Reading Time: 4 minutes

When the Social Development Commission stopped running its anti-poverty programs and services in 2024, it left many employees and contractors unpaid for completed work. 

Nearly two years later, some have received a partial payment, while others are still waiting.   

Deja Allen, a former housing intake specialist for SDC, is owed $2,518.09 in gross wages, according to her wage claim. 

She said she was out of work for eight months and the unpaid wages affected her tremendously as she figured out how to pay her rent and bills. 

“I am thankful for my family being able to assist me while I looked for other employment,” Allen said. 

SDC stopped running its anti-poverty programs and laid off staff in April 2024. Since then, the agency has dealt with board turnover, lawsuits and the loss of access to community action funding.

What’s happening with the wage claims lawsuit?

The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state’s Department of Workforce Development that claims SDC owed nearly $360,000 in back wages and benefits to former employees.

Sarah Woods, former youth and family services staff, was laid off when the agency paused services in April 2024. She filed a wage claim with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, which informed her that she is owed $4,756. 

Woods said she last received an update from the state in May 2025, when a representative said SDC would not have more information until the legal process is completed. 

Department of Justice attorney Michael D. Morris said at a status conference last month that William Sulton, SDC’s former legal counsel, is still working behind the scenes with him on reaching a resolution and requested additional time. The next status conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on March 26. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Workforce Development said the department isn’t able to provide additional details on the lawsuit’s status or outcomes while litigation continues. 

Jorge Franco, interim CEO of SDC and chair of the SDC board, said that paying employees and contractors what they’re owed remains a major priority for SDC. He advised former employees to follow the legal process closely. 

“It’ll be upon the attorneys for the claimant to determine what and how they proceed through next steps,” he said.

Contractors still owed

In his more than 40 years providing weatherization services in the Milwaukee area, Jaime Hurtado said SDC had one of the best and most robust weatherization divisions. 

Hurtado is the owner and president of Insulation Technologies Inc., or Intec, and worked with SDC for more than 20 years.

SDC received funding for the work through Wisconsin’s Weatherization Assistance Program. The Wisconsin Department of Administration suspended SDC’s participation in the program in March 2024 and began a forensic accounting after it reported a misallocation of funds. 

“They had built a professional, top-tier delivery service, a program to deliver these services in weatherization for people who need it the most,” Hurtado said. “It’s a heartbreak to see that go out of existence.”

Franco has said the department refused to reimburse SDC for nearly $490,000 in weatherization work and let it continue accumulating expenses before shutting down the program.

Intec and two other contractors, Affordable Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. and DMJ Services LLC, otherwise known as Action Heating & Cooling, sued SDC on claims that it failed to pay for weatherization work completed under contract in 2023 and 2024.

A judge granted the contractors a money judgment of $186,517.03 plus statutory costs and interest in October. About $112,500 of that would go to Intec, but it hasn’t been collected yet.

Jon Yakish, owner of Micro Analytical Inc., said his asbestos-testing laboratory has not been paid for 90% of the contracts it had with SDC before it closed. 

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” he said, estimating the remaining unpaid work cost around $2,300. “And I know there’s other people out there where it was a much bigger deal, so it’s hard for me to complain.”

Loss of work

More than the missing payments, Yakish and Hurtado’s businesses have felt the sustained impact of losing a loyal customer. 

Intec continues to perform work in the state’s weatherization program, Hurtado said, but at a reduced level. He said other providers have brought in a smaller volume of business than SDC. 

“We just move our attention to other parts of the market,” Hurtado said. 

Yakish said Micro Analytical also hasn’t received the same amount of business it had from SDC from the other organizations that have taken over the weatherization program services in Milwaukee.

“We don’t want to rely on the government, but it is a baseline of work that’s always going on, that kind of, in a way, helps us be recession-proof,” Yakish said. 

Moving on

Hurtado said the lawsuit was the only way to secure Intec’s rights to collect the money that it’s owed, though he acknowledged that SDC owes other lenders and suppliers.

“Who knows if they’ll have enough money to pay our balance, but at least we’ll be in the list,” he said. 

The $112,500 amount is about 25% of the total amount Intec was owed from SDC, Hurtado said. He said the state worked with other weatherization service agencies to pay Intec the other 75%, which helped the company. 

“Thank God we’re diversified enough, and we’re a strong company,” he said. 

Yakish said he submitted invoices and data on work performed at the state’s request in order to get paid, and a few contracts were paid. He became frustrated after the companies that had taken over SDC’s weatherization contracts kept asking for the same information.

“I kind of told them, ‘Look, I’m throwing my hands up.
This is the last time I’m doing this,’” he said. “So I don’t know if they took that as I was unwilling to work with them or whatever, but it just seemed really clear that nothing was actually going to happen.”

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Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Nearly two years after SDC shutdown, former workers and contractors still seek payment  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

North Division High School had always been a staple in Milwaukee’s Black community. 

But a Jan. 19, 1976, order by federal Judge John Reynolds for Milwaukee Public Schools to desegregate almost changed that. 

The ruling led MPS to propose changes three years later with the goal to integrate the 97% Black North Side high school. 

The solution? Close North Division as the neighborhood knew it and reopen it as a citywide magnet school for medical and science technology. Magnet schools offer special instruction and programs that are typically not available elsewhere.  

The district had utilized a similar strategy in the years prior to integrate Rufus King High School and Golda Meir School by changing them to magnet schools. 

The proposal for North Division would integrate the school by drawing more white students from other parts of the city but would also limit enrollment options for students in the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Residents quickly fought back, organizing the Coalition to Save North Division. 

Howard Fuller, who led the coalition, remembers the community’s reaction when the plan was first announced.  

“We ended up filling up the auditorium at the board meeting at Central Office,” said Fuller, who went on to become superintendent of MPS from 1991 to 1995. “That’s when I gave the speech and ended by saying ‘enough is enough.’ That then became the slogan for the Coalition to Save North.”

Fuller said the group organized marches and meetings, canvassed across the neighborhood and eventually took legal action and won.

Desegregation at MPS

Lawyer and politician Lloyd Barbee, among others, filed a lawsuit against the Milwaukee Public School Board of Directors in 1965 to desegregate MPS, Milwaukee historian and author James Nelsen said.  

The suit alleged that the district’s policy of assigning students to their neighborhood school maintained school segregation because of the widespread residential segregation across the city. 

The case ran until 1976, when Reynolds ruled that Milwaukee Public Schools needed to take action to desegregate the district. 

Reynolds then established a monitoring board to enforce and oversee districtwide desegregation plans.

Nelsen said shortly before the ruling, the Board of Directors welcomed new Superintendent Lee McMurrin, who had implemented magnet schools in Toledo, Ohio.

Once he came to Milwaukee, McMurrin pushed to rebrand some neighborhood high schools as magnet schools, encouraging students from across the city to go to different schools.

When a new North Division building opened in 1978, the district tried attracting white students to the school but was unsuccessful. 

