Author: NNS

By Edgar Mendez • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service Kristin Lee Aponte thought she had found the perfect day care center for her kids. Her oldest daughter, Amelia, had started there when she was 1. And her youngest, Brenna, was a newborn when she started coming. Her plan was to stay at the center until Brenna started school. But the mother discovered one obstacle: The cost. Despite receiving a subsidy through Wisconsin Shares, a program that covers a portion of child care costs for low-income working families, Aponte’s copay at the center rose to as high as $400 a month....

By Sergio M. González • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization, held its 90th annual national convention in Milwaukee from July 10 to 13. While this year’s LULAC convention will be the largest national Latino meeting organized in Milwaukee’s history, it certainly will be the first of its kind. That honor belongs to the 1971 Milwaukee Latin American Convention, an event organized to harness an upsurge in social movement activism among the city’s growing Mexican American and Puerto Rican communities. In 1970, more than 20,000 Latinos...

By Andrea Waxman • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service Six years ago, the play and sports areas of Milwaukee Public Schools were called out for being among the worst in the county. Since then, MPS has invested $12 million in rebuilding, renovating and making improvements to its outdoor athletic and play facilities. “These investments are about leveling the playing field. In the suburbs, a state-of-the-art stadium is a given, but in Milwaukee it’s not,” said Andy Nelson, media manager for MPS. MPS is in the middle of “a massive investment” in playgrounds, Nelson said. MPS is partnering with the Milwaukee...

By Dana World-Patterson • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service For more than a decade, I’ve worked to eradicate human trafficking in Milwaukee and beyond. As part of my work with Foundations for Freedom Inc., I’ve gotten to know the young girls and women who are forced into sex work and how it impacts their lives long after they have escaped that environment. However, in Wisconsin, we don’t make it easy for these young women to adjust to normal life. The average age of girls who are trafficked domestically is 13. When trafficking begins, the victims are introduced to a life...

By Andrea Waxman • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service An estimated 80% of people needing treatment for substance abuse in Wisconsin are not either seeking it or receiving it. Latinos in particular experience a number of barriers to care for a number of reasons, including English proficiency, work demands, a lack of funds, and legal status. Statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health show that over 90% of the Hispanic individuals surveyed reported that they didn’t get help because they didn’t feel they needed treatment. “Language barriers is probably one of the main reasons why people don’t...

By Allison Dikanovic • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service Kenneth Wade said he has always valued his health. He eats healthy foods. He works out. He drinks plenty of water. In 2015, when some of his friends told him about a pill called PrEP that could prevent him from getting HIV, he said he felt that learning more about it was a natural and important step to taking good care of himself. At 27, Wade is a new brand ambassador for the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin’s awareness campaign “Stay PrEP’d Up,” which seeks to educate Milwaukeeans about the benefits...