Author: NNS

Layton Boulevard West Neighbors (LBWN) recently broke ground on its first new-construction Turnkey Renovation Home. The home, which will be built on a formerly bank-owned lot in Burnham Park, is the most recent example of an ongoing effort by the neighborhood organization to help the Silver City, Burnham Park and Layton Park neighborhoods rebound from the housing and foreclosure crisis. Since 2008, LBWN has invested more than $3.5 million to renovate 20 foreclosed properties in the area. LBWN Executive Director Will Sebern said the organization will continue to renovate homes in addition to the new construction, which will be...

Students are writing code, the basic programming language that enables computers to perform pre-set commands. Sitting in front of a desktop computer in a classroom on the third floor of Carmen High School of Science and Technology’s South Campus, Katera Boss and her classmates, Karina Arevalo and Ana Jacinto, are typing in a language that is hard for the untrained eye to decipher. The girls are building a game that solves an age-old mystery. Where has the missing homework gone? “I’m learning a whole lot about computers while creating this game. Learning to code is something I always wanted...

The Wisconsin Black Historical Society serves as a museum and resource for people interested in African-American history. Wisconsin Black Historical Society is one of 150 sites throughout the city featured in Doors Open, an annual event that allows the public to explore interesting locations throughout the city. The two-day event, to be held Saturday, Sept. 17, and Sunday, Sept. 18, showcases museums, churches, theatres, breweries, art studios and community centers, which will open their doors to visitors, free of charge. Two of this year’s spotlight neighborhoods, Clarke Square and Sherman Park, are in Milwaukee’s central city, the third is...

Dana Highshaw, 57, lost his job a year ago when the company he worked for was sold. Since he left an interim position at Community Warehouse, which hires displaced workers, he has spent three months looking for work. “The response I’ve been receiving is ‘we’ll call you,’ and basically that’s it. I never hear from anyone.” Fredrick Nelson, an employment and training specialist with the Department of Workforce Development, is trying to improve this experience by regularly facilitating information sessions and on-site interviews for job seekers at the YWCA on the North Side and UMOS on the South Side....

Jesus Salas, former executive director and board member at UMOS, remembers the struggles of migrant workers and other immigrants who arrived in southeastern Wisconsin more than 50 years ago in need of social services. “There was a great need for bilingual education, job training and other basic services to help newcomers adjust and survive,” Salas said. In the process of filling those needs, Salas and other visionaries helped create the first nonprofits to serve the growing Latino community in Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin. From those efforts, organizations including UMOS, which began by offering adult education and daycare...

A dozen middle-school kids chat and eat a snack as they wander around the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) building, where technical equipment is piled on scattered tables. As they finish eating, they gravitate toward a long table where they find a bag of marshmallows, sticks of uncooked spaghetti, a roll of bright blue duct tape and some string. “It’s time for the marshmallow challenge,” announced Que El-Amin, one of two brothers running the YES STEAM Accelerator summer technology camp. The eight-week program was the latest in a series of opportunities that Que, 31, and Khalif El-Amin,...