This, in combination with low performing grades at the school, led McMurrin to target North Division to become the city’s newest magnet school. The school would open a medical and science technology program for high schoolers across the city.

“We’re not satisfied with the results at North Division,” McMurrin said in a 1979 Milwaukee Sentinel article. “We will not have a change about unless we make it a brand new school.”

Community pushes back

Fuller, students and the neighborhood had major concerns about the new plan. 

“The thing that concerned me the most was that once they built the brand-new building, then the first thing they were going to do then was to put all of the neighborhood kids out,” Fuller said. “In part, it was also a pushback against the way that desegregation was being implemented in the city at that time.”

North Division’s student council organized a rally in which 400 students walked out of school and marched to the Central Office in protest, according to local news reports. 

The plan would close enrollment to freshmen and sophomores. Willie Washington, then a North Division junior, spoke out against the plan during the protest.  

“We feel that we should not be used as guinea pigs for integration,” Washington told the Milwaukee Journal.

Fuller said the coalition spent the summer going door to door in the neighborhood, held community meetings and built a parent group.

When the new school year started in September 1979, Fuller and over 200 students gathered for a mass meeting on North Division’s front lawn. Fuller told students to study hard and “demand that they be educated.”

After months of protesting, Fuller said, the coalition escalated to legal action through the monitoring board, established to observe desegregation efforts.

Success at a cost

Fuller said the Board of Directors eventually reached an out-of-court settlement and dropped the plan.

“It was the first battle where the board reversed its decision on closing a school in the Black community because all of the protests before had never gained any traction,” Fuller said. 

The school would remain a neighborhood school but also offer a career specialty program, according to the settlement. 

The agreement said the school should aim for about 2,000 students, 60% Black and 40% white. A set number of seats would be set aside for non-Black students, and Black students could not fill those spots.

As those changes were implemented, problems at North Division High School continued, Fuller said. 

Fuller said nobody knew he would eventually become a superintendent of MPS. When he took on the role in 1991, he gained access to documents and information nobody thought he would see. 

An assistant superintendent at the time told him that the board had taken actions to sabotage North Division after the coalition won.

“Some of the problems that exist at North today can be traced back to the conscious attempt to sabotage North once we won in court,” Fuller said. “There was such anger on the part of the administration that they had to do this.”

For example, Fuller said the coalition worked with North Division Principal Bob Jasna to set up a program and curriculum for the school, then replaced Jasna with a middle school principal who knew nothing about the work he and Fuller did.

“That sabotaged the entire effort that we had made,” Fuller said.

Today, North Division High School remains predominantly Black — 90.5%, according to the latest state report card. The school scored an overall 54.9 on the report card, meeting few expectations, according to the Wisconsin Department of Education.

“For me, this struggle around North Division has never ended,” Fuller said. “It’s been ongoing for 30, 40 years.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

How Milwaukee residents rallied to save North Division High School from closure during 1970s integration fight is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For many Milwaukee residents returning from incarceration, the difference between stability and setback can hinge on a single document: a valid driver’s license.

Without one, everyday responsibilities can become barriers that undermine a person’s successful return to the community, said Jay Tucker, administrator of community reintegration services at Wisconsin Community Services. 

Tucker helps oversee the organization’s long-running driver’s license recovery program, which helps people get back their licenses after suspensions or revocations. 

Although the program serves a broad range of low-income Milwaukee residents, Tucker said the loss of a driver’s license is especially destabilizing for people returning from incarceration, particularly as they look for work.  

“There’s already a stigma there,” Tucker said. “If I’m already checking a box on an application just to get the job, and now I may not have this valid work credential, it amplifies that stigma.”

Black and poor residents overrepresented

Suspended and revoked driver’s licenses disproportionately affect the city’s Black and low-income residents, said Clarence Johnson, president and CEO of Wisconsin Community Services. 

In Wisconsin, most license suspensions and revocations are not tied to dangerous driving but to unpaid fines and forfeitures. 

According to Wisconsin Department of Transportation data from 2024, failure to pay forfeitures accounted for more than 44% of revocations and suspensions statewide – far more than operating while intoxicated or point-based violations.

For many, that process starts with a single ticket, said Taffie Foster-Toney, lead case manager for the license recovery program.

“You get one citation, you’re not able to pay it and then it snowballs,” Foster-Toney said. 

Breaking a cycle

Shakia Thompson, 33, a Milwaukee resident, mother and student, said the cycle was hard to break.  

“My license was suspended because I had a lot of operating-after-suspension tickets,” Thompson said. “I would get on a payment plan, get my license back and then get another ticket.”

With work and family responsibilities, she said, staying on top of court appearances became difficult.

“With me working a lot, I wasn’t always able to attend court,” Thompson said. “So it just kept keeping me behind, and I kept owing and owing.”

How the program works

The driver’s license recovery program at Wisconsin Community Services began in 2010. 

It serves Milwaukee residents who meet federal poverty guidelines, have a suspended or revoked Wisconsin driver’s license and meet other eligibility guidelines.

Foster-Toney said the process begins with intake and a detailed review of a participant’s driving record.

Individuals are then paired with attorneys through Legal Action of Wisconsin and work case by case to resolve issues across multiple courts and counties. 

Options may include payment plans or community service. 

Thompson said the payment plan option helped her considerably. 

“There were times that I wasn’t able to pay a fine, and then I would get backed up on other bills. So it really helped in the long run,” she said. 

Participants can also attend a financial literacy workshop. In return, the program pays up to $60 in Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles fees once an individual is eligible for reinstatement.

Public safety benefits

Johnson said helping people regain licenses benefits the broader community.

“People who have valid driver’s licenses tend to be safer drivers,” he said. “When you have assets in your life, you’re much more inclined to make good judgment decisions. The driver’s license program offers hope. It’s a lifeline.”

Thompson said she shares information about the program widely, especially with people balancing many responsibilities, such as family and work.

“I tell a lot of people about it,” she said. “A lot of ladies in school that don’t have their license.”

After getting her license back last summer, Thompson said she’s focused on keeping it. 

“I’m doing great with my payment plans, and I have my license,” she said. “I’m moving forward.”

How to connect

Wisconsin Community Services receives referrals from courts, parole agents, nonprofit organizations, city agencies, police officers, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the mayor’s office. 

The program is housed at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s downtown campus and accepts walk-ins.

Eligibility requirements are: 

• A suspended or revoked Class D driver’s license
• City of Milwaukee residency
• Income that meets federal poverty guidelines 
• No valid license within the past eight years and completion of the DMV written test within the past 12 months
• No operating-while-intoxicated charges, suspensions or revocations related to operating while intoxicated   

People can contact Wisconsin Community Services at 414-297-6407 for more information.

‘I’m moving forward’: Driver’s license recovery program helps Milwaukee residents regain stability is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Wearing orange high-visibility vests as they mount TVs, conduct basic car care, assemble furniture and complete other tasks, participants of Handyman Academy are busy at work on Milwaukee’s North Side. 

