More than 50 people crowded onto the 33rd Court Bridge during the naming ceremony for Three Bridges Park. The name was chosen from more than 750 contest submissions. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)

Debra Tuckweed, originally from Boscobel, Wis. (pop. 3,231), moved to Milwaukee 35 years ago to work as a parole officer. She remembers riding into town with her parents and seeing the blighted Menomonee Valley for the first time thinking, “This is where I’m going to live?”

Once an eyesore that split the north and south sides of the city, today the Valley has been transformed into a vibrant, thriving public space.

The new park, once a railroad yard, is being built along the banks of the Menomonee River. It will be known as Three Bridges Park, the winning name in a contest that drew more than 750 participants. The name will go before the Common Council and Natural Resources Board in coming weeks for official approval.

The 24-acre park, which officially opens to the public on July 20, is the last major development of the From the Ground Up initiative. In 2010, Menomonee Valley Partners (MVP), the Urban Ecology Center (UEC), the City of Milwaukee, State of Wisconsin, other community-based organizations and countless individuals partnered on the initiative, which resulted in improved access to jobs, outdoor education programs and recreational activities.

The 33rd Court Bridge was one of the projects of the $26 million “From the Ground Up Initiative.” (Photo by Edgar Mendez)

The $26 million initiative also included construction of the UEC Valley Branch, 3700 W. Pierce St., the Hank Aaron State Trail and three pedestrian bridges that inspired the name of the new park.

The park will be part of the Hank Aaron State Trail and will serve as the new “outdoor classroom” for the Urban Ecology Center’s Menomonee Valley branch. It is accessible via three bike/pedestrian bridges – located at 37^th and Canal Streets, 33^rd Court and behind the Mitchell Park Domes – that connect the Valley to surrounding neighborhoods.

Laura Bray, executive director of MVP, said the name was chosen both because it can roll off a child’s tongue and because it captures the spirit of the initiative.

“We’re bridging neighborhoods, past to future, north to south, city to nature,” Bray said.

Bray added that $22.5 million has already been raised for the initiative and that MVP hopes to complete the park by the end of summer. The park’s completion would be the last step in the valley’s transformation, according to Bray. It is expected to serve 10,000 children a year,

Tuckweed, now retired, bikes and jogs on the valley section of the Hank Aaron State Trail daily. Absent now is the stench from the nearby slaughterhouse as are the decrepit, shuttered factories that years ago made her cringe. She calls the park an added bonus to the atmosphere that already has been created in the valley, saying

“I grew up in the country so it’s nice to have the country nearby.”

Omar Bonilla-Ortiz, who works at the UEC Valley Branch and grew up just across from the long inaccessible Menomonee Valley, said he couldn’t wait to tell his nieces and nephews the name of the new park next door.

Added Bonilla-Ortiz, “They’ll be the last generation to know of the blight that was here.”

Sallie Brown, Rhulene Artis, Dave Libert, Alisia Moutry and Kirstin Anglea display the Milwaukee Environmental Sciences banner inside the new school. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Between now and the first week in August, when Milwaukee Environmental Sciences is expected to open, the new principal and others have a lot of work to do to get the former 65th Street School building ready.

Milwaukee Environmental Sciences will be a year-round Expeditionary Learning school, using hands-on projects to explore topics in depth. More than 150 schools in 31 states and Washington, D.C., use this model.

According to Dave Libert, school planning leader for the Milwaukee Teacher Education Center (MTEC), children will spend several weeks studying topics such as water quality, urban forestry, ecosystems in nearby Dineen Park’s lagoon, or gardening on the school’s planned green roof.

When students study water quality, for example, they could delve into the 1993 outbreak of the cryptosporidium parasite in Milwaukee’s water supply. Lessons might include presentations by Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District personnel and other experts.

“This isn’t like kids playing at answering [real-world] questions; they’re working on them,” said Libert.

This is the fourth attempt to bring Expeditionary Learning to Milwaukee. According to Libert, who was not involved in the earlier efforts, the earlier schools were unsuccessful “due to a lack of rigor.”

