2022 third quarter grants

4C for Children: $5,000 to support thePathways to Quality event, which began in 2011 in response to recognized provider needs for more information related to the YoungStar Quality Rating & Improvement System. 

ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis: $50,000 in general operating support.

Alma Center: $62,595 to support healing for men who are involved in/at risk of the criminal system.

Artists Working in Education: $25,000 in general operating support. 

Aurora Family Service: $20,000 for funding to provide mental health training and create a diverse workforce in the greater Milwaukee area through its Family Therapy Training Institute. Funds will be used to continue the implementation of the strategic planning process and support scholarships/ fellowships. AFS serves as a vital access point for underserved families struggling with trauma and behavioral health challenges, including families of color, LGBTQ+, refugees, and low-income residents residing in the poorest of Milwaukee’s zip codes.

Benedict Center: $25,000 to support the Women’s Harm Reduction Program,a trauma-informed, gender responsive program that provides behavioral health care services to 300 unduplicated women. Services will be provided to justice-involved women prior to and following release from incarceration and women living in the community who are on probation and parole or have deferred prosecution agreements.

Birth & Embrace Communities: $50,000 for the Birthing Beyond the Margins project, which is designed to address the inequity and disparity between birthing outcomes in the BIPOC communities of Milwaukee, Racine & Kenosha and those not in impoverished or marginalized communities. In comparison to white women with a college degree or higher with 4 infant deaths per 1000 births, African American women average 10 deaths per 1000 births with the same level of education. 

BizStarts Milwaukee: $40,000t o support its MKE Microentrepreneur Market, which will offer a permanent virtual and physical space dedicated to showcasing products and services from Milwaukee BIPOC micro entrepreneurs in an ideal location that reaches moderate to high income consumers. 

Black Arts MKE: $25,000 in general operating support. 

Bloom Art and Integrated Therapies: $25,000 in general operating support.Bloom provides art therapy sessions and programming to the public, attending to mental health needs of the community through creativity. It offers services at the Sherman Phoenix, in Milwaukee Public Schools at Repairers of the Breach and out in the community.

BloomMKE: $1,000 in general operating support. BloomMKE provides stewardship of two community gardens located on city of Milwaukee Housing Authority properties.

Business Educational Consortium: $5,000 in general operating support.

Center for Teaching Entrepreneurship: $20,000 in general operating support.The center provides programs for youth, ages 9 to 24, to develop knowledge and abilities in entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Center for Veterans Issues: $25,000 in general operating support.

Commercial Corridors Institute: $20,000 for its pilot project that will provide business and economic-related technical assistance to four underserved business improvement districts in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods in Milwaukee to help develop and grow small businesses and tap workforce talent within the BIDs.

Community Foundation for Mississippi: $10,000 to provide support for its ongoing response to Jackson’s water crisis and its work to invest in short, mid and long-term solutions driven activities to mitigate the effects of the water crisis, support education and emergency preparation and to work in collaboration with local leaders, advisors, residents, nonprofits and philanthropic partners toward long-term sustainable change. The city of Jackson, Mississippi has a long history of water insecurity due, in large parts, to long-term failures in its infrastructure and a consistent breakdown of the city’s water system. In 2016, sampling of the municipal water was found to have lead levels above the allowable threshold; in 2020, the water system also failed an inspection from the Environmental Protection Agency. The city’s most recent break down of the system (due to rainfall and subsequent flooding related to the Pearl River) occurred in July 2022.

Convergence Resource Center: $50,000 in general operating support.

CORE El Centro: $50,000 in general operating support. 

Donovan Hines Foundation of Exuberance Co: $25,000in general operating support.The organization specializes in grief counseling supportive services to families affected by gun violence promoting mental health awareness and substance abuse by transforming and healing lives. 

Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy: $120,000to help build a nearly 70,000-square-foot high school facility at 2228 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. to serve 500 students annually. The new location will increase access to nearby dual enrollment partner MATC and downtown business partners that will provide apprenticeship and internship opportunities.

Ebenezer Child Care Centers: $50,000 to upgrade itsOak Creek location, which opened in October 2004. Its goals in the two-phase project are to clean up its existing playground, make it safer for children, and provide more natural elements to promote an appreciation for beauty and genuine interest in nature. Phase I will focus on safety improvements including evacuating damaged turf and soil, removing and repurposing uneven tiles, and installing rubber safety surfacing. Phase II also will involve some safety improvements such as removing wood chips and replacing them with artificial turf. It will also include the addition of more natural elements such as large logs and boulders to allow for free play and large muscle development.