Program founders Daniel McHenry and AJ Batchelor say learning these skills helps provide structure and mentorship for students with limited support at home. 

Handyman Academy, launched in July 2025, is a youth program that equips students with handyman skills to help them build confidence and independence. 

“Everything that I’m teaching them are things that I know,” McHenry said. “I wanted to create more resources for single mothers so they could keep their children out of trouble and focused.”

Inspiration for the program

McHenry is a self-taught handyman and owner of the moving company Lift N Go Express. He said after a decade of hands-on work, he wanted to shift from physical labor and pass his skills to inner-city teens, especially those in single-parent households.

“So many mothers poured their heart out to me about the struggles in helping their boys,” he said. 

Nearly half of Milwaukee County children are estimated to live in single-parent households as of 2023, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data. 

McHenry was a troubled teen who grew up in Chicago and the North Side of Milwaukee with a single mother. Although she taught him basic skills like how to change a tire, he learned other things on his own after losing his biological father. His stepfather was incarcerated. 

“The skills I teach in this program are skills that a lot of women can’t really teach their boys,” he said. 

McHenry later partnered with Batchelor, owner of AJB Handyman Construction Service LLC and a resident of the Garfield neighborhood. Batchelor was already teaching youths and others handyman skills.

“I typically find people off the street who are in need of money and instead of me giving them money, I show them how they can make it through my business,” Batchelor said. 

Becoming a handyman

Handyman Academy offers winter and summer sessions, with students meeting two to three hours weekly. 

During summer sessions, participants learn outdoor skills like how to change oil or tires on a car. Winter sessions focus on learning how to use different tools, reading instructions to assemble different items and safety. 

To ensure each student is familiar with the tools, McHenry designs worksheets and quizzes for them after each lesson.

“To teach someone how to fix and build something, they need to know what proper tools to use first,” McHenry said. 

Once they complete the program, students are celebrated with a graduation and handed a personal toolkit.

Recent graduates of the program include 15-year-old Naiem Bell and 13-year-old Leiyah McHenry, the daughter of Daniel McHenry.

Bell said he appreciated all the skills he learned, but valued teamwork the most. 

“A lot of the stuff I’ve been taught, I can’t do all of this alone,” Bell said.

Leiyah McHenry enjoyed the practical activities of the program like learning how to change a tire, an experience she never had before. 

“I do think that when I’m older and have my own car, I’ll be able to change my own tire now,” she said. 

Her biggest challenge was learning how to mount a TV. 

“It was hard to mount the TV at first because I’m so short, but my dad was there to help me,” she said. 

After completing the program, Bell assembled a 55-inch TV he received on Christmas. 

“I have more ambition to do things now,” Bell said. 

Apart from building skills, McHenry and Batchelor also mentor the children by engaging in conversations about entertainment, business, leadership and other topics. 

“I had a good mentor at the Boys & Girls Club when I was little and now my mentor has passed,” Batchelor said. 

“Our community needs more Black men like us who will step up,” McHenry said. 

Helping the kids stay on track

Early in the program, Batchelor and McHenry encountered challenges with the participants.

McHenry said some students were initially rebellious and felt forced to attend, but after creating a comfortable environment, many of them opened up more. 

“There was a child who was used to playing video games all day and now he’s active and helps around the house,” McHenry said. 

Batchelor said some mothers rely on him to help keep their children on track. 

During his free time, he offers paid handyman opportunities to students who need additional support. 

“I want these kids to do better because Milwaukee can be a terrible place at times,” Batchelor said. 

McHenry said he spent approximately $5,000 out-of-pocket for each course, but he hopes to turn the program into a nonprofit so that parents won’t have to pay $150 for registration.

Plans to expand

McHenry and Batchelor are looking for a permanent space to hold sessions and expand the program. Previous sessions were held at the Midtown Shopping Center and at 8201 W. Brown Deer Road. 

“We’ve been through two different locations already, but we’re looking for a place to really call home and somewhere to call our own,” McHenry said. “A place that’s convenient for our students, parents and doesn’t have restrictions.” 

McHenry also hopes to collaborate with entrepreneurs, cosmetologists, painters and others to host a workshop highlighting different industries and skills that children can be involved in.  

“Everybody isn’t going to be a handyman, so I have to expose them to different areas,” McHenry said. “I think we all have something to offer to the community that can help the youth out.” 

Leiyah McHenry and Bell appreciate how the program has guided them in a positive direction.

“I think this program is important in Milwaukee because it keeps kids out of the streets and shows them how to be successful,” Leiyah McHenry said. 

“This is really good for people who don’t have father figures around,” Bell said. 

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For more information

Youths ages 11 to 17 interested in joining the Handyman Academy can register in April and May for spring and summer sessions by emailing Dmchenry1989@gmail.com or messaging the program on Facebook or Instagram.

‘I want our kids to do better’: Milwaukee handymen teach children life skills while supporting single parents is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

As children continue to enter foster care across Milwaukee, agencies working the front lines say the greatest need isn’t funding or policy promises, it’s people willing to open their homes. Especially to teenagers.

We spoke with Jakob Eisen, director of social services, and Karen Steinbach, treatment foster care supervisor, with La Causa’s Treatment Foster Care program, to understand what becoming and supporting foster parents can look like. 

Shortage of foster families

Children placed in foster care range from newborns to young adults, sometimes remaining in care until age 21 or older if they are still in school. 

Steinbach said what youths share is trauma because being removed from home, even for safety reasons, is itself traumatic.

“These kids come to us during the worst moments of their lives,” she said. “They need adults who are patient, empathetic and willing to stay even when things get hard.”

Data shows a desperate shortage in Milwaukee of people willing to take in adolescents. 

In 2024, there was an average of 515 children aged 12 years or older in out-of-home care. Of these older children, 275 (53%) were placed in a family-like setting, 146 (28%) were placed in congregate care, and 94 (18%) were in other care.

Ninety percent of children aged 12 and under were placed in family-like care. 

Steinbach said teenagers often cycle through dozens of placements, a history that can fuel mistrust, anger and difficult behaviors.

“There’s a myth that teens are harder or more dangerous,” she said. “But if you’ve been in 30 or 40 homes and every one of them asked you to leave, why would you believe the next one will be different?”

She said behaviors like running away, breaking property, withdrawing emotionally or acting out are often trauma responses, not defiance. And younger children show it, too. 

Foster parents are asked to look past those behaviors. 

“That’s the hardest part of the job,” Steinbach said. “And also the most important.”

What does it take to become a foster parent?

Becoming a foster parent is a serious commitment, and the licensing process reflects that. 

Prospective families must pass background checks, provide references, complete home safety inspections, participate in interviews that explore everything from parenting experience to mental health history, and meet other state requirements.

“It’s personal,” Steinbach said. “We ask hard questions because we’re asking you to care for children who have experienced significant trauma.”

There are different levels of foster care. Treatment foster parents, who care for children with higher behavioral or emotional needs, receive additional training and support. 