New principal Kirstin Anglea is ready to begin the school year this August. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Milwaukee Environmental Sciences plans to blend academic rigor with student participation to ensure that the school performs at a high level. The school, spearheaded by MTEC, will also offer professional development for teachers in training. Milwaukee Environmental Sciences is MTEC’s first charter school.

The MPS School Board approved MTEC’s proposal for the new charter school in January. MTEC’s lease on the building begins July 1.

According to Kirstin Anglea, the new school principal, the building will need work before students arrive.

“[Over the next few months], my biggest concern is to make sure the building is impeccably clean, the library is ready to be filled with books and be a comfortable space,” she said. “I want to make sure the bathrooms are as environmentally friendly as possible and clean. … For a lot of the rest of the space, we want to work with the kids to make decisions about the school.”

Another big task during the next few months will be to reach out to families to encourage them to enroll their children in the school, according to Anglea. The planning team is holding parent meetings, distributing fliers and door-hangers in the neighborhood surrounding the school, and will host a June 8 picnic for families. Organizers hope that 180 students in grades pre-K through 5 will sign up for the school this year.

Tina Weatherall’s granddaughter will be starting K4 at Milwaukee Environmental Sciences this year, and Weatherall said she is excited to “get in on the ground floor.”

“I had been getting ready to start researching schools for my granddaughter,” said Weatherall. “It was going to be a process. When I went (to the library) for the orientation, I was so impressed; I just knew that this was the school.”

Weatherall said her granddaughter is very active, and she hopes the EL curriculum can keep young students like her focused on learning. “When they’re that age, you really have to be able to hold that attention. The teaching style of that school is really going to work with my granddaughter.”

Having worked in childcare for the past 11 years, Weatherall said she knows what to look for in a school. “You see a lot of charter schools opening up nowadays, and, being honest, this is the first charter school that I researched and I was very impressed with. It’s not just someone coming in trying to make a few extra dollars,” she said.

As a “non-instrumentality” charter school, Milwaukee Environmental Sciences will have its own governing board and fewer regulations than MPS schools. However, Anglea emphasized that it will be a public charter school. “We are not just taking the best and the brightest,” she said. “We want a diverse student body.”

According to Anglea, who most recently was a graduate professor in educational leadership at Cardinal Stritch University, hands-on instruction in real-world settings is key to learning.

“Kids have disengaged from school and we can’t afford that,” she said. “Not if we want engaged citizens in the future.”

Stephanie Harling leaned forward as she sat across from Dan Woodring at his desk, rapidly suggesting ways Waukee Engineering Co., a local company that supplies equipment to the heat processing industry, could engage in community development.

“We need to sustain this community,” said Harling, executive director of Havenwoods Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit agency focused on improving the quality of life in the northwest Milwaukee neighborhood.

Woodring, the company’s product and quality control agent, said he would be willing to work with the organization, possibly joining a manufacturing roundtable discussion or training young people for technical careers.

“If this is better for the community, it’s better for our business,” he said.

Harling, 46, became the nonprofit’s executive director 11 years ago.

She works with residents and local businesses to improve streets such as Kaul Avenue and housing developments such as Westlawn on Havenwoods’ southern edge.

“I love Milwaukee,” Harling said. “I’m a life-long resident, so I want all of the city to thrive. I just love seeing people have opportunities in front of them.”

Harling cited her mother, Mary Jo Morris – who advocated for Milwaukee public education as a member of the PTA until her death in 2007 – as inspiration.

“That’s where I get my civic passion — by being dragged to school board meetings as a 7-year- old,” Harling said, laughing.

Stephanie Harling (right) discusses with Dan Woodring of Waukee Engineering Co. possibilities for the company to engage in community development. (Photo by Rob Gebelhoff)

The Bay View resident found her career in economic development by accident. After earning her bachelor’s degree in corporate communications at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1991, Harling worked in sales and marketing for broadcast companies. She considered pursuing a master’s degree in elementary education, but found herself working for a nonprofit development group temporarily. That sparked a passion for community improvement.

Changing perceptions is the most difficult challenge in improving Havenwoods, Harling said.

“When I told peers that I was working in community development, they made references to ‘Gunshot Alley’ and ‘good luck,’” she said. “They were referring to what they thought was a challenging, hopeless community. What we’ve discovered is that it couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Harling organized her group’s initiatives into three categories: crime prevention and community organizing, economic development and healthy neighborhoods. Community leaders have noticed differences in the community as a result of these initiatives.