Edessa School of Fashion: $20,000 for its pilot project, which will provide pre-college exposure to careers in apparel design at five to 10 Milwaukee area high schools in the 2022-'23 academic year. It also will identify three to five students from each school to enroll in a pilot, three-week summer camp.

End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin: $50,000 for a specific multimedia campaign called Saving Ourselves. The purpose is to divert Black males ages 18 to 47 challenged by inapt use of anger and aggression against their partners and within the community away from carceral systems with the delivery of culturally responsive, trauma informed supports.

Financial Empowerers Corporation: $5,000 in general operating support.

Friends of Havenwoods: $23,315to support an environmental educator and educational supplies.

Friends of Lakeshore State Park: $18,289to support a full-time bilingual park educator position to enable the park to continue offering bilingual programs and expand outreach to a greater number of underprivileged communities.

Grand Avenue Club: $25,000to support its Art Collective program, which helps club members, adults in Milwaukee County who have experienced mental illness, develop their artistic interests by expressing themselves via a variety of mediums. The program also focuses on having individualized attention from a skilled staff member/artist, attending art workshops, being part of Art Collective commentary, organizing art shows, and visiting cultural experiences such as museum exhibits. The purpose of this project is to provide program participants with access to quality, personalized instruction and creative support from an artistic community.

Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps: $50,000 in general operating support.

HIR Wellness Center: $50,000to help provide culturally relevant mental health services for indigenous and underserved community members.

Hmong American Peace Academy: $25,000 for "Get Kids Ahead,” a program that will provide professional, culturally sensitive training to teachers, staff, and other adults who work with HAPA's scholars so that their mental health needs can be addressed as well as possible.

IMPACT Alcohol and Other Abuse Services: $15,000 in general operating support.

Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful: $15,000 in general operating support.

Latino Arts: $25,000 in general operating support.

Lead2Change: $45,000 in general operating support.

LGBT MilWALKee: $10,000 to support the addition of two more tours to the LGBT milWALKee app, including one focused specifically on Black LGBTQ spaces. This brand-new research will be spearheaded by Janice Colby, a Black drag performer and mentor for trans women. It will include partnering with MSOE, MIAD and the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project to create 10 oral history interviews and curate other primary documents. These will be used to produce mini documentaries for the LGBT milWALKee app. The work will spotlight the vibrant and valuable history of Black LGBTQ+ Milwaukeeans, addressing the double erasure they've been subjected to.

Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan: $25,000to help implement School Centered Mental Health services to remove systemic barriers to treatment for Milwaukee children of color, impacted by healthcare disparities and inequities. LSS is committed to advancing innovative mental health care reforms in Milwaukee public schools in marginalized neighborhoods.

Lynden: $25,000 for Call & Response, a cross-disciplinary, community-focused, artist-driven initiative that has brought together artists, scholars, educators, and community members to construct a space for artists of color to celebrate the radical Black imagination to re-examine the past and imagine a better future. It will offer residencies, workshops and public programs with artists Daniel Minter, Arianne King Comer, Reggie Wilson (with Indigenous artist Nicholas Galanin), Scott Barton, Portia Cobb, Folayemi Wilson, and others. 

Malaika Early Learning Center: $50,000 to replace carpeting and make necessary upgrades to bathrooms in the classrooms.

Marcus Performing Arts Center: $30,000 to provide unique arts engagement opportunities to more than 15,000 youth. MPAC carefully curates programming to meet the needs of the community by bringing diverse, genre-busting performers to Milwaukee, providing audiences opportunities to see new artists and artforms that they may not have had the chance to experience before. MPAC also pairs these performances with unique engagement opportunities such as masterclasses, workshops, and Q&A sessions with the performing artists to encourage community participation and ensure that all facets of our diverse community are reached and engaged. In addition to community engagement activities, many of the artists featured perform a special 60-minute daytime performance for K-12 students as part of our Student Matinee Series.

Mequon Nature Preserve: $25,002 for its community farm development project.