Eisen said most foster parents work full-time jobs. What helps them succeed as a foster parent is preparation and support from employers, family, friends and agencies themselves.

“We ask people upfront: Who’s your village?” Steinbach said. “Because no one does this alone.”

Removing stigmas of fostering

Some community members hesitate to engage with foster care because they believe the system “takes” children from families. Eisen said that perception misses critical context.

“No child is removed without legal authority,” he said. “Every case goes before a judge. There are statutory thresholds, multiple layers of review and ongoing court oversight.”

In most cases, he said, parents retain legal rights and decision-making authority. Foster care is intended to be temporary, with reunification as the primary goal whenever it can be done safely.

“We don’t want to keep kids,” Steinbach said.  “The best outcome is getting them home.”

Their goal is to help foster parents work alongside birth families to support them as they complete court-ordered steps.

“When foster parents and birth parents can work together, kids do better,” she said. “And reunification happens faster.”

How you can help, without becoming a foster parent

Not everyone can foster, but Steinbach and Eisen stress that everyone can help.

Support can be as simple as providing respite care or babysitting, helping with school pickups or transportation, bringing meals or offering child care so foster parents can attend training. 

“These small things are huge,” Steinbach said. “Sometimes a foster parent just needs an hour to grocery shop or take a shower.”

Community members can also help by challenging stigmas when they hear them, sharing accurate information and encouraging others to consider fostering.

“Even planting the seed matters. Most people think about fostering for years before they ever make the call,” Eisen said.

Prevention and support

While foster care agencies work daily to recruit and support families, leaders say long-term solutions lie in prevention. Investing in mental health care, addiction services, transportation, supervised visitation and family support can help keep children safely at home.

“If we could work ourselves out of a job, we would,” Eisen said. “But until then, we need people, not perfect people, just people willing to show up.”

For children in foster care, that willingness to “show up” can mean the difference between another disrupted placement and the first adult who truly stays in their lives.
For more information on becoming a foster parent, you can look here and here.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

‘No one does this alone’: Milwaukee seeks more foster parents and supporters is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For Char Brandis, a hobbyist photographer in Appleton, the darkroom is her happy place. 

But being outside of the professional photography industry, Brandis often found herself working on projects alone, without the support of an artistic community.

“I was doing a lot of art just on my own, in my basement,” Brandis told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

Then, she started volunteering with Photo Opp, a nonprofit organization founded in 2021 that opened up a visual workspace in downtown Appleton two years later. 

“Coming into Photo Opp and meeting all of these new friends and people that share that passion has been a game changer,” said Brandis, who now serves on the organization’s board and helps to run events.

Photo Opp is the brainchild of Graham Washatka, John Adams and Mark Ferrell, three local multimedia professionals who wanted to create a place for visual artists in the Fox Cities to come together.

After years spent renovating a century-old former synagogue, Photo Opp opened its brick-and-mortar home base to the public in late 2024. There is a gallery and event space on the upper floor, with small studios and a community darkroom on the lower level. 

“It was really important for me to be able to create a space that was beautiful and interesting and unique and inspiring,” co-founder Adams told WPR. “That way people — no matter if they like photography or not — would come in and feel welcome and be like, ‘I want to hang out here.’”

That community ethos runs through Photo Opp’s programming, which welcomes professionals, amateurs and total newcomers to hone their craft side by side. Monthly film development nights, which launched last year, have been especially popular. 

“Experience levels range anywhere from having never touched a camera before and interested in learning, all the way to professionals that have been in the industry for decades,” Brandis said. “It’s really about putting those people next to each other to learn and develop techniques and experiment — and fail — with their art form.”

Developing community and connection, one film roll at a time

For the founders of Photo Opp, it was important to build the organization from the ground up in response to what the community was asking for.

One of those needs was for a local place to develop rolls of film. In late 2023, Appleton’s last local photo shop, Murray Photo and Video, permanently closed its doors after more than 30 years in business. Now, the leaders of Photo Opp hope the nonprofit model can help fill this gap.

“We were like, ‘OK, we see a need. We want to keep this art form inside of our community. We should do something,’” Adams said. “We decided to open up our film lab to be able to respond to that community need.”

At Photo Opp’s lab, community members can drop off rolls of film and get them developed, with prices starting at $12 for development only and $20 to include high-resolution digital files.

The service has already proven popular, with Photo Opp fulfilling dozens of orders each week. Adams believes that’s in part because people are returning to analog formats like film photography as a break from the digital world. 

“I think we all want to disconnect right now a little bit from our phones, from our computers, and slow down and think about what we’re doing,” Adams said.

This trend is especially pronounced in the younger generation. Photo Opp has been visiting schools in surrounding cities like Green Bay and Neenah to host workshops with first graders through college-aged students.

The organization also welcomes classes to take field trips to the Photo Opp workspace. The idea is to get young people involved in learning about photography and videography beyond what they can shoot on their smartphone.

“We’re taking more pictures than we have ever before because of smartphones, but we spend so much less time with them,” Brandis said. “But when you put a camera, whether it’s digital or film, in your hands, you’re really working with a photograph that you intentionally slowed down and took. And now you’re projecting it and then creating something tangible and genuine.”

“There’s just something about that first time in the darkroom when you slide your print into the developer and you watch your image come up,” she added. “That’s just magical.”

Photo Opp’s next film development night is on Feb. 8. See the full calendar of events on its website.

This story was originally published by WPR.

Community darkroom in Appleton brings the art of film photography to a new generation is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The limited availability of Black male mentors in Milwaukee is causing youth organizations to rethink their efforts and reveals a deeper challenge within families and communities. 

The lack of mentors forced Andre Lee Ellis to postpone his annual “500 Black Tuxedos” event. 

500 Black Tuxedos typically consists of 250 men stepping up to mentor 250 young men ages 12 to 17 throughout the day with workshops that bring attention to violence, anger management, artificial intelligence, men’s health, incarceration and other topics. 

So far, Ellis has 200 boys but only 78 male mentors registered. 

“It’s always been challenging to get the men to participate, and one of the things we lack in our community is the inclusion of Black men and fathers in the lives of our children,” Ellis said.

Committing to mentorship

Rather than calling it a “shortage of male mentors,” LaNelle Ramey, executive director of Mentor Greater Milwaukee, said it’s about capacity. He said many men are already mentors in informal ways like coaching or helping at a church. 

“We aren’t getting people to sign up for mentoring the way that we want to, but we’re seeing different ways people are trying to tap in and be supportive,” Ramey said. 

The challenge of finding male mentors has also been a challenge for other organizations, including 100 Black Men of Milwaukee Inc., which partners with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee to do monthly group mentoring sessions with youths.

According to Christopher Smitherman ll, vice president of 100 Black Men of Milwaukee Inc., the organization recruits male mentors but can only accept a limited number of boys to maintain mentor-to-youth ratios and consistent presence. 

Smitherman and Ramey said that men are backing down from mentoring because of their misconception of it being a huge time commitment. 

“You have to change that narrative on how long it takes to make a difference,” Smitherman said. 