Police Capt. Jerome O’Leary, who has spent the last seven years with the 4th Police District, credited Harling and the nonprofit for helping to cause a major shift in the area.

“If you look at what the neighborhoods used to be and what they are now, they’ve really changed,” O’Leary said. “If it weren’t for Stephanie and for her group, it would not have changed.”

He added, “I love to see kids riding bikes in the spring and summertime. I smile when I think of all the work that we’ve collectively done.”

The nonprofit developed a relationship with the 4th District by involving police in community activities. For example, Harling’s group guaranteed a police presence at landlord compact meetings, which discussions that address drug and crime problems in the area. O’Leary said this made a significant difference in his job.

“You need people like Stephanie to build trust among the residents … by talking with people and also by showing that she has a strong relationship with the police,” O’Leary said.

The business community also has noticed Harling’s efforts. Woodring, for example, pointed out efforts to beautify the area.

“The new Havenwoods signage and the little things around the area makes the community great,” he said. “It shows that things are improving – that people care.”

Harling sees room for more improvement in Havenwoods. In the next five years, she can envision the Silver Spring Drive’s retail area revitalized, with more leadership and engagement from residents.

For now, Harling said she won’t rest because she’s “fallen in love” with the neighborhood.

“We have good-working, salt-of-earth people in this community,” she said, “and that’s the message we would like to get out.”

Youth in the Amani neighborhood created a “pop-up” outdoor art show called “Dare to Dream, in conjunction with the city’s recent Bloom and Groom event.

The artwork, displayed across the street from the Dominican Center, 2470 W. Locust, represents changes the young people would like to see in their community. Milwaukee artist Vedale Hill supervised development and installation of the exhibit. Hill teaches visual art to preteens and teenagers at the COA Goldin Center, 2320 W. Burleigh St., and COA Riverwest.

Sponsored by the Dominican Center, COA Goldin Center and the city of Milwaukee, the second annual Amani event also offered fresh flowers for attendees to purchase and plant at their homes. It also offered residents an opportunity to come together to celebrate spring and discuss local issues.

Mayor Tom Barrett paid a visit to Amani to promote the flower sale. “Flowers are brightening the area and building neighborhood strength,” the mayor wrote on his Facebook page.

Citywide, nearly 50,000 flowers were sold in 18 Milwaukee neighborhoods. The city’s Neighborhood Improvement Development Corp. worked with Lowe’s Home Improvement to purchase the flowers at a discounted price.

LeDester Tyler, Beverly Bell, Dennis Walton and Sister Patricia Rogers helped coordinate Bloom and Groom and the Youth Art Show. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Speaker Jim McCarthy, a software pioneer, addresses the audience at TEDxHarambee. (Photo by Brendan O’Brien)

Milwaukee’s first TEDx event featured speakers from a range of disciplines who discussed using the liberal arts to address society’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges.

TEDxHarambee brought a cross-section of area leaders in the academic, arts and technology fields together to listen to speakers discuss STEAM —Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Music. The STEAM approach places the arts at the center of the problem-solving and innovation processes.

“Teaching students science is not going to teach them how to innovate,” said Sherri Dodd, director of educational technology at Milwaukee Montessori School during her presentation.

“Incorporating the arts in to science, technology, engineering and math will give students that creativity and provide them (with) skills that will allow them to be innovators,” she added.

John Kowalczyk, 25, a local artist, said he attended the event because of his interest in applications for art in science and technology.

“Being an artist, I am so immersed in my creativity, but I like to see connections from art to science. It helps me broaden my reach. It’s about finding a purpose for art,” said Kowalczyk, who teaches art to adults at Splash Studio, a painting bar in the Third Ward.

The audience was limited to 100 guests who listened intently to the 18-minute presentations by 11 speakers.

Marvin Pope, the publisher of BU-Magazine, said he enjoyed the format because it treated him to an in-depth glimpse of what drives each of the speakers.

Attendee John Kowalczyk is interested in the connection between art and science. (Photo by Brendan O’Brien)

“It’s interesting to hear every person speak about their passions,” said Pope, whose online publication focusing on profiles of people including artists.

