“Meet The Need”: Day 51 | Wrap Up

Our 50 Meet The Need Organizations: Agape Center, Alma Center, Artists Working In Education, Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin, City Year, COA Youth & Family Centers, Community Advocates, Core El Centro, Crisis Resource Center, Dominican Center for Women, Educare (Next Door Foundation), Family House, Fondy Food Martket, Grand Avenue Club, Healing Center, Hmong American Peace Academy, Hunger Task Force, Journey House, Joy House (Milwaukee Rescue Mission), Lissy’s Place (My Home Your Home), Margaret Ann’s Place, Milwaukee Women’s Center, Milwaukee LGBT Center, Milwaukee VA, NAMI Greater Milwaukee, Nia Imani Family, Neu Life Community Resource Center, Open Door Café, Pan-African Community Association, Pathfinders, Planned Parenthood, Project Return, Rebuilding Together Milwaukee, Repairers of the Breach, Running Rebels, Salvation Army of Greater Milwaukee, Select Milwaukee, SHARE Wisconsin- Milwaukee Mobile Market, Sherman Park Family Resource Center (CSSW #2), 16^th Street Community Health Clinic, Sojourner Truth Family Peace Center, St. Ben’s Community Meal Program, St. Rose Youth & Family Center, United Cerebral Palsy, United Community Center, Voces de la Frontera, Walker’s Point Youth & Family Center, Waukesha Food Pantry, Women’s Center of Waukesha, WRTP/Big Step

Listen: Sometime this Spring, an idea for our Meet The Need campaign came up: 50 organizations in 50 days. Something about “50 in 50″ made me smile from ear to ear. Why? It might have been the huge volume of coverage we could provide organizations that frequently don’t have much of a voice in our local media. It might have been the chance to approach the idea of basic needs from a host of different angles and perspectives . It might have been the sheer amount of elbow grease, coordination, and late nights it would require to get it all done.

For awhile, we thought about scaling back — 25 in 25? 40 in 40? Really? Not that 50 is a number with any special significance to the number of non-profits serving basic and human needs in the city, but it just sounds good. 50 in 50 has a real ring to it. Not a terribly complicated motivation, but we did it. 50 organizations in 50 days. Check the blog — they’re all there.

Coming into this campaign, we were worried that the organizations might start to blend together. That we would be doing a disservice to them by not allowing the organizations to properly differentiate themselves. But after the first week of interviews (22 in depth conversations!), that fear quickly dissolved. Organizations do serve similar populations and sometimes their operations might look similar on the surface. That is true. However, each approach to serving their clients/members/guests, without exception, was unique. The proof has been spread over the past 50 days, but I can give you an example that comes to mind.

When scheduling the broadcast day for our organizations, we tried to distribute organizations with like focuses throughout the calendar. So two emergency shelters were not featured on consecutive days and organizations working with early education were spread out, et cetera. In the meal program department, we had two groups that on the surface, might appear to be exactly the same. St. John’s Open Door Cafe and St. Ben’s are both ministries running 6-days-a-week programs serving folks in need of a hot meal.

Honestly, coming into the campaign, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between the two. However, take a listen to their short audio pieces (follow the links through their names above). The Open Door Cafe draws both from the business community around it and the folks they serve to get food on the table. On the other hand, St. Ben’s draws from Milwaukee’s diverse and sometimes seemingly disparate religious community, getting a meal each day of the month from a different church/temple/mosque. Neither is the single right way to solve the problem, but both are effective. These two approaches connect Milwaukee in wonderful ways, drawing on wholly distinct parts of the community.

These kinds of comparisons exist throughout the campaign, and they will be there as long as this blog and the internet are around for you to explore. I’m not sure if we’re going to bite off this big of a project for next year’s Meet The Need (and then again, maybe the scope and smiles will be bigger…), but it was an absolute joy for us at 88Nine to sink our teeth into this side of Milwaukee.

We certainly did not cover every organization serving basic and human needs in town (as my brother working for Neighborhood House continually reminds me), but really, that was a point we wanted to make. There is a huge amount of good work going on in the community, more than we can cover, and even more is needed. We tried to make it easy for our listeners to connect to this good work, to get a glimpse from the comfort of your home or car or desk. The best we can do is plant a seed in a listener, sparking them to go out and learn, volunteer, or donate. It’s difficult to quantify our impact since we work in broadcast media, but regardless, it’s been a privilege to create a document featuring the beautiful patchwork of service going on Milwaukee. Our deepest thanks go out to each participating organization and all of our loyal listeners. If you have a comment, either as a participant or listener, we’d love to hear what you have to share in the comments section.