Ramey said Mentor Greater Milwaukee reminds individuals that spending an hour and a half with a young person for six months still impacts a mentee’s life. 

Inactive fathers affecting the recruitment process

Ellis said he believes recruiting men is harder due to a lack of active fathers to serve as mentors. 

“Certain systems make it hard for men to be involved in the lives of children,” Ellis said. “But when you really want to be a dad, nothing can stop you.” 

According to the Wisconsin Family Council, 85% of babies born in Milwaukee are raised by single mothers. 

While men’s experiences with their own fathers can shape how they show up as dads or mentors, Ellis believes that youths can benefit from adults who use their lived experiences to guide them. 

“Some of the men don’t want to be the dad they never had, but they want to be better,” Ellis said. “Our children need to see us fighting for them.”

Retaining male mentors

Ellis, Ramey and Smitherman agreed that better outreach and information about mentoring can help prevent men from overthinking and feel more confident about stepping into the role. 

“We have to make sure that men and fathers have the resources they need,” Ellis said.

Smitherman said other ways to retain male mentors include offering consistent formal training. 

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, mentors learn how to lead with empathy, being accessible for mentees, understanding a mentee’s situation and other topics, he said.

Feeling hopeful about mentorship

As organizations across Milwaukee continue to actively recruit mentors, the advocates hope that men can give as much as they can toward the youths. 

“Mentorship is about experience, knowledge and what you have that can help elevate someone,” Smitherman said. “It also doesn’t have to be a huge age gap either.”

For men interested in serving as a mentor for the 500 Black Tuxedos event, it’s rescheduled to Saturday, Feb. 21, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 100 Gems Plaza, 6737 N. Teutonia Ave. A registration fee of $125 will cover the tuxedo for the young man you’ll mentor. Click here to register and for more information.

Click here or here to learn more about mentorship opportunities for men in Milwaukee.

‘Our children need to see us fighting for them’: More Black male mentors in Milwaukee sought is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

After they’ve tried church, therapy, self-help and meditation, and never quite found what they were looking for, people in Milwaukee come to see Angela Smith.

Smith is the owner and operator of The Zen Dragonfly. She uses African traditional methods to assist people in their physical, mental and spiritual healing. 

“I’m the person nobody knows they came to see,” she said. “People get to a point where nothing is working. And then they walk in here.”

Spiritual and life coaching

Smith, 63, is a hoodoo practitioner and rootworker, though most Milwaukeeans first meet her through “acceptable” titles like Reiki master, yoga instructor or life coach, she said. 

Smith’s healing work spans Reiki, tarot, bone readings, spiritual baths, shamanic journeying and herbal medicine.

Only later do many discover the deeper tradition behind her work.

Her healing practice, rooted in Black Southern folk traditions and ancestral veneration, welcomes anyone in need of help. 

Smith doesn’t promise miracles. And she doesn’t advertise cures.

“My job is to help people do their own healing,” she said. “I can break something open. I can clear a path. But you have to walk it.”

Still, people continue to arrive at her door, quietly and urgently, after prayer, therapy and everything in between.

“When you’ve tried all you can,” Smith said, “I’m usually where you come next.”

Tanisha Williams, a friend and healing guest of Smith’s, said Smith is talented in many ways but especially at helping people find what type of healing can help them. 

“She just knows how to appropriately assess someone and guide them with appropriate divination,” Williams said.

A lifestyle

For Smith, healing is more than work, it’s how she lives her life. 

Smith’s day begins with tending to her ancestors. She rings a bell, pours water, lights candles and reads Psalms. Then she welcomes healing guests.

“Never clients,” she said. 

Her home and workspace reflect her practice: altars in every room, artwork celebrating Black history and spirituality, herbs and botanicals curated with care. Friends and students have encouraged her to turn it into a visual book. 

She’s considering it.

She laughs when asked about the aesthetics: “I want you to walk into my house and know an African lives here.”

Matthew Nervig, a friend of Smith’s, said she guides others to be the same way so that they aren’t dependent on her. 

“She encourages everyone to pursue their own education and personal practice,” he said. “As opposed to keeping people dependent on her so that she can make money, she urges people to learn on their own and be really helpful and genuine. 

Serving Milwaukee

Smith said she did not intend to become Milwaukee’s spiritual triage center. 

For years, she hid her hoodoo practice, posting only glimpses of altars or crystals. But in 2018, she said she heard her grandmother’s voice say: “You can’t hide no more.”

Her public announcement cost her followers, but brought the people who needed her most.

“Word of mouth built this,” she said. “I don’t advertise. People come because someone told them, ‘When nothing else works, go see Miss Angela.’”

Nervig said Smith thrives at making people feel welcome once they find her. 

“She has a real desire for everyone interested in learning more to have the knowledge,” he said. 

Over the years, Smith has seen the city’s quiet desperation up close.

“There’s a lot of fear in Milwaukee,” she said. “A lot of being stuck. A lot of repeating cycles. And people don’t know where to go when the usual systems don’t fix it.”

Her School of Good JuJu launched during the pandemic and filled immediately. Smith said nearly all the students had the same story. They left church. They tried therapy. They tried being “fine.” And they were still searching.

Williams, who attended the School of Good JuJu, said it felt like a “meant to be” moment. 

“We all need a guide,” Williams said. “It’s like how they say, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Smith believes the surge of seekers reflects a deeper shift.

“People are exhausted,” she said. “They’re tired of judgment. They’re tired of being told what to believe. They just want to heal.”

Her space offers something Milwaukee’s more formal institutions often can’t: privacy, acceptance, cultural understanding and spiritual agency.

“There’s magic here every day,” she said simply. “People feel that.”

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

How ‘Miss Angela’ became Milwaukee’s spiritual triage center is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

In a small church off East Oklahoma Avenue, impassioned singing, steady drum beats and the smell of incense emanate from its front doors. 

Brothers Isiah and Avery Nahwahquaw co-founded RedNationBoyz, a powwow drum circle, in 2024. They host their practices at Lutheran Church of the Great Spirit, 3127 S. Howell Ave., during the Milwaukee Intertribal Circle’s crafting Wednesdays. All funding for the RedNationBoyz comes directly out of the Nahwahquaw brothers’ own pockets.

The Nahwahquaw brothers formed the group to connect Indigenous boys, ranging in age from 10 to 20, in Milwaukee to their roots.

The president of the Milwaukee Intertribal Circle, Deanna Porter, invited the Nahwahquaw brothers to join the group for Wednesday nights in their space at the church. The Milwaukee Intertribal Circle, or MIC, is a group dedicated to revitalizing the intertribal community of Milwaukee.

Porter, a member of the White Earth Nation Ojibwe Anishinaabe, remembers when the United Indians of Milwaukee was a central hub for the Native American community in Milwaukee. With the newly formed Milwaukee Intertribal Council, she hopes to emulate their impact. 