Although the presentations at times revolved around topics such as poverty and human rights violations, the mood was light among the speakers and attendees.

Some attendees jotted in notebooks, while others tapped on handheld devices to record the event’s most memorable and inspiring concepts and quotes.

“Imagine the world we live in if we spent more time imagining the world we could live in,” said speaker Nathaniel Stern. Stern and co-speaker Ilya Avdeev teach a class at UWM that brings together interdisciplinary student teams, including artists, to solve design, engineering and health care problems.

The event, held in the Harambee neighborhood, was sponsored by Made in Milwaukee, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Munger Technical Services and the Brady Corporation.

For Mark Anderson, who is new to his position at MSOE and who recently moved into Riverwest, the event was a chance to get to know the area.

“It was a chance to see more about neighborhood development and neighborhood transformation and it being next to my neighborhood, I thought it was a good idea to be here,” he said.

TEDxHarambee, which can be viewed here, was patterned after the popular TED Conference and TED Talks. Owned by the New York-based Sapling Foundation, TED is devoted to ideas “worth spreading.”

The original TED conference in 1987 focused on bringing together people from Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) and has since broadened to other topics.

TED produces several conferences each year, in California and the United Kingdom, where leaders of their respective fields are invited to present lectures. Capitalizing on the popularity of the brand, TEDx was created in 2009 to allow communities such as Milwaukee to use the TED format to organize local conferences.

Bridgette Hood, principal of 53rd Street School in Sherman Park, does not like to be in her office during the day. Instead, she engages with students in the classroom and supervises activities throughout the school.

“Kids — that’s my passion,” said Hood. “I was the kind of student to always be involved in extracurricular activities. I had other individuals who were passionate and cared about me…. Because of what I experienced, I felt like I had to give that back.”

Hood attended Milwaukee Public Schools, as did both of her children. She has worked for MPS for 27 years and became principal of 53^rd Street in January 2007, when it was transitioning to a K-8 school.

“I believe that this is all meant to be,” Hood said. “God put me here for a reason. He equipped me for this type of job.”

Elizabeth Turner has been teaching at the school for 12 years. She noticed changes — both academically and structurally — when Hood took over. Turner credits them to Hood’s passion and experience.

“Her heart is in the right place,” Turner said. “I think part of the reason she is so good at what she does is because she has walked in every job within the school.”

While 53^rd Street School’s standardized test scores remain well below statewide averages, they have improved markedly during Hood’s tenure as principal. In 2007, 5.2 percent of students were proficient in reading; in 2012, 12.9 percent were proficient. In 2007, 4.6 percent of the students were proficient in math; in 2012, 16.9 percent were proficient.  The rate of improvement since Hood took over compares admirably against statewide progress — the school’s reading scores increased 7.7 percent, while statewide scores rose only 1.2 percent. Math scores at 53^rd Street increased 12.3 percent, compared to the statewide increase of 5 percent.

In October, the 53^rd Street School was selected by the GE Foundation as one of 10 schools to receive $20.4 million in grant funds, out of 42 schools that were invited to apply. In an effort to increase student achievement, each demonstration school will receive a full-time literacy and full-time math coach, as well as more time for collaborative planning to focus on the “Common Core State Standards,” national standards voluntarily adopted by states.

“We are hoping to utilize those resources effectively and with fidelity to become a (model) for the district — and maybe even the state,” Hood said.

Her commitment to kids extends beyond the school building.

A 14-year-old girl recently pleaded with her for help after being placed in different group and foster homes. That led Hood to become a licensed foster parent for the teenager.

“I said to her, ‘The most important thing that you could ever do for me is to do well in school and be respectful to yourself and to the adults who work with you,’ ” Hood recalled. “She said, ‘If that’s all you’re asking me, I can do that.’”

Five years ago, Hood was away at a conference for two days. As she listened to a speaker, she kept thinking about her students. She began to write the 53rd Street School creed to show her students that they can take control of their destiny. The creed begins, “I am smart. I am brilliant. I can be whatever I want to be.”

“The kids recite it every single day by way of the PA system,” Hood said. “It’s not just by memory that we’re reciting this. It’s mainly that we want you to believe it.”

