Launch of Healing Space @PeacePark.
City of Milwaukee Officials Highlight Healing Spaces Initiative in Harambee
Award-winning program helps eliminate blighted spaces, create new gathering spaces, and strengthen neighborhoods
MILWAUKEE – Thursday, June 22, at 11:30am (CT), Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs will be joined by community organizations, stakeholders, and residents in the Harambee neighborhood to highlight the City of Milwaukee’s Healing Spaces Initiative (HSI), preview neighborhood improvement projects planned for this summer, and promote a new grant program that will help activate and utilize these gathering places moving forward.
Coordinated through the City of Milwaukee’s Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation (NIDC), the Healing Spaces Initiative builds relaxing natural environments on available City-owned vacant lots that help eliminate and prevent blight, create new gathering places, and strengthen Milwaukee neighborhoods. Since the program’s inception, 13 ADA-accessible gathering places have been built that feature amenities like pathways, benches, flower gardens, solar lights, Little Free Libraries, and more. Two more HSI spaces are planned for construction this summer.
In 2023, NIDC is launching the HSI Site Activation Grant Program to deploy grants for community partners in providing programming for the neighborhood that will help activate and utilize these gathering places. From healthy eating workshops and yoga classes, to community town halls and youth engagement efforts, the HSI Site Activation Grant Program will provide grants up to $500 to host community events and programming at all HSI locations in Milwaukee.
Learn more about the Healing Spaces Initiative HERE.
Learning series: Building Water equity and climate resilient communities for all
On July 19th, the Urban Waters Learning Network is launching Building Water Equity and Climate Resilient Communities for ALL, a new 6-part learning series that will highlight strategies that community-based organizations can use to help their communities anticipate, prepare for and respond to climate risks such as flooding, coastal storms and drought, with a focus on protecting community members who are most vulnerable to climate threats.
7/19/23 Noon CST
Building Climate Resilience: The Link Between Historic Policies and Today’s Risk
9/20/23 Noon CST
Resilience Hubs as Community Superheroes of Climate Preparedness and Disaster Recovery
10/18/23 Noon CST
Investing in Local Leadership to Advocate for Equitable Climate Resilience
11/15/23 Noon CST
Centering Those at Risk: The Power of Community-Led Research for Climate Resilience Investments
11/13/23 Noon, CST
Equitable Resilience Planning Frameworks
1/17/24, Noon CST
Building Climate Resilience: Transforming Communities through Green Workforce Development
Welcome To New Staff
Ana Pemberton is our newest teammate, who will be serving as Community Programs Coordinator for Groundwork Milwaukee. We’re excited to have this native of Beloit, and recent graduate of two tours of City Year, Milwaukee. Ana is excited to work on climate justice at Groundwork, and looks forward to applying her degree in Ecology, Evolutions and Behavior, and her experieince as a Student Success Coach and a service leader in her work
We’re still growing!
The Ground Corps Operations Director will be the senior leader for Groundwork Milwaukee’s workforce development and social enterprise program Ground Corps. Ground Corps provides an experiential learning experience for younger adults through landscape and green infrastructure construction and maintenance. A significant part of the Ground Corps Director’s role will be to build on Groundwork Milwaukee’s 2023 internal priority to improve the quality of our team work, project management processes, and resource management. The strategy to improve quality in 2023 is in preparation for the growth in the number of participants, quantity of projects, and project scope Groundwork is planning for 2024. The Ground Corps Director will be an integral part in planning the direction and ultimately implementing our growth strategy.