“Meet The Need”: Day 50 | The Agape Center, Al Luzi

Listen: At times it’s felt like a sprint while at others it’s been more like a marathon, but we’ve arrived at the finish line in one piece (actually, more like 181 audio pieces). On the final day, Day 50 of 50 in our Meet The Need Campaign, we meet the Agape Center, an organization providing a wide range of services oriented towards building community in Northwest Milwaukee’s neighborhoods (Thurston Woods, in particular).

The Agape Center is a perfect capstone for our Meet The Need campaign, as their work invokes most of the major ideas we tossed around in the planning phase of the campaign. A basic need is what a person requires to survive on a physiological level. Food, shelter, clothing. However, if an individual’s basic needs are not met, can they return to self-sufficiency through a series of short-term bandages?  If basic needs are primary needs, what can we consider secondary or human needs? What does an individual require so that they can provide for their own basic needs?

The Agape Center uses basic needs as a point of entry and extend beyond by building strength in the community and providing a suite of supportive programs. In these three pieces, Al Luzi (perhaps the most distinct and entertaining voice of the entire campaign) paints a picture of how the Agape Center impacts the individuals, families, and communities around them:

-After solving the mystery of a few broken windows on their complex, the challenge then became figuring out how to prevent them from being broken in the future:

-Many families come through Agape’s meal program, and then connect with a whole suite of services:

-Sometimes, coming to and leaving work in the dark can be taxing. How Al finds motivation in the community’s resolve:

To learn more about the Agape Center, visit their website, and if you’d like to help the Agape Center meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can get involved.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Day 49 | Voces De La Frontera, Valeria Gonzalez

Listen: On the second to last day of Meet The Need, Day 49 of 50, we get to know Voces De La Frontera, an organization that educates workers about their employment rights and organizes to protect and improve the quality of life for low-wage and immigrant workers. Listen as student/activist/volunteer/board member Valeria Gonzalez recounts some personal stories of her experiences with Voces De La Frontera:

-Valeria shares how she came to Voces as well as a bit of background on the organization:

-An undocumented immigrant with the goal of graduating high school and going to college was discouraged by his parents, but was given hope by Voces De La Frontera:

To learn more about Voces De La Frontera, visit their website, and if you’d like to help Voces De La Frontera meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can get involved.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Day 48 | CSSW’s Family Resource Center of Sherman Park, Charles Richardson

Listen: With three days left, we spend Day 48 of 50 in Meet The Need with the Children Service Society of Wisconsin’s Family Resource Center of Sherman Park, an organization providing a nurturing environment for parents to connect to resources, access, information, participate in parenting programs, and enjoy family activities with their children at no cost. In the following two pieces, Parent Educator Charles Richardson brings us inside the work they do to educate parents:

-An unwilling father came to the Family Resource Center of Sherman Park, and slowly they softened his resistance:

-In Charles’ fatherhood program, fathers learn that in addition to providing for the basic needs of their children, time and attention are equally important:

To learn more about the CSSW’s Family Resource Center of Sherman Park, visit their website, and if you’d like to help them meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can get involved.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Day 47 | The Clement J Zablocki VA Medical Center, Andy Hendrickson

Listen: As we move rapidly towards the end of this year’s Meet The Need Campaign, on Day 47 of 50 we visit the Clement J Zablocki VA Medical Center, providing a full range of medical services to our veterans. Listen in these three pieces as Andy Hendrickson brings us inside his motivation for working with recently returned veterans, as well as how the VA can impact a veteran’s life:

-Andy gives a brief history of his own military and how that experience compelled him to work with veterans who have recently returned from war:

-The story of a marine who served in the initial invasion in Iraq and returned to Milwaukee, needing medical care:

-Andy sheds gives a vivid account of what it’s like to serve, and how that contrasts with experiences upon return to civilian life:

To learn more about the Clement J Zablocki VA Medical Center, visit their website, and if you’d like to help Project Return meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can get involved. Also, if you’re interested in the VA’s service, you can contact Andy Hendrickson at (414) 384-2000.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Christmas Day | 24 Days in 1

Listen: A hearty Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from the 88Nine, especially all of us in the production department! Today, if you happen to gather the family around the old-fashioned radio receiver to listen to some 88Nine, you’ll be treated once an hour with a highlight of Meet The Need. We’re running 24 different days today, so listen for your favorite organizations!

And if you’re looking for a late late Christmas present, New Years gift, or have any other holiday giving needs, consider donating to one of the 50 organizations we’ve met over in last two months. On a personal note, this is what my family is doing for Christmas, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I’ve felt remarkably lucky to be involved in this project, and I couldn’t think of a better way to give to my loved ones.