“We’re working to reproduce that, to be serving any Native person within the city of Milwaukee or surrounding area,” Porter said. “And it doesn’t matter your tribe, we will serve enrolled members and their descendants. We welcome anybody.”

The drum circle has expanded quickly from a few members to more than a dozen. The group is an intertribal drum circle, meaning anyone descended from any tribe can join. Members come from Ojibwe tribes, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and Oneida and Ho-Chunk nations. 

The RedNationBoyz have performed at several community events, including the Heart of Canal Street event at Potawatomi Casino Hotel.

The name “RedNationBoyz” comes from Avery and Isiah Nahwahquaw’s original drum group from their school days. When Isiah was 14, he was given a big drum from his mentor, and the brothers decided to form a drum circle with their friends. After finishing school, though, life got busy and the group stopped performing together.

Several years later, Isiah was offered a job at Indian Community School in Franklin where he worked as a youth drum instructor. Here, Isiah and his students connected. That relationship inspired him to bring back the name “RedNationBoyz” for this group.

“It was initially a job that turned to a bond and, you know, once you develop the bond, it’s hard to break,” he said. “And when I started being an instructor for these boys, I had to use the name again, because it was technically a family name to us, and we look at them as family.”

“So, that drum right there means a lot. That’s a spirit right there in that drum. It brings us all together, it brings a whole community together,” Avery Nahwahquaw says. 

By joining the drum circle, not only does a member get to learn about their Indigenous roots and play and sing traditional music, they also join a brotherhood. 

“I would describe the RedNationBoyz like family. These young men become like our nephews,” said Avery. “Not only is it singing, but it’s me finding out if you’re doing good in school, or if you got anything else you need help with in life outside of this drum circle.”

The Milwaukee Intertribal Circle hosts a crafting event on Wednesdays when members from the Native American community can come and be immersed in their culture.

The Nahwahquaw brothers spoke of the importance of creating a space where Indigenous boys could come together to be with people of their culture. 

“Our practices are one night a week where they can escape from wherever they’re from, whatever they’re going through, and they can find their culture in this urban area,” said Avery.

Ask the boys why they keep showing up each Wednesday, and the answers point to the deeper pull of the drum.

Jared Dashner notes that even his Native name, “Little Singing Boy,” ties him to the circle.

“I love singing. I love all these Wednesday nights with everybody, and getting these teachings from our mentor, Isiah.  I ain’t gonna never stop coming,” Ethan Shomin said. 

Their commitment underscores the role RedNationBoyz plays for Indigenous youth seeking connection and community.

“We don’t want it to end. We don’t want like five years from now, they’re like, ‘Hey, remember that one guy we used to sing with on Wednesday nights?’ No, we want this to be for life,” said Avery.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

RedNationBoyz: Powwow drum circle inspires Indigenous youths in Milwaukee is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Youth motorsport riders of the Sliders Flat Track Racing Program have spent countless hours in recent months learning how to ride dirt and electric bikes and build motorcycles while gaining personal development. 

The Milwaukee youths are preparing for Flat Out Friday, an international motorcycle race that will take place at Fiserv Forum on Feb. 21. The race features over 300 riders of all skill levels.

The Sliders Flat Track Racing Program gives underrepresented youths in Milwaukee free access to electric and dirt bikes, and eventually motorcycles, while introducing them to science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, components. 

“Motorsports is not something that people of color typically participate in and sometimes we’re the only people of color there when we race,” said Venisha Simpson, founder of the Sliders Flat Track Racing Program.  

Lately, Simpson and co-founder Tiger Mabato have been coaching the riders inside the Boys & Girls Club and on a dirt road in Sheboygan County for Flat Out Friday.

“I love this sport because it’s intergenerational and you’ll find people between 4 to 84 racing on the same track,” Simpson said. “The respect level is low between the young and old in the Black community, so with this event and program we’re absorbing from each other.” 

A young engineer on the track

One of the riders in the program is Tiger Mabato’s 11-year-old son Noah. 

His interest in motorbikes started when he was 6 and he complained about the condition of a junkyard dirt bike his dad gifted him. 

By 7, his dad gave him the opportunity to take the dirt bike apart and rebuild it on his own. 

“Engineering and building things is fun to me, but I have to learn to do this on my own without any help,” Noah said. 

After rebuilding the dirt bike, he crashed into a tree, leaving him hesitant about the sport and even joining the program. 

Noah regained interest after seeing another kid from the program race on a dirt bike.

“I crash often when practicing and racing, but now I know what to do,” Noah said. 

Currently, Noah is building a Suzuki RM 85cc dirt bike for his third Flat Out Friday competition.

“This will become my official bike because my last bike was causing me to lose pretty badly,” he said. 

He placed ninth last year in the open youth class after falling and crashing his bike, but this year wants to come back stronger.

“It took me a while to get back up last year, but I’m more excited about trying it again,” he said.  

According to Tiger Mabato and Simpson, Noah Mabato and Donald Amartey are the only Black youth racers who ride vintage Harley-Davidson bikes in Milwaukee. 

“Noah and Donald are making history right now,” Tiger Mabato said.

Adjusting quickly

Justice Osei, 9, is a second-year rider in the Sliders Flat Track Racing Program. 

He started without knowing how to ride a regular bike but caught on quickly. 

“They taught him that day in just a couple hours how to ride one,” his mom, Malaika Osei, said. 

Justice wasn’t drawn into traditional sports or video gaming, but with motorsports found a connection to the people and skills he learned. 

“When I’m racing and sometimes make a mistake, I try to lock in and stay focused after it,” he said. 

Tiger Mabato is amazed to see kids like Justice latch onto the sport.

“These kids go through so many ups, downs and tears, it’s crazy how quickly they adapted to everything,” Mabato said. “This is a different level of excitement.”

Prioritizing safety

Before getting on a motorbike, every rider and parent is made aware of how dangerous the sport can be. 

“The hardest thing is seeing your kid crash and tumble at times, but we prepare them for that, and our biggest thing is safety,” Mabato said. 

To ensure safety, the program provides students with motorbikes, helmets, gloves, padding and vests. Parents are responsible for purchasing jeans, long-sleeve shirts and racing boots.

“It’s dangerous, but it’s fun,” Justice said.

Justice broke three toes during a practice from not wearing the proper racing boots. 

His mom saw him take a tumble that day on the dirt road.

“I took off running once I saw him crying and grabbing his foot,” Malaika Osei said. 

Justice didn’t even realize at first that his toes were broken. 

“I didn’t even know until a week later,” he said. 

After purchasing a new pair of boots, Justice was ready to ride again.

Building other skills

Motorsports is more than just racing and maintenance.

Flat Out Friday co-founder Jeremy Prach wants riders to know the sport is about developing skills that keep you improving. 

“I think the thing that hurts the most is your pride when you fall because many think they’re going to do awesome in a race,” Prach said. “But without a skill base, it’ll be hard to do awesome.”

At the Sliders Flat Track Racing Program, Simpson and Tiger Mabato teach the riders confidence, self-regulation, quick problem solving and self-respect. 

