If one were to drive through the Metcalfe Park neighborhood, located on Milwaukee’s north side, they would find a number of physical improvements that speak to the revitalization that has happened over the past decade or so.
Butterfly Park, a bright and welcoming recreational area with a playground and green space. Metcalfe Park Rising, a pocket park that is often home to events and community gatherings. Black Joy Farm, a community garden and gathering space. A vibrant multicolored mural outside of a food pantry that speaks to the beauty and magic of the neighborhood with such positive messages as “Together we rise!” and “Love grows here.”
And while these are important examples of the work that Danell Cross and Melody McCurtis have done over the years through Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, the neighborhood organization they lead, they don’t tell the whole story.
The two women also have built up residents’ capacity to affect change, which is perhaps more transformative and longer lasting than any of the projects that have taken shape. The mother-daughter duo received the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s 2025 Frank Kirkpatrick Award for the physical and economic development they have cultivated in the neighborhood.
“Metcalfe Park is on the rise,” McCurtis said. “We are committed to making sure our community decides what they want to happen in their neighborhood and we’re doing that block by block.”
The area was once booming, having been home to MasterLock and a number of other businesses. Deindustrialization and disinvestment have changed its trajectory over the past 40 years.
Cross and McCurtis are collaborating with neighbors to reclaim the narrative.
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges was born 15 years ago out of a neighborhood movie night that Cross and other resident leaders put together that provided access to resources as well. It drew 300 people.
Their work drew interest and in 2012, the neighborhood was selected as one of eight nationwide to participate in the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, a federal program that began to catalyze community-driven change in low-income neighborhoods.
“What they were looking for was a neighborhood that lacked resources and investment but had an asset and that asset being the people that were there,” said Cross, who was hired to coordinate the neighborhood work and has led the organization ever since, calling the work a ministry and a calling.
And though McCurtis grew up in the neighborhood watching her mother lead, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion she would be a part of the work.
“There was pressure to NOT get involved,” said McCurtis, the organization’s deputy director and lead organizer. “She didn’t want to hire me. The community demanded that she hire me.”
The organization’s work is described as “a grassroots movement aimed at reclaiming and re-empowering our community.” Over the years, the two have helped to bring millions of dollars of investment and brought about changes around five community priority areas: safety, civic engagement, intergenerational wealth, connectedness and cultural vibrancy and health and wellness. They started small with block parties, neighborhood cleanups and raised garden installations.
During the pandemic, they began the organization’s mutual aid efforts by gathering supplies like food and masks and distributing them door to door. In 2020, the organization delivered more than 10,000 packages. Since then, Metcalfe Park has opened two physical locations that are stocked with donated basic essentials including diapers, clothes and hygiene products.
After the 2025 closure of the area’s only full-service grocery store, which exacerbated the existing food desert in the neighborhood, the duo partnered with Tricklebee Cafe to operate a freestanding fridge that offers free items.
All of their work is community designed and driven.
“In order for us to do this work, we lean heavily on and are guided by the people who live here,” Cross said. “Our success is because of them. They are experts in this community. They know what needs to be done. They guide our work and everything we do. Everything is designed from what they tell us.”
The nonprofit recently launched “Repair to Restore,” a homeownership initiative that is rehabbing properties and offering residents the opportunity to lease to own. A $6.5 million redevelopment of nearby Metcalfe Playfield is underway. Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is also fundraising to renovate and relocate its office to a building on North 38th Street that McCurtis hopes will become a community and cultural hub.
And though their work is locally focused, the two women have gained recognition on a state and national level, particularly since the pandemic, because of their advocacy work. Their nonprofit has worked to increase voter turnout, address reckless driving and provide input on local zoning laws.
“We are making an impact,” McCurtis said. “I think we are a vital asset to the city and to the state and the support should match the asset that we truly are.”
And though the work is demanding and relentless, it is not something either one can stop doing.
“I am looking at things generationally,” said McCurtis, a mother of two. “My grandmother was an activist. My mom is doing this work and now I am. Do I want my kids to have to do this work? My mission is to cultivate and create liberation for real.”