“Meet The Need”: Day 46 | Project Return, Wendel Hruska

Listen: On Christmas Eve, for Day 46 of 50 in Meet The Need, we get to know Project Return, an organization helping individuals returning from incarceration with their reintegration needs back into society. Throughout the interviews for this campaign, I’ve heard a number of words I didn’t know, usually technical terms specific to a field (I wanted to give a few examples, but unfortunately, words you don’t know can be slippery when it comes to recalling them). Above all the others, one word stuck out to me — “recidivism.”

Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior. In the framework basic needs, especially the more extended scheme we’ve been considering, this is a powerful word in considering where we can find solutions. For a person coming out of prison, they either have no support network or return to their old situation. This is a bleak picture, one almost impossible for an individual to overcome alone. This is where an organization like Project Return comes into play.

In these three pieces, Wendel Hruska tells the stories of three folks released from jail and how Project Return helped them get back on their feet:

-Lavelia was told on the day she was released that she could not return to her family. She took a taxi to Project Return, and they took her in:

-Released at 12:01am, a man finds himself out on the streets and in the cold. During the night before he found Project Return, he found an unexpected responsibility:

-A disagreeable “yeah, but…” guy came to Project Return with great resistance at first. After beginning his program, he decided to take the advice from Project Return to prove them wrong:

To learn more about Project Return, visit their website, and if you’d like to help Project Return meet their needs this holiday season, contact them here.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Day 45 | Nia Imani Family Inc, Belinda Pittman-McGee

Listen: On Day 45 of 50 in our Meet The Need, we spend the day with Belinda Pittman-McGee, Executive Director and Founder of Nia Imani Family Inc, a transitional housing program providing women a safe family setting where they learn to parent their children and support themselves. “Start at the beginning.” I gave that simple prompt and Belinda needed little else from me. Nearly the entire interview was devoted to her journey from divorce and homelessness with her children to how she got back on her feet and eventually opened Nia Imani.

One of the challenges of working in short-form story telling is how to distill a compelling 4 minute story to just 1 minute. Even more challenging? Serializing a breathtaking 15 minutes into 3 minute-long chunks. Certainly, Belinda was made for long-form, but in these three pieces, you can get a taste of her amazing story:

-Going from married life to homelessness, Belinda found a totally new world in the shelters — one that compelled her to learn from the women she met:

-After getting out of the shelter, her path to a place that resembled her old life was filled with trials, tribulations, and a lot of hard work:

-Having made it through herself, Belinda now acts a guide for women facing the challenges of transitioning to independence:

To learn more about the Nia Imani Family, visit their website, and if you’d like to help the Nia Imani meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can help here.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Day 44 | United Community Center, Elsa Mercado

Listen: For Day 44 of 50 in our Meet The Need campaign, we stop at the United Community Center, a mainstay of Milwaukee’s near South Side, providing a wide variety of quality programs making a difference in the lives of youth, seniors, and families for the last 39 years. Listen as Community Relations Director Elsa Mercado brings us into the UCC:

-An overview of what goes on at the United Community Center, approaching community development from an innovative angle that focuses on cultural sensitivity:

-A brief run through who they serve at their school — some very powerful statistics:

-The UCC’s Latino Arts program brings major artists from around the world to Milwaukee:

-Very possibly my favorite story of the campaign so far — equal parts heart warming and eye opening. Listen to the story Ana and Placido:

To learn more about the United Community Center, visit their website, and if you’d like to help the UCC meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can help here.

Produced by: Adam Carr

“Meet The Need”: Day 43 | Planned Parenthood, Tanya Atkinson

Listen: For Day 43 of 50, entering our last full week of Meet The Need, we go inside Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, an organization empowering all individuals to manage their sexual and reproductive health through patient services, education, and advocacy. One of our aims in this campaign is to differentiate organizations that attack similar problems and work with similar populations — their approach to solving problems and serving a population gives each organization its own unique personality.

Further, in the case of higher profile organizations in our community, like Salvation Army or the Hunger Task Force, our goal was to get behind the name and hear their stories, to get a feeling both for their work and how they impact individuals. Listen below as Tanya Atkinson, Vice-President of Public Affairs and Community Education, brings us inside what Planned Parenthood does in the Milwaukee community:

-There are common perceptions of Planned Parenthood and the work they do, but their work has much more depth than that reduction:

-Tanya talks about why her some of her favorite days come when she’s working at health centers:

-The story of Alison and how Planned Parenthood helped her find and overcome cervical cancer:

-In the case of Liz, Planned Parenthood went above and beyond the call of duty:

To learn more about Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, visit their website, and if you’d like to help Planned Parenthood meet their needs this holiday season, learn how you can help here.

Produced by: Adam Carr