“These kids are tough and it takes a different type of mentality to race with these bikes,” Mabato said. 

Simpson and Mabato also teach the youth riders how to network and maintain relationships with people like Cameron Smith, one of the few professional Black racers in the country.

It takes a community

To ensure the program has everything it needs, places like Cream City Moto, STACYC, Southeast Sales, Proplate and other local organizations pitch in to donate equipment, design graphics, cover fees for events and more. 

The program also received grants from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and Comoto Cares. 

“The race community is very supportive and I love that,” Simpson said. 

Tiger Mabato encourages parents to get their children involved in things that spark their interest even if it’s scary and wants them to know that the race part of the program is optional.

“There’s no better feeling than seeing your kid go around the track,” he said. 

For more information

If you are interested in becoming a part of the program, click here to register and join the waitlist for spring.

To watch, support and cheer the youth riders on at Flat Out Friday, tickets start at $28. 

‘It’s dangerous, but it’s fun’: Program connects Milwaukee youth with motorsports and engineering is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Click here to read highlights from the story

• Since its debut in March, the “Plaster + Patina” podcast has inspired excitement in Green Bay’s Astor neighborhood.

• Residents have pitched stories about their historic homes to the podcast team and opened their homes to them. 

• The first season focused on homes between Monroe Avenue and the Fox River.  

• The team does extensive research and searches for interesting stories about the properties they feature.

Inside Skip Heverly’s modified Dutch Colonial home, five people thaw from the near-freezing November evening by a green-tiled fireplace. Between them, a coffee table is littered with loose-leaf newspaper clippings, notepads and snacks. 

The group members, all residents of Green Bay’s Astor neighborhood, are preparing to spend the evening trading bits of local lore and hatching ideas that could make for an interesting deep dive. 

The neighbors run “Plaster + Patina,” a podcast series that digs up long-buried — and sometimes spooky — tales tied to the historic homes in Astor, one of Green Bay’s oldest neighborhoods. Through the project, they hope to create a shared sense of wonder and community among neighbors while memorializing the area’s history.

“Slowly but surely, I think we’re kind of seeing how this is really helping to bring the community together,” said Morgan Fisher, podcast chief editor and treasurer of the Astor Neighborhood Association. Each person on the podcast team is also a volunteer member of the association, which advocates for the area to local government and organizes events. 

After debuting in March, the series has inspired excitement around the neighborhood, with residents pitching their own houses to be featured and opening their homes to the team. At the mid-November brainstorm, the group invited longtime local civic leader Jim Gucwa to share stories he’s collected and spark inspiration for a future episode. 

The first season of “Plaster + Patina” uncovered a forgotten spring water bottling business; examined architectural changes that speak to larger societal shifts; and told tales of ghosts, among other topics. 

Each person has a unique role in the process, from digging through yellowed archives to splicing audio. Several enrolled in nearby community college to learn the skills they use. The project doesn’t currently have sponsors or advertisers to generate revenue, or plans to do so. The team pools resources, leveraging each others’ connections, interests and skills. 

“That’s what a neighborhood’s about,” said Paul Jacobson, the podcast’s historian.  

Bringing people out of their homes — and into others’

Between the 1830s and 1920s,  a high, dry slope running parallel to the Fox River — colloquially known as “The Hill” — was an attractive place for doctors, lawyers and other businessmen to build their homes. 

Today, the houses in the affluent neighborhood still reflect the period in which they were constructed. A 1980 historic district designation, championed with Gucwa’s help, preserves the homes’ exteriors from being substantially altered, among other protections. 

Astor’s design encourages social connection. Homes with large front porches sit close to the sidewalks lining each street. Parks host an ice rink, a wading pool and a shell where local bands regularly perform. 

Despite this, the area hasn’t been immune to the social isolation that’s swept across the country in recent years. 

“People have kind of gone into their (homes),” Fisher said. “They’re not on their porches anymore. They’re not out meeting their neighbors as much.”

When the Astor Neighborhood Association coalesced in 1974, it started as a way to improve the area and combat crime. It now focuses on maintaining a sense of community among residents, Fisher said. 

To do that, last summer several neighborhood association members discussed creating something where people could walk around the area, learn the stories behind the architecture they see and feel more connected to its past and present.

“What better way to do that than a podcast?” Jacobson said. 

Tales of ghosts, lost springs and … alligators?

At first, the group was nervous about how the endeavor would turn out. But once they started chatting about history and architecture, old stories of folks from the area, “everyone just lit up,” said Heverly, the producer of “Plaster + Patina.”

The first season focused on homes nestled between Monroe Avenue and the Fox River.  

“It’s nice to stay within an area, just to kind of really lay out that area,” host Al Valentin said. “We want to create a visual while you’re listening to it of what the neighborhood looked like at that time.”

Once they choose a home, Jacobson digs up the stories behind it. He dives into a slew of online resources, including newspaper archives, historical atlases and — his favorite — fire insurance maps, which include detailed hand drawings of buildings in the area dating back to the 1880s. 

After Jacobson goes “down a rabbit hole,” they zoom out and choose the most interesting event or detail he found. “Otherwise, you could spend five hours on one particular home,” Valentin said. 

The team then drafts a rough script, a bullet-point list of topics they want to hit during the show. Finally, they record the episode for free in a studio at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. They invite homeowners or people connected to the stories to appear as guests for a live interview. 

“We kind of shoot from the hip,” Valentin said. “When you hear us converse on the podcast, it’s pretty real, with our knowledge and expertise.”

Lastly, Heverly edits out “ums,” “uhs” and any mistakes made during recording. He learned the skill at NWTC, where he studied audio editing, video editing, social media marketing and how to use Adobe applications. 

Since March, the team has created eight episodes.

In one, Jacobson shared the story of a forgotten mineral spring he unearthed when scouring old hand-drawn maps. Residents bottled and sold the water, marketing it as a natural health remedy, he discovered.

In another, they explored how the neighborhood’s first backyard pool signaled the shift of leisure from front porches to more private backyards — and was once home to an alligator.

For a Halloween edition, Valentin interviewed a paranormal investigator who shared supernatural experiences at Astor’s Hazelwood House — including an apparition descending stairs, a baby cradle rocking on its own and echoes of drums played by the Native Americans who first called the area home.

Throughout the season, local support for the project has grown. 

Lawn signs advertising the show sprouted up in front yards across the neighborhood. People asked for their home to be featured. Residents opened up their homes to the crew, giving them tours to aid the podcast. 

“Especially in today’s world, we’re all looking for that connection. We want to be a part of something that’s bigger than ourselves,” marketing and writing director Maddy Szymanski explained in the podcast’s first episode. “When you live in an old neighborhood — or a new neighborhood, really anywhere —  you’re a part of something that is bigger than you. You’re a part of a community and you can build that connection.”

The team is currently producing a final episode before moving onto the podcast’s second season. Find the episodes here. 

