By their names alone, one might glean that the Environmental Youth Collaborative and the city of Milwaukee’s Urban Forestry Fund have a lot in common. But beyond the parallels in their missions, they have an additional connection – they both take a collaborative and equity-based approach to their work, which they’re accomplishing with help from philanthropy.
It starts with collaboration
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is a member of the Environmental Funders Group, which meets quarterly. Conversations among the group members gave rise to the Environmental Youth Collaborative.
Made up of local nonprofits and supported by advisory foundations and governmental agencies, the EYC offers internships to over 200 youth, with nine of the organizations providing active programming this summer. While each of the organizations has its own focus such as art, water conservancy, STEM and more, they all incorporate environmental teaching into their internships. Additionally, the youth take field trips to each other’s sites to see what they’re each doing and learn common personal or professional skills such as financial literacy, interpersonal communication and workplace expectations.
“It’s such a cool concept of collaboration versus competition,” Dani Breen, senior portfolio manager of environment and basic needs, said. “Through the Environmental Youth Collaborative, they’re focusing on how to raise environmentally conscious youth so that whatever workforce they go into, they bring that consciousness.”
Since 2023, the Foundation has awarded the project $185,000, with part of this funding coming from the Otto Bremer Trust. That’s in line with the interests of many Foundation donors who, when combined with the Foundation Board-directed grantmaking, provided over $6.8 million to environmental and animal causes in 2024. Additionally, because the project covers both environmental and workforce development, Breen collaborated with Theresa Scott, portfolio manager for economic mobility.
Justin Hegarty, who manages the EYC, is executive director and environmental engineer for Reflo, a local nonprofit that focuses on community-based water projects in the Milwaukee area such as the Green and Healthy Schools redevelopment project. Over the summer, Reflo’s interns help maintain the projects, which include 36 public schools.
EYC offered organizations a chance to leverage each other’s strengths and opportunities, Hegarty said.
“The strong diversity of programming across the different organizations allows us to have greater opportunities for youth to be exposed to kind of the best part of each other's organizations,” he said. “We also have a different geographical range throughout southeastern Wisconsin.”
EYC member, Riveredge Nature Center, located in Ozaukee County, is an independent nonprofit nature center that offers environmental conservation, research and education to people of all ages.
“It's really put us in a better working partnership with some great organizations, interested in doing similar things, whether it's helping people build a better relationship with the outdoors or helping more people become stewards of the natural world,” John Rakowski, executive director, said. “It helped increase our exposure, our awareness to other partners located in Milwaukee.”
This year, Riveredge hosted Milwaukee River Day where all EYC interns were welcome to engage in the river in a variety of ways from recreational activities such as tubing to educational opportunities such as getting out microscopes to examine water samples.
Bernal Fox, 18, interned with Restoring Lands, a nonprofit that formed between the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust and the River Revitalization Foundation that aims to protect and restore southeastern Wisconsin’s land and water.
Fox removed invasive species and helped pick up trash following the floods earlier this month.
“I think the experience is great,” he said. “I've never been an outdoorsy person, so it’s been really fun to get out, and this is the most I've been outside, any summer. I cared about the environment before, but this [experience] has honestly made it grow.”
Small giving yields large impact
For the city of Milwaukee, collaboration takes place in the form of a combined giving program, where employees choose to donate a certain amount from their paycheck to support charitable organizations including the Urban Forestry Fund, an agency endowment at the Foundation.
The fund began in 1991, fueled by the individual generosity of municipal staff. Its original purpose was beautification of the city as well as support for green spaces, education and other programs. Two years ago, Randy Krause, the forestry services manager, considered ways to use the fund more proactively. The result is the community tree planning program, designed to increase tree canopy throughout the city.
“As municipal foresters, we’re limited to planting trees in public spaces between the curb and the sidewalk or on the boulevard down the center of the street” Erin Stoekl, urban forestry district manager, said. “In areas that lack a healthy, mature tree canopy, sometimes the only places you can plant trees is people’s front yards or backyards or private property.”
Community groups, be it a church group, neighbors or local nonprofit, can apply for trees through the Urban Forestry Fund – the minimum is 10. If approved, forestry staff deliver the trees and provide technical assistance and training on how to properly care for the trees. Groups are responsible for the planting and managing of the trees.
The redesign of this program is only two years old, but nearly 150 trees have been planted so far. Last year, it requested the Foundation disburse $50,000 to support project requests.
Equity in motion
The community tree planting program allows trees to be planted in dense concrete areas that lack green space known as heat islands.
There are obvious benefits to more trees including better oxygen, improved air quality and shade, which can help lower heating and energy costs, reduce flooding, cleaner sewers and fewer pollutants in the water. But then there are the benefits researchers are still learning more about.
According to Stoekl, there are correlations between physical health and mental health, improved management of anxiety for people with ADHD, quicker recovery times from surgery. Additionally, mothers living in areas with a healthy mature tree canopy are more likely to carry their infant to full term.
“I feel it's our industry's response to the national conversation around equity,” Stoekl said. “Because that applies to many different contexts and there's a whole conversation around tree equity and the right to have access to the health benefits and all the benefits that healthy mature trees provide.”
The EYC incorporates youth-adult equity during its winter planning retreat, where organizational leaders and youth managers come together to discuss challenges and opportunities. It hosts a summer governance meeting with interns strategically designed to give youth an opportunity to voice their feedback and co-develop future iterations of EYC activities.
For example, youth expressed a desire to build their social networks and spend time together that wasn’t focused on a lesson or training.
“Some folks in the collaborative have expressed that it's really important for us to have these socials where we get together, and my engineering brain was like, ‘Well, that's time we're not spending like planting trees or managing bioswales,’” Hegarty said. “I have come to learn and appreciate, especially after hearing from our youth, about how very important developing our own personal networks can be before starting our careers.”
Looking ahead
As summer winds to an end, the Urban Forestry Fund is reviewing project applications for groups hoping to plant this fall. Stoekl said the plan is to continue its intentional approach and engage more employees in the combined giving program.
As for the EYC, programming continues throughout 2025, despite the program facing a potential loss of federal funding. Member organizations intend to reconvene this winter to plan for next summer. In the meantime, it hopes youth continue to engage in the environment and encourage family and friends to do the same.
“I want people we work with in the collaborative to build a deeper appreciation and relationship with the outdoors; to know that the outdoors is important for their well-being and our collective well-being,” Rakowski said. “I want young people in particular to feel a sense of belonging and connection and excitement for these spaces so that they can advocate for the environment and the outdoors. And I really hope that young people get excited for engaging green spaces around their school or local park.”
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