of handwritten letters and a series of 150 paintings done by one inmate as he recalled Bible stories. The exhibition concept was inspired by weekly art sessions that Portrait Society Gallery has led at the House of Peace for the past four years.
Operation Backlot: $50,000 to support the creation of an interactive, multi‐disciplinary virtual platform, Milwaukee Bronzeville Arts and Memory, that will serve as a resource for the area's residents, creative community and the public to learn more about Bronzeville, including its arts heritage and cultural history. This platform will enrich and expand the reach of a new arts-focused historic walking tour during Milwaukee's Bronzeville Week in August 2022. This project celebrates heritage, preserves stories, links creative and educational resources, and seeks to enhance a sense of historical identity among community members.
Ozaukee Washington Land Trust: $25,000 to support a partnership with Public Allies and Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps to perform land stewardship in the form of reforestation in OWLT preserves.
Penfield Children’s Center: $25,000 for general operating support.
Raising the Bar: $45,000 to provide gender‐specific mental health workshops for Hispanic and African American men and women from the Metcalfe Park and Sherman Park neighborhoods in coordination with a collective of mental health providers.
River Revitalization Foundation: $30,000 to support land stewardship and volunteer and community engagement in the communities around the Milwaukee River Basin.
Running Rebels: $50,000 to support Pipeline 2 Promise, a youth workforce and mentor program for young people ages 12‐24.
Signature Dance Company: $25,000 to support high level dance training to girls and women who would otherwise not have the capacity to afford it.
St. Augustine Preparatory Academy: $5,000 to support creation of a permanent, collaborative art wall that will be built under the direction of local artist Jonathan Shaw with students, teachers, families, staff, sponsors and donors. This piece will commemorate both the first graduating class and triumphing over a year of COVID-19 challenges.
St. Charles Youth & Family Services: $30,000 to support creation of two recording studios for youth and to contract with an industry professional to provide equipment training.
STRYV365: $50,000 for programming to children who have experienced trauma. Through activities, sports, peer support and skills‐training children will develop social emotional skills and navigate adverse childhood experiences.
The Friendship Circle: $25,000 for operating support for services for children with special needs including recreational, educational, social and vocational programming.
United Neighborhood Centers of Milwaukee: $24,665 for general operating expenses.
United Performing Arts Fund: $25,000 for operating support.
Upstream Arts: $12,000 for interactive arts programming for students with disabilities in eight Milwaukee Public Schools special education classrooms, plus professional development for teachers.
Urban Ecology Center: $30,000 for the Neighborhood Environmental Education program, which works with area schools to give kids hands on science experience to go along with‐in classroom lessons.
Wisconsin Breast Cancer Coalition: $15,000 to support an art‐making program, Rare Chair Share, a volunteer‐led organization of medical, community and professional volunteers. The program will address the gap in mental health care for underserved breast cancer patients.
Wisconsin Community Services: $50,000 in capital funds for outfitting the living space at NOVA house, a new residential home providing mental health and substance abuse care.
Wisconsin Humane Society: $30,000 to support efforts to provide animal services and resources to under‐resourced neighborhoods in Milwaukee, with a focus on 53206.
Wisconsin Justice Initiative: $20,000 to provide general operating support.
YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee: $50,000 toward professional education for educators in Black and Brown communities on social emotional wellness techniques to employ in their profession. One-hundred fifty educators will receive training and material resources to foster better mental health for their students.
Above The Clouds: $7500 to provide free dance classes to youth and kids in the North Division neighborhood (ages 5-17 years old). They will be preparing a spring recital to showcase their students' work. The goal of their Movement is a Lifestyle program is to provide arts education and teach their students to develop an awareness of their own talents, strengths, and build empathy in the class setting.
City Champs Foundation: $7500 to support two 8-week sessions for classes of students (aged 12-24 years old) in the Sherman Park East neighborhood. They are focused on fostering an environment of wellness, safety, and social emotional development through the use of martial arts classes and mentorship.
My Path To Lead: $250 to provide resources to individuals, young adults, and families in the Sherman Park area. My Path to Lead hopes to create successful young leaders through the process of connect people to resources and safe environments.
Neu-Life Community Development: $7500 to support an Artist-in-Residence program for youth in North Division. Artists will be working with youth to collaboratively create and plan an exhibit to showcase their work at an annual student art show.
St. Charles Youth & Family Services: $7500 to support Owen's Place, a resource center that serves youth from Sherman Park who may be experiencing homelessness and in transition. They are providing workshops to teach employment skills and professionalism, as well as including the game component to further enhance the team building skills amongst the youth.
The Greater Milwaukee Urban League: $7500 to support the program, Pretty, Educated, and Talented (PET), that will bring workshops to tween and teens at two school sites in the North Division neighborhood to build confidence and foster a positive environment for personal growth. Topics will range from basic finance to yoga and exercise to etiquette and college readiness.
Understanding God’s Love for You (UGLY): $7500 to support Camp U.G.L.Y. to connect youth with opportunities to reach their full potential. UGLY will be providing three sessions of Camp U.G.L.Y. to North Division youth (12-17 years old). The sessions will be engaging youth in a variety of activities including life skills classes, field experiences, and math and science classes to further support youth development and learning.
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County: $250 to support The BUILD Sherman Park initiative on compiling a youth responsive action plan. The BUILD Sherman Park Youth Activities Workgroup will be launching a youth survey to gather feedback on what activities youth would like to see in Sherman Park East neighborhood. This work will engage with youth voices on the survey in the neighborhood through a series of community sessions, online, and focus groups.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee: $7500 to support the expansion of the Ready Center in the Halyard Park neighborhood. The space will host a variety of activities and programs, both existing and new, including a greater focus on college and career readiness, health and wellness and leadership and service programming for teens.
WestCare Wisconsin: $7500 to support their E.A.T.S. Food Pantry for the Harambee community members. Youth will be involved in the key operations of the pantry days, as well as participation in the agriculture initiative to deepen their knowledge of food systems.
More than $330,000 invested into area visual arts programming>
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