As both a teacher and a parent of a second-grader, Velicia Buchanan Cooper interacts with Hood on several levels. “The one thing I love is that she always puts the child first,” Buchanan Cooper said. “She looks at the child first before anything.”

Hood would agree with that assessment.

“It’s the kids who make me who I am,” she said. “It’s all about the kids.”

College Possible seniors (from left) Pa Nou Xiong, Peter Khanthavong, Darneisha Virginia and Nury Plascencia attended the Milwaukee 2013 Year-End Graduation Celebration at UW-Milwaukee. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

This is the second in a series about four college-bound high school seniors who are participating in College Possible, a two-year program that provides students from low-income families with coaching and support to get into college and earn a degree. NNS will check in with these students during their transition into college and throughout their freshman year.

Back in early March, high school seniors Darneisha Virginia, Nury Plascencia, Pa Nou Xiong and Peter Khanthavong worried about getting into their first-choice colleges. They worried too about receiving enough financial aid to go to college. They were excited about the possibilities and nervous that their dreams might never be realized.

Now, with graduation just a few weeks away, financial aid packages offered and college choices made, worry is beginning to take a back seat to excitement.

“I’m most excited about meeting new people, being in a bigger environment, gaining my independence and becoming my own person,” said Pa Nou Xiong, who will receive her high school diploma from Milwaukee School of Languages on June 11.

St. Joan Antida senior Nury Plascencia echoed Xiong’s longing for independence. “I’m excited about living on my own without my parents guiding me through everything,” she said.

The four recently joined the rest of their College Possible class, 173 seniors from 10 Milwaukee high schools, at a year-end graduation celebration on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Juniors who spent the year preparing for standardized college admission tests and sophomores just entering the program also participated.

College Possible coach Erin Bennett (left) addresses graduating seniors from St. Joan Antida High School on the stage in the UW-Milwaukee Theatre Building. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Xiong, Virginia, Plascencia and Khanthavong all have been admitted to the college they most want to attend and all have been awarded the financial aid necessary to complete four-year degree programs.

Xiong has decided to attend Marquette University. In addition to the physician assistant program the university offers, Xiong chose Marquette because “I really love the environment. I love that it is downtown but maintains its own sense of community despite being in such a large city,” she said.

She is waiting to hear the results of some scholarship applications but she will be able to pay her tuition with scholarships from Marquette and the federally funded Educational Opportunity Program. She will take out loans to cover part of the cost of room and board.

Plascencia and Virginia will both go from St. Joan Antida to Mount Mary College.  Plascencia knew she wanted to follow her older sister to Mount Mary, where she received a Caroline Scholarship for full tuition, room and board for four years.

Virginia was undecided in March but now says that Mount Mary is her first choice. She has received a Grace Scholarship for new undergraduates from Milwaukee who demonstrate financial need. It will cover 85 percent of tuition. Virginia, who is also waiting for results of a number of scholarship applications, said she plans to take out loans for the balance of her tuition and for room and board if necessary.

She said she is most excited about graduating from high school and having the opportunity to go to college. She is also thrilled to be going to a small college, with small classes, where she expects to receive individual attention. Proximity to home is another positive aspect of Mount Mary for Virginia. “I’m excited to get in and jump into a career that I really am passionate about,” she said.

Khanthavong, who will receive his diploma from Alexander Hamilton High School on June 8, will attend UW-Milwaukee. Both Carroll University and UWM offered him good financial aid packages, which will cover all but about $5,000 of his expenses per year. If the other scholarships he applied for do not come through, Khathavong will take out loans, he said.

Along with the excitement, each student expressed some anxiety about academic challenges and the new social scene.

Recognizing this, College Possible will continue to offer support through the students’ freshman year. Coaches will check in regularly with students, and are available to help when asked. During the summer, a one-day program will help prepare students for the transition. It focuses on finding campus resources and adapting to college life and work, according to Xiong.

“Although I’m excited about making new friends, I’m really nervous about it,” she added. Xiong considers herself a shy person and worries that her reserve will be misinterpreted by fellow students.

