Helping Partners Grow through Capacity Grants

Students from one of the United Way Community Schools Youth Councils.

Youth Forward MKE is investing in change. So far this year, they’ve provided $400,000 in Partner Capacity Building Grants to five local youth-serving organizations. The funding, informed by discussions with youth ambassadors and the larger coalition, is intended to expand the work of coalition partners and fuel their innovative youth-centered programming.

“Part of the goal of the Coalition is to reduce competition and make sure resources are aligned to go toward the best interests of youth,” says Clintel Hasan, Milwaukee Succeeds’ strategic initiatives manager. These grants are an excellent way to do just that.

The grants came about following budgeting discussions in 2022, where youth made it clear they wanted two things: the continued implementation of Design Your Future Proposal 1 and the creation of more opportunities for youth to convene. One-on-one discussions with partners further informed the funding, allowing Youth Forward MKE to actively respond to each organization’s current needs and challenges.

The funding was awarded in May and June, ensuring that each partner will be ready to start work when the school year begins this fall. The hope is to continue providing these grants over the next few years, with funding aligned to Youth Forward MKE’s three goals: building authentic partnerships, creating space for and shifting power to youth in the city.

Building Authentic Partnerships

Design Your Future Proposal 1 features various organizations working in tandem to make mental health a standard practice in schools. This is exactly what authentic partnerships look like – and why Youth Forward MKE awarded the bulk of their capacity grants to these implementation partners.

As part of Proposal 1, SKY Schools created targeted mentoring and mental health curriculum, which was piloted in two high schools last fall. Now, with their $150,000 capacity grant, they’ll be able to continue their full curriculum at one of those schools while expanding to another in the upcoming school year.

The Department of Black and Latino Male Achievement (BLMA) within MPS will utilize their $75,000 grant primarily to support student initiatives and student-led projects, such as beautification and murals.

“The funds we currently have are not sustainable and only allow programming to happen for certain initiatives,” says Nate Deans, BLMA’s director. “[This grant] will allow us to impact student leadership opportunities and allow students to feel connected to their schools and communities. This will also allow them to gain experiences to make an impact.”

Youth Forward MKE Ambassador Delonta Henderson speaks during the 2022 MENTOR Greater Milwaukee Youth Voice Summit.

BLMA will also utilize the funds for professional development and learning opportunities that help educators teach the Manhood Development Academy. This elective MPS course promotes positive racial and ethnic identity and fosters leadership within young men. Ultimately, they hope to roll out SKY’s curriculum through this course in all BLMA schools.

The third partner, MENTOR Greater Milwaukee, received $50,000 to support their role in expanding mentoring, particularly with their social justice ambassadors. These high school students are trained to mentor middle schoolers throughout the year, providing a peer-to-peer type of support. These ambassadors are also co-planning a youth summit with the Youth Forward MKE Ambassadors, providing a valuable opportunity for youth to convene.

Creating Space

For Teach for America (TFA) Milwaukee, creating space for youth means centering their perspectives while also establishing a place for them in the long-term educational framework of the city. Their $75,000 capacity grant will go toward kickstarting their new Teacher Pathway Program this fall. Not only will this program increase representation in the city’s classrooms, but it will also give students the opportunity to help shape what their experience looks like through ongoing feedback.

TFA has partnered with Alverno, Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy, the Hmong American Peace Academy, Milwaukee Academy of Science, Pathways High and St. Anthony School to provide high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to take college credit-earning education courses. But the program doesn’t stop there. TFA also plans to support college students pursuing careers in education at select colleges, providing targeted mentorship and training, plus financial assistance to reduce the burden of college debt.

“About 5% of teachers in Wisconsin are people of color,” explains Michael Nguyen, TFA Milwaukee’s executive director. “The schools in this program predominantly serve students of color. This provides a potential pathway to diversify the teacher pipeline and potentially have program participants return as educators in Milwaukee and their high school alma maters.”

“This work is closely connected to Design Your Future Proposal 3 – the creation of an autonomous youth council,” says Clintel. “Eventually, we want this council to serve as a teacher pipeline, but we can’t do it on our own.” With TFA already laying the groundwork, they’ll be well-positioned to help Youth Forward MKE bring this proposal to life.

Shifting Power

A member of the Community Schools Youth Council shares her ideas.

The United Way Community Schools have already shown what shifting power can look like in practice. With their youth-directed Violence Prevention Grant, their youth councils proposed and implemented unique ideas to spice up school lunches. Now, with their $50,000 capacity grant, they’ll be taking things a step further, expanding their thought power to other pressing student issues.

The youth councils, which are divided into regions that encompass several schools, will identify the issues their peers are experiencing, then determine how they can best utilize their resources to address them.

One of the Community Schools coordinators summed it up well in the School Lunch Success Story, put together by Milwaukee Succeeds: “When you give youth the resources, they will create change.”

In addition, the council hosts two youth summits each year to brainstorm, learn from and advise one another. With five local high schools represented, this allows for diverse thinking and collaboration across the community.