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Green Bay podcasters dig up long-buried tales in their own neighborhood is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will move its Milwaukee processing operations from a downtown building owned by the Milwaukee School of Engineering to a site on the Northwest Side, an ICE spokesperson said in an email to NNS.

ICE has been using the university-owned building at 310 E. Knapp St. as a processing center, a presence that has drawn weekly protests from students and community members since June. 

A spokesperson for the General Services Administration, the real estate arm of the federal government, said the GSA “remains focused on supporting this administration’s goal of optimizing the federal footprint, and providing the best workplaces for our federal agencies to meet their mission,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to NNS.

Demonstrators have been calling on the university to cut ties with the agency.

MSOE officials say the university inherited the federal lease when it purchased the building in 2023 and does not have the legal authority to remove ICE.

Alan Madry, professor emeritus at Marquette University Law School, said there is no question the federal government has eminent domain authority in such situations. 

The federal government has the legal power to take or use property for public purposes even if a private landowner or local government objects.

A ‘phased’ transition

In a statement to NNS, ICE said the transition “will follow a phased approach to ensure a smooth and efficient process” and that the agency “remains committed to maintaining continuity of operations as the office becomes fully operational.”

Processing centers are typically used to conduct interviews and sometimes hold people for the short term rather than overnight detention. 

The ICE spokesperson did not provide a timeline for the move, but said the new location at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive will operate as a processing center, not a detention facility.

In a statement, Jeremy McGovern, spokesperson for the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services, said the city has no additional inspections scheduled for the Lake Park Drive site and that the certificate of occupancy is already in place. 

Because the federal government is not subject to local zoning and permit requirements, McGovern said, the city cannot determine when the site becomes active and has limited knowledge about the federal timeline.

Protests continue

The university says it intends to use the Knapp Street building for academic purposes once ICE leaves. But Noah Dinan, a sophomore studying software engineering at the school, said the lack of clarity about the move raises troubling possibilities. 

The transition could take years, or ICE could expand its Milwaukee operations rather than relocate, said Dinan, who is a member of the university’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.

The organization has circulated petitions, contacted alumni and joined the weekly Friday protests. 

Dinan also pointed to the financial incentives of leasing to ICE. 

According to the General Services Administration’s September 2025 lease inventory, the federal government is paying the university about $2.1 million per year to occupy the Knapp Street site through April 2028.

Despite the news that ICE has plans to transition from Knapp Street to its new property, Dinan said he and other students plan to continue protesting. 

“Our campaign is one of sanctuary,” Dinan said.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

ICE plans to leave Milwaukee School of Engineering facility is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

As red sand filled the cracks along the sidewalks in front of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, community members stood in quiet solidarity as drums beat. 

The pouring of red sand marked another year of remembrance and healing for missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives, referred to as MMIWR.

The symbolic act of pouring sand was part of the HIR Wellness Institute’s ninth annual Community Activated Medicine & Red Sand Events on Nov. 14.

HIR Wellness, located at 3136 W. Kilbourn Ave., was founded in 2017 by Leah Denny, who serves as CEO. The organization provides a range of free mental health, wellness services and additional programming for the Indigenous community. The Electa Quinney Institute, where the event was held, was founded in 2010 to support the Native American community on campus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Started in 2017, the event has provided a sacred space for community grief and collective healing in honor of MMIWR through art, storytelling and community care.

Each year, the HIR Wellness Institute collaborates with the Red Sand Project to host the event. The Red Sand Project was designed to raise public awareness about human trafficking and modern slavery, using the red sand to represent those who have fallen through systemic cracks. 

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

A sacred space for healing: Event honors missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Tim Scott was shocked when he was laid off in May as the executive director of Nearby Nature, an organization that works to reconnect Black people to nature by offering nature education classes and introducing residents to new outdoor experiences. 

Instead of letting the sudden change deter him, he doubled down on his commitment to help Milwaukee residents experience the outdoors. 

Scott is opening Urban Nature Connection, a community-based nonprofit dedicated to reconnecting Black and Brown communities with nature. 

The organization’s mission is to promote the physical, spiritual and mental health of outdoor activities such as birding, gardening, biking, hiking and fishing.

Finding a new purpose

According to Scott’s wife, Theresa Scott, he has always been an outdoorsman. 

“He has always enjoyed walking or spending time in the park or outdoors,” Theresa Scott said. 

Tim Scott spent most of his career in construction work. 

He’s also done some coaching and marriage counseling but said he found a new purpose when he took the role at Nearby Nature. 

“This is my passion, this is my healer, I owe nature my life to tell you the truth,” Scott said.

His wife agrees. 

“I think this is a great second career for him,” she said. “It’s better for his mind and his body.” 

Scott said he now knows the importance of pushing nature as a healing mechanism, especially for those who don’t have access to mental health services. 

“We all experience trauma in different ways,” Scott said. “But we don’t all have access to the same mental health services. Being out in nature really saved me when I was experiencing my own crisis.” 

By connecting people with nature, Scott hopes to help others find their own healing. 

In addition to outdoor activities, the organization will focus on indoor gardening, programming and advocacy of green space.

Over the next few months, the focus will be on getting people outside even during the colder months.

“A lot of our work will be advocacy,” he said. “So, we will center advocacy through every season.”

Scott says he plans to partner with other agencies to host wellness events, community discussions and group walks.

To keep up with Urban Nature Connection, you can follow its Facebook page here.

“What he wants to do here is truly a movement,” Theresa Scott said.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

‘I owe nature my life’: Milwaukee nonprofit aims to connect Black and Brown people to nature is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service’s Ron Smith has been named the 2025 IDEA Champion of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Southeastern Wisconsin.

This honor, presented as part of National Philanthropy Day, recognizes leaders whose work advances Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) in the philanthropic and nonprofit community.

NNS was celebrated alongside other changemakers on Nov. 20 during a special event that spotlighted individuals whose generosity, leadership and commitment are shaping a stronger, more connected southeastern Wisconsin.

In the nomination, the writers highlighted NNS’s mission-driven journalism that amplifies underrepresented voices, deepens public understanding and builds bridges across Milwaukee’s most diverse neighborhoods. 

NNS has continued to model what equitable, community-centered journalism looks like in practice: reporting that listens first, collaborates deeply and informs with heart and integrity.

Smith, the executive director of NNS, is an award-winning journalist who served as the managing editor for news at USA TODAY before returning to Milwaukee.

Smith also worked as the deputy managing editor for daily news and production at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he oversaw the breaking news hub and production desks and was the key point person for print story selections and workflow.

He also has been an editor at The Oregonian, the Los Angeles Times and Newsday and has edited three Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom projects. In 2024, he was inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club’s Media Hall of Fame.

Other honorees included:

Brian A. McCarty, Philanthropist of the Year

Brenda Skelton, Volunteer of the Year

Nazaria Hooks, Philanthropic Youth of Today

Kelley McCaskill, Fundraising Professional of the Year

Froedtert Health & Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Organization Philanthropy Award

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service named 2025 IDEA Champion of the Year is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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