Virginia expressed another fear that many college freshmen feel. “I’m scared that the classes are going to be extremely hard and I’m going to fail. You never really know what it’s going to be like until you’re in the door.”

First Nations Women’s Professional Leadership Group members, (from left) Judy Dordel, Jacqueline Schram and Richanda E. Kaquatosh (Photo by Courtney Perry)

Richanda Kaquatosh grew up on the Menominee Indian reservation, the youngest of nine children. When she was 10, her family moved to Milwaukee, away from her childhood friends. But the challenges of being uprooted and shy were offset for Kaquatosh by the influence of her mother.

“I had a very strong mother (and) mentor who was pro-education,” said Kaquatosh.

Her mother and other mentors she found along the way supported her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at Alverno College and a master’s at Cardinal Stritch University. Now the coordinator of Milwaukee Public Schools’ First Nation Studies program, Kaquatosh is launching an organization to help Native American women and girls and build her community.

“I had women mentors (who) helped me grow and become successful, so I think we need to do that for our girls,” Kaquatosh said. Working with young and adult women is the group’s main focus because “there are a lot of unhealthy behaviors … going on out there that we can address,” she said.

Group members discuss future plans in a meeting at Marquette University. (Photo by Courtney Perry)

Kaquatosh has chosen five women in her professional network as the core of the First Nations Women’s Professional Leadership Group. They are Judy Dordel, executive director, Indian Summer Festival; Jacqueline Schram, governmental and community affairs associate, Marquette University; Kaye Garcia, executive director, Forest County Potawatomi Foundation; and Dr. Shannon Chavez-Korell, professor of educational psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“All of us have this capacity within us, which really binds us together, to see that our young Native women need leadership support, ” Schram said.

The group members stressed the importance of passing down knowledge they received from other Native women to strengthen bonds in the community.

The Native American population is one of the smallest ethnic groups in Milwaukee, making up just 0.9 percent of the population according to the 2010 U.S. Census. That is one of the reasons the founders established the group.

“Native people are looking for information to come together. They need something to relate to,” said Dordel.

The women said they feel a strong connection between themselves and the community. “It’s a magnetic pull. It’s palpable,” Schram said.

Still in what Schram describes as its “humble beginnings,” the group hopes to establish a scholarship for young women, bring various Native communities together and work with colleges to raise awareness of Native American history.

The group would also like to expand its membership and, eventually, develop it into a national organization.

The women said they believe that, overall, it is important to support one another as women and not limit the group’s possibilities. Said Dordel, “I don’t think we should put any limits on what we do and what we plan and just keep moving forward.”

When Al Luzi welcomes guests to the Agape Community Center, in the Thurston Woods neighborhood, his warm and engaging personality makes them feel at home.

“Al is hard to describe — he is kind, caring and always trying to help,” said Anne Gliniecki, a senior citizen and resident of Thurston Woods. “If there were more people like him, the world would be a better place.”

Luzi, the director of development at Agape, 6100 N, 42^nd St., started working at the agency in 2005. He coordinates after-school and senior programs, community meals and fundraising. Although Luzi has been involved with numerous neighborhood development projects, his biggest impact has come through the meal program, which provides about 23,000 meals to 14,000 people each year.

Like in the TV show “Pawn Stars,” Luzi said, “You just never know who or what is going to come through that door. The same thing is true of a community center.”

When colleagues step through the door of Luzi’s office, the first thing they see are walls covered with Boston sports paraphernalia. While his appreciation for all things Massachusetts is evident, as a teenager Luzi wanted to get as far from his hometown of Springfield, Mass., as possible. He never expected, though, to end up in Milwaukee.

Luzi found his way to Wisconsin through Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in urban affairs and sociology, found his passion for community work during an internship at a municipal office focusing on citizen complaints and met his wife, Mary Kay.

“I think that office gave me a sense of wanting to approach these problems within the system,” Luzi said. “I can tell you that a number of years ago I had not planned to follow this public interest path, but I did and this is where I ended up.”

Katina Davis-Allen, the kitchen manager of the meal program, has worked closely with Luzi for the last three years. She jokingly described doing so as a “mess,” but also a pleasure.

“He brings a home-like attitude to work every day,” Davis-Allen said. “He is real giving and caring.” Luzi often helps in the kitchen and greets every guest by name.