Meta House: $40,000 to help maintain competitive paid positions for bachelor’s interns with a focus on recruiting historically underrepresented groups, most especially female students of color. By offering paid internships, it hopes to break some of the barriers that students from historically underrepresented groups face. 

Metcalfe Park Community Bridges: $75,000 to strengthen its infrastructure by adding staff to support its efforts around leadership development of residents and educating residents on housing opportunities. The grant will support the continued efforts in Metcalfe Park Community Bridges that serve as a key resource to individual and families living and working in the neighborhood. 

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre: $25,000 in general operating support. 

Milwaukee Christian Center: $35,000 for Muskego Way Forward, a community organizing blueprint created through the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, a federally funded revitalization effort aimed at catalyzing community change and neighborhood development. This resident driven revitalization effort focuses on the historic old south side neighborhood that spans from 16th Street to 27th Street and Greenfield Ave to Becher Street. 

Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition: $25,000 to support the7th Annual Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival. During the festival, MMWC will screen up to 12 films at the Oriental Theater. Director talk-back sessions, panel discussions, and other relevant experiences follow each screening; these supplemental activities provide additional opportunities for audiences to learn more about Muslim culture and community. 

Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation: $50,000 for the “Let Us Play” project, which is working to transform 180 outdoor spaces throughout Milwaukee. For the last 50+ years, asphalt has been widely used in Milwaukee-area playfields and schoolyards as a low-cost option to maintain public spaces. In the summer of 2023, five Milwaukee Public Schools are scheduled for renovation of their outdoor spaces: Gaenslen, German Immersion, Kluge, Mitchell, and Riley. Requested funds will provide spaces that support learning and physical activity at the sites, including outdoor classrooms, play structures, greenhouses and raised bed planters, arts installations, and more.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater: $400,000 for its capital campaign.

Milwaukee Rescue Mission: $50,000 to help provide dignified and hospitable care for guests in the nonprofit’s emergency shelter for homeless men by building 20 single stall showers and updating the bathroom area. Each stall will have a soap/shampoo dispenser and exterior changing area with two hooks. Additionally, the adjacent bathroom will get cosmetic updates (new toilets, countertops, sinks, fixtures, etc.).

Milwaukee Riverkeeper: $15,000 for its youth environmental education programming.

MKE Black: $20,000 in general operating support.

MKE Youth Sports Alliance: $25,000 in general operating support.

National Audubon Society: $25,000 for Wild Indigo Milwaukee, a program that helps to address the barriers that make natural spaces inaccessible to communities of color and begins to dismantle perceptions that nature is not for them. Wild Indigo creates and provides nature-based activities tailored for communities in the Great Lakes region that address concerns around accessibility, safety, and wellness, while also leading to conservation impacts for the unique habitats within each community and the birds that depend on them. Audubon recruits community engagement staff who are residents of the communities in which they work. These Coordinators work with community partners to create programs that meet participants where they are. Coordinators create, promote, and lead activities tailored to the needs and interests of African American and Hispanic/Latinx communities where Wild Indigo operates.

Nearby Nature Milwaukee: $15,000 in general operating support. 

Nehemiah Project: $25,000 in general operating support.

Nia Imani Family: $50,000 to expand Umoja, a new community programming center that was created to offer a safe, educational space for the participant's children. Umoja serves the mothers residing at NIF for some of their life skills programming. The site is built for group and private coaching, circle work, demonstrations, and a variety of physical, social, and emotional programs to help the mothers continue to grow in their life skills. Umoja was built with the intent to expand to alumnae and to local community members to the 53205 area.

Notre Dame School of Milwaukee: $40,000 to improve its early childhood facilities and expand its service capacity by installing air conditioning in two K4 classrooms.

Outreach Community Health Centers: $100,00 0towards costs associated with the construction of a new, four-story wing to be attached to and integrated with its existing site at 210 Capitol Drive. The project will replace the outdated and operationally unsustainable service site at 711 West Capitol while increasing service capacity in all programs.

Prism Economic Development Corporation: $25,000 in general operating support.

Purpose Driven Sisters: $25,000 in general operating support.

Raising the Bar: $50,000 in general operating support.

REDgen: $15,000 in general operating support.

Reflo: $25,000 in general operating support.

Renew Environmental Public Health Advocates: $5,000 in capital support. 

