Milwaukee, WI - July 9, 2013 - A multi-year, multimedia project providing a comprehensive history of the metro Milwaukee area received an additional boost toward its development, thanks to a Greater Milwaukee Foundation grant.

The $50,000 grant to the UWM Foundation will support the digital image content and development of the online edition of the project, called the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. It is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Urban Studies Program and Marquette University's History Department that will include a searchable online resource as well as a book. Other cities, including Chicago and Cleveland, have completed similar projects. The project is expected to be complete by 2017.

The grant was a part of a total of $2,358,850 awarded through the Foundation's second quarter competitive and discretionary grant cycle. Additional grants include:

Strengthening education

Literacy Services of Wisconsin: $75,000 (over two years) to help current students complete the five-test series for the General Educational Development certificate before a new exam goes into effect in 2014. The grant also will help the agency prepare clients for the new GED test.

Marquette University: $75,000 to support the Milwaukee Summer Reading Project, an intensive six-week summer program that works with African American second through fourth graders who struggle with reading. The grant also will fund teacher training.

City Year Milwaukee: $50,000 to fund summer youth employment program stipends for corps members.

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership: $25,000 to help fund the Pathways to Prosperity pilot program as well as fund a youth coordinator position. The pilot will train 100 young adults from Bay View High School, Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School, Alexander Hamilton High School and the School of Career and Tech Ed in the technical trades and place at least 75 in work-based learning experiences.

Milwaukee Film: $10,000 to cover the costs to organize and provide educational screenings at the Oriental Theater as well as curriculum packets for 6,000 students from 50 schools.

Strengthening neighborhoods

Groundwork Milwaukee: $25,000 to enable it to hire summer youth workers and crew supervisors who will work in three Milwaukee neighborhoods - Metcalfe Park, Borchert Field and Harambee - to develop urban garden plots on blighted land.

Next Door Foundation: $25,000 to cover the planning and implementation costs for the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program in Metcalfe Park.

Urban Economoic Development Association of WI: $25,000 to support its work as lead coordinator of Take Root Milwaukee, which addresses the issue of foreclosures in the city.

Wild Space Inc.: $20,000 to support the position of part-time community engagement manager who work with community organizations and neighborhood groups to create site-specific community performances and events.

Increasing income and building assets

Community Warehouse: $50,000 (over two years) to partially support the operations and facilities manager position for Milwaukee Working, its new contract services division.

Milwaukee Area Workforce Funding Alliance: $50,000 as a partial match to leverage National Fund for Workforce Solutions' Social Innovation Fund money to support local workforce development programs.

BizStarts Milwaukee: $25,000 to expand its ability to serve a greater number of start-up entrepreneurs. Since it started in 2008, BizStarts has helped more than 25 companies launch, with at least 205 jobs created.

The Student Conservation Association: $25,000 to support the Milwaukee Conservation Leadership Corps School Year Program.

In addition, $50,000 of discretionary funds were committed to the Mayor's Earn and Learn Fund, a Greater Milwaukee Foundation fund that supports summer youth employment.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Cream City Foundation: $30,000 to conduct a needs assessment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in southeastern Wisconsin in conjunction with the Center for Urban Initiatives and Research and McAlpine Consulting for Growth.

Pathfinders Milwaukee: $30,000 to support Q-BLOK, a program that provides housing, case management, mentor families and other services to LGBTQ adults ages 18 to 35 in Milwaukee who are at risk for homelessness.

JusticePoint: $25,000 to conduct a study of the city of Milwaukee's municipal in-custody court to assess whether there can be community-based alternatives used for people who violate ordinances instead of being placed in municipal jail.

Milwaukee LGBT Community Center: $25,000 to support its program director position.

Community responsive grantmaking

Wisconsin Parkinson Association: $100,000 in support of the Parkinson Research Institute, a research center focused on finding the cause of Parkinson's disease.

Lead2Change: $100,000 (over two years) to help with the organization's transition to a philanthropic partner organization.

Adoption Resources of Wisconsin: $82,000 (over two years) to support succession planning in anticipation of its longtime CEO's retirement in 2016.

Family Promise of Washington County: $60,000 to cover renovation costs associated with the development of eight permanent supportive housing units in a building located near downtown West Bend. The units are part of a 17,000-square-foot building that also will house Family Promise, the Youth and Family Project and Habitat for Humanity.

Repairers of the Breach: $50,000 to cover the costs of repairing the south and east facades of its building on Vliet Street to meet occupancy permit requirements.

Froedtert Hospital Foundation: $25,000 to support program incentives for participants in its Pathway to Parenthood program for expectant parents that links health education with prenatal health care.

Milwaukee County Historical Society: $25,000 to provide operating support as it moves toward its strategic transition to diversify its membership and exhibits.

Best Buddies Wisconsin: $20,000 to launch the Best Buddies Citizens Project, which matches adults with intellectual disabilities and adults without disabilities based on common interests and geographic proximity.

West Bend Friends of Sculpture: $15,000 for the development and installation of two sculptures next to the new Museum of Wisconsin art building.

Boys & Girls Club of Washington County: $10,000 to open a new branch in Hartford that would serve middle school students.

Interfaith Older Adult Programs: $10,000 to help with the restructuring of its neighborhood outreach program, which helps adults 60 years old and older in Milwaukee County remain living independent in their own homes.

Neighborhood House of Milwaukee: $9,000 toward the creation of a permanent art installation on the inside of its building. An artist-in-residence, Andrew Parchman, will work with at least 200 teens and 25 adults in the planning and painting of the piece of art.


About the Greater Milwaukee Foundation

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is a family of more than 1,100 individual charitable funds, each created by donors to serve the local charitable causes of their choice. Grants from these funds serve people throughout Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties. Started in 1915, the Foundation is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the world.

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