When Your Move MKE asked young people how they felt about their community, the answers were disheartening. In response, the hip-hop inspired community center launched the Painting Peace MKE Summer Initiative – a youth-led project that aims to brighten up the community around Lincoln Village and Mitchell Street.
“The main goal for the Painting Peace MKE Summer Initiative is community development,” Raquel “Rocky” Aleman, the co-founder and executive director of Your Move MKE, said. “It’s an acknowledgement of the way young people feel about their community and how they are taking the lead in changing that. And they're doing that through art.”
This project is one of 62 receiving a micro-grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Reasons for Hope MKE Fund this year. Reasons for Hope, which initially launched in 2016 to provide rapid neighborhood resources following the civil unrest in Sherman Park, received over 180 applications this year and awarded over $525,000 to grassroots organizations and nonprofits.
This year also marks the grant program’s 10th anniversary. It’s awarded 312 grants totaling over $2 million in that time. Community members have donated over $140,000 to the fund to complement the institutional funding provided by the Foundation. These gifts of all sizes came through donor advised funds and individual donations online.
"Reasons for Hope was created in response to a community calling for change,” Darlene C. Russell, director of community engagement, said. “Over the years, it has evolved into much more than a grant program—it has become a community-centered approach to investing in ideas, relationships, and local leadership.
“From Community Advisory Council members helping review and recommend grants to providing an accessible entry point for grassroots organizations working alongside their neighbors, Reasons for Hope reflects the belief that lasting change is built with community, not simply for community.”
By summer’s end, Your Move MKE’s crew completed seven murals, led resident hub meetings, coordinated neighborhood cleanups and beautified the neighborhood.
“Beautification plays a big role in improving quality of life,” Jerel Ballard, a Community Advisory Council member, said.
Youth worked with local graffiti artist Peace Fam on art and hydroponic garden boxes. The grant covered supplies and youth compensation.
Building a community
Nadia Gates is the CEO and founder of Omuri Shai, a doula collective aimed at lowering Black infant and maternal mortality rates. The grant Omuri Shai received allowed it to host “Rooted in Birth,” a community gathering to educate teen parents, LGBTQ+ parents, and new and existing parents on the value of doulas in birth and postpartum care and wellness.
The event included various activities from yoga to Drums Up Guns Down 414, a youth enrichment program aimed at teaching West African drum, dance and theatre.
For Gates, being a doula honors her ancestry and the granny midwives that came before.
“When we weren’t able to go into the hospitals, a lot of ladies like the aunties and grannies that lived in the community and on the block, came together to help someone have a baby,” she said. “There was a support system.
“Doulas aren’t medically trained, but we are trained to support. We support women and people throughout the labor and delivery, pregnancy and postpartum.”
Building and being a part of community is one of the reasons Gates wanted to host the event. It’s also why she got involved in the 2016 Sherman Park protests. The unrest began after the fatal shooting of Sylville Smith by a Milwaukee police officer.
“When that happened, it sparked a flame inside of me and made me want to be more in community,” she said. “To be a part of (Reasons for Hope) is really touching.”
Joshua Banks joined the Community Advisory Council this year. The group is an example of how the Foundation practices trust-based philanthropy by sharing the decision-making power and letting community voice take the lead.
“There is no greater honor than to help others and to instill impactful change within the community,” he said. “It is a privilege to carry on the legacy of hope and to be a catalyst of positive change to the community.”
A renewed sense of hope
Angela Kingsawan, executive director of Iwigara Holistic Hub, hopes her project, Seeds of Sovereignty, strengthens her neighborhood. The grant supports efforts to renovate a vacant lot in the Sherman Park neighborhood into a community garden and gathering space that offers healing through planting, harvesting and cultural wellness programs.
“The main goal is to provide access to traditional foods and medicines for our multi-ethnic Indigenous population,” Kingsawan said. “It’ll also be a refuge within the city. There’s so much concrete, and we want to make it a peaceful space and bring back our native habitat.”
This project involves a range of ages and organizations. Participants from Iwigara’s herbal apprenticeship program and volunteers from Our Daily Bread Community Outreach Center and Molina Healthcare, are helping to clean up, mow and plant on the lot.
Kingsawan hopes that neighbors and community members feel comfortable expressing their desires for the garden.
“We cannot sustain something that isn’t rooted in community,” she said. “I think if we open ourselves up to being uncomfortable, not only do others learn, but we learn and benefit so much from it.”
Ballard noted, “It’s important to let community lead because no one knows their community better than the people who are in it and live to serve it. Reasons for Hope targets the everyday residents who take pride in their neighborhood and who see the most impact.”