Gliniecki frequently attends community dinners held three times a week at Agape. “The meal programs are tremendous,” she said. “They help you get to know different people, as well as different cultures.”

Thurston Woods is “a neighborhood of the working poor,” Luzi said. He is motivated by seeing people standing on bus stops sending their kids off to school, making sure they receive a proper education.

“While you think that this is a very simple thing, it takes a lot of time, a lot of energy and a lot of coordination,” he said.

Luzi said that his job isn’t just to feed people, but to inspire them. “There’s a very strong sense of hope that exists within the community,” he said. “And we’ve looked at our role as being those purveyors of hope.”

There’s still plenty of work to be done. “Our short-term goal is lunch,” he said. “Our long-term goal is dinner — and we’ll do it again tomorrow.”

COA Goldin Center’s after-school program includes physical fitness, sports, homework help, computer and art classes, community service and cooking and nutrition education among other activities. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)

A Public Policy Forum (PPF) study of eight central city Milwaukee after-school program sites found that those with strong connections to schools and surrounding neighborhoods were best positioned to meet the needs of parents and students.

The analysis is part of a larger study examining the quality of hundreds of Milwaukee after-school programs and investigating policy barriers to quality improvements, according to Anneliese Dickman, research director at the PPF. Parents of children who participate or have recently participated in after-school programs were concerned about safety, convenience and the availability of engaging and structured activities, according to the report.

The report also states that parents who viewed their children’s after-school programs as low quality felt there needed to be better training for program staff. According to Quentin Prince, coordinator of the Community Learning Center (CLC) at Longfellow School, his staff is continuously trained as rigorously as a teacher would be.

“They receive professional development training throughout the year,” said Prince.

Community Learning Centers is a program of the Milwaukee Public Schools Department of Recreation & Community Services.

The next phase of the study will look at professional development opportunities for after-school staff, according to Dickman. The study found that most parents were pleased with the quality and amount of programming available at the after-school sites located within five Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) neighborhoods including Harambee, Washington Park and Clarke Square. LISC is a national organization working to revitalize distressed urban areas.

The CLC site at Longfellow Elementary School offers academic enrichment, arts and music, drug and violence prevention and other programming.

Many parents said the programs had helped their children improve relationships with friends, social behaviors and self-confidence. The after-school programs studied included Community Learning Centers operating in partnerships with community organizations and district-operated or school-based programs.

Seventy-two percent of the after-school participants at the surveyed sites were African-American and 21 percent were Latino. Seventeen percent of the students were Spanish speakers. Forty-three percent of the students in those programs lived within walking distance of the sites.

Parents at South Side sites said the best aspects of those programs were their proximity and convenience, while North Side parents were more likely to consider quality of programming as the programs’ greatest strength.

Parents of middle and high school students cited a lack of safe and engaging after-school programs available to their children. Specifically, they said programming should include activities that were interesting to older students, but would also help them develop job and life skills.

Other concerns included costs. Parents felt strongly that after-school programs should be affordable or free. They did not think that costs for quality improvement should be passed on to parents, though nearly all parents surveyed said they were not being charged for the programs.

Parents also said that after-school programs should be more structured in order to improve student behavior. One factor that might influence children’s behavior, they said, would be an increase in communication between the day schools and the after-school programs. Parents said communication between their children’s classroom teachers and the staff at their after-school programs was almost non-existent. Tracking of homework assignments and goals for the tutoring component of the after-school programs sometimes relies on students rather than on coordination between program employees and teachers, parents said.

Longfellow’s CLC program does combine day school and after-school programming, according to Prince.

“We see our program as a continuation of the school day,” he said.

His staff works with teachers to create a pacing guide that ensures the lessons taught during the day are reinforced after school, he added.

Overall, parents see a strong correlation between the strength of relationships between schools and after-school programs and their children’s academic progress.

The study remarks that any changes to after-school programming should carefully consider affordability, convenience, safety and transportation to increase their appeal to parents of Milwaukee-area youth.

The next phase of the PPF study will look at supply and demand. We already know, Dickman said, that location is a big factor when choosing a program. “Most parents said they did not consider more than one program.”