Riverworks Development Corporation: $50,000 to build upon the momentum of engagement generated by the Harambee Quality of Life Plan to build a database to define, capture and track resident engagement and neighborhood development within the Harambee community, while supporting the capacity of the Neighborhood Development Team to carry out those efforts.

Safe & Sound: $50,000 in general operating support.

Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee: $50,000 in capital support. 

Serenity Inns: $50,000 in general operating support.

Signature Dance Company: $25,000 in general operating support.

Sojourner Family Peace Center: $50,000 in general operating support.

Solomon Community Temple United Methodist Church: $10,000 to install porous pavers at Solomon Community Temple. The installation will allow it to manage 100,000 gallons of annual stormwater. In addition, it will further develop the 'Belonging Place’ pocket park – a neighborhood space facilitating and supporting community engagement, education, empowerment, and well-being.

St. Anthony Congregation: $25,000 to renovate its indoor gross motor space for preschool students by purchasing wooden kitchen playsets to enhance play-based opportunities, story books to encourage early literacy and creativity and physical activity kits and a giant scale to encourage play and physical activity.

STRYV365: $50,000 in general operating support.

Teens Grow Greens: $20,000 to help fund the employment of all 60 interns during the 2023 fall harvest entrepreneurship and professionalism experiences from September - November 2023.

The Friendship Circle: $50,000 in general operating support.

The Healing Network: $15,000 in general operating support. 

United Community Center: $100,000 toward a two-phase renovation of the Guadalupe South building, adjacent to its Walkers Square campus, to comply with building/licensing requirements for infants and toddlers. Phase 1 includes adding ramps for ground level emergency access and reconfiguring classroom space to maximize the number of infants and toddlers the building can support. Phase 2 will include a permanent, age-appropriate outdoor play space and enhanced outdoor safety and security with new fencing, access, and lighting.

Upstream Arts: $12,000 to provide professional development for Milwaukee educators and arts residences for students with disabilities.During the 22-23 school year Upstream Arts will work with Milwaukee Public Schools to facilitate The Art of Instruction, a series of trainings that provide artful instruction strategies to diversify teaching practices.   

Urban Ecology Center: $30,000 in general operating support.

UWM Foundation: $35,000 to support the Eric Von Broadcast Fellowship, which provides a yearlong, paid fellowship to a college graduate new to journalism. The fellowship was designed to address the underrepresentation of voices of Black, Indigenous and people of color in broadcast journalism.

Victims of Milwaukee Violence Burial Fund: $25,000 for capital support.   

Walker’s Point Youth & Family Center: $50,000 to support itsmental health clinic, which provides free individual, group, and family therapy to all residents in its shelter as well as any non-residential who need this service. In an average year, its therapists work with 210+ young people in shelter, 120+ young people non-residents, and field 1600+ crisis calls. 

Walnut Way Conservation Corp: $25,000 in general operating support.

Waukesha Catholic School System: $20,000 for additional key fob door entry systems, as well as surveillance cameras for the outdoor perimeter of its St. William campus.

Wisconsin Early Childhood Association: $50,000 for capital improvement and efficiency enhancement projects identified by the 58 early care and education programs enrolled in Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network in Milwaukee. The list of project types focused on health and safety, general business sustainability, and DCF compliance. Applicants will specify the project with the highest impact for their program and follow an application process. Projects are predicted to range from $300 to $4,000.

Wisconsin Humane Society: $30,000 toward its Pets for Life program, which provides access to animal care services, resources, and information by building relationships and engaging underserved neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Staff provide outreach door-to-door and offer free pet health care, including spay/neuter services.

Wisconsin Justice Initiative: $20,000 in general operating support.The organization provides public information on how municipal courts work and what defendants' rights are, so low-income and minority individuals can better represent themselves and avoid jail or loss of licenses for unpaid tickets. WJI advocates with municipal judges to provide interpreters to guarantee due process.

Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Service: $25,000 to support its STRONG Milwaukee Day Treatment Program, which provides mental health services to children who suffer from psychological distress.

Wisconsin Veterans Network: $25,000 for its Intake, Assessment and Advocacy Program, which works to ensure that veterans are connected to the best organization able to solve their immediate crisis or long-term challenge.

Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee: $3,000 to sponsor“The F Word: Reclaiming Feminism” event, an annual educational event designed to inspire new perspectives, help shape the narrative, and celebrate women in our community.

YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee: $50,000in general operating support.

Past grants >>