Milwaukee has roughly 2,500 vacant properties across the city, a problem that weighs more heavily on predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. Research has shown that vacant houses attract crime, are easier to set on fire, and can lower the value of homes nearby.

The difference in number of boarded up buildings between neighborhoods is obvious as one drives from the East Side to the North Side or central parts of the city. Those neglected spaces are blatant visuals of the disparities in our city.

Gabriel Thomas, a local artist is trying to change that. When most people see a forgotten space, he sees potential. Since 2020, he has painted murals on boarded windows around the city to bring about love and positive energy.

“I fill a void,” says Thomas. “It’s a symbol of freedom. When you’re doing something positive, the world is yours.”

Filling Vacant Spaces

Originally inspired by the Milwaukee artist Ras ‘Ammar Nsoroma, Thomas began painting images on vacant spaces in the middle of the pandemic while living in Dallas, Texas before moving back to Milwaukee that same year. While everyone was inside and isolated, he was painting to inspire people and uplift spirits.

“I needed to release the pain inside of me that I was seeing in the world,” he says.

Art has always been a peaceful escape for Thomas. He grew up on 38th and Galena, often drawing and making art as a child. “It was rough,” he says. “I’m just thankful for the knowledge that was instilled on me to make it to live to this age. A lot of people didn’t make it.”

Thomas is all too used to seeing boarded buildings, but he has turned the challenges in his life into works of art that color the streets of Milwaukee. By depicting experiences and struggles that viewers relate to, he makes something more than art – he inspires community connection. Rather than an eyesore in their neighborhood, people can see themselves in his paintings.

You can find some of his pieces on Holton and Concordia, one of which shows two people sharing their hearts in a romantic scene. Across the street is a portrait of a woman who struggles with leukemia. That piece, “You Are Enough,” showcases her strength and resilience as she battles her disease.

The issue of vacant buildings continues to loom over Milwaukee and affect the people living nearby, but as Gabriel Thomas continues to create art, he is painting hope.

Find Gabriel Thomas’ artwork on his Instagram @gabriel.7911.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

Food tells the story of migration, evokes memories, reminds us of where we came from and connects us to the land that produces the food we eat. As Kai Gardner Mishlove so beautifully explains, food unifies us and heals us. “When you prepare a dish, you’re putting your heart and soul into it and you’re evoking the memory of your ancestors in that work,” she says.

In 2018, Gardner Mishlove came up with an idea that would merge her love of food, building bridges between people, and supporting the many refugee communities in Milwaukee. She wanted to find a way for refugee chefs to share the food from their culture with others.

Through food, she knew there was a way to “celebrate the diversity amongst us, the beauty of our differences but also the beauty of our commonalities.”

Gardner Mishlove reached out to her friend Saehee Chang, the owner of Korea Konnect and Kosari Kimchi, to ask about local restaurants willing to collaborate. That connection led Gardner Mishlove to chefs Gregory Leon of Amilinda, Christie Melby-Gibbons of Tricklebee Café and Caitlin Cullen of Tandem who helped her found Tables Across Borders in 2019.

Each of the three restaurants would volunteer their time and space to host pop-up dinners featuring chefs from different refugee communities. Gardner Mishlove would organize ticket sales for the events and 100 percent of the proceeds would go to the chefs. Since 2019, the project has hosted 18 dinners and featured chefs from Syria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Rohingya people of Burma, Congolese, and many more. After the pandemic, the restaurant Lazy Susan replaced the Tandem as the third space to host dinners.

Fighting Hate with Knowledge

“I thought it was important for people to see refugees as people contributing positively to our community. And I also wanted to connect that to my own experience as a Black woman—as a Jewish woman,” explains Gardner Mishlove.

Her intention has always been to counter the racism, hate and antisemitism that is often directed at refugees—especially after the 2017 ban on predominantly Muslim countries was ordered. Gardner Mishlove credits the bigotry towards these communities to a lack of understanding about their culture. “If we can break down those walls so that people can get to know each other, then it’s harder to hate what you know.”

A Place for Healing

During the dinners, Gardner Mishlove thinks of her own family’s experience—people who survived the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Holocaust. Many of the refugees cooking the food have experienced similar hardship such as genocide in Myanmar or living through the war in Syria. Thanks to Tables Across Borders, these people from different parts of the world can come together to talk about those experiences and find how they are more alike than they are different.

To learn from one another is to heal. The chefs talk about the spices and ingredients they use and how some of those ingredients have influence from different countries—countries their ancestors came from. As they eat, participants begin to see—and taste—the story of the migration and resilience.

Tables Across Borders is working on bigger ideas and deciding what comes next for the project. Gardner Mishlove wants to support the refugee chefs in developing the skills they need to establish businesses. That requires assistance with language barriers and the logistics of getting a business license. She says the best way to support the project is to follow them on Facebook and support the small restaurants who make it possible (Amilinda, Tricklebee and Lazy Susan).

Gardner Mishlove believes most hard conversations and disagreements should be held over a plate of food or a good cup of coffee—because who could be mad when you’re sharing a delicious meal?

Learn more about Tables Across Borders on their Facebook page at facebook.com/Amilindatandemtricklebee.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

The students and faculty working on the Wild Rice Project in Marquette University’s Indigeneity Lab are trying to answer the question: Will wild rice grow in Milwaukee’s rivers? What may seem like a straight-forward science-based approach, requires relationship building with Indigenous communities and a deep understanding of the connection Native people have with the waters and wild rice. 

The Indigeneity Lab at Marquette began in 2021 thanks to grant funding for undergraduate research. The university was looking for opportunities to support Indigenous students and improve relationships with Indigenous alumni and communities in the area. The Wild Rice Project is a key piece of this lab in which students are using the scientific method to test the adaptability of the plant and determine the species that is most likely to grow in Milwaukee waterways.

I sat down with Dr. Samantha Majhor, a faculty advisor for the program and Danielle Barrett, a student who has been working on the project since last year and is President of the Native American Student Association. Majhor is of Dakota and Assiniboine descent, and Barrett comes from the Eastern Band Cherokee Tribes. They share their thoughts and experiences working on the project.

Sacred Stories

Wild rice, called manoomin in the Algonquin language, has a deep history that is closely tied to the Anishinaabe people who were forced to this region and are based in what is now Minnesota and Wisconsin. “For Indigenous people, wild rice is a relative, it’s part of sacred stories,” says Majhor. There is a prophecy among these people that says they would find a place where food grows on the water. When they found wild rice, they chose to settle here.

“Food is a piece of home that told them where they needed to be,” explains Barrett. Because of this deep connection to the plant that has provided food, medicine, and nourishment for centuries, the Native people of this region honor the rice and protect it.

In order to supply the Marquette lab with wild rice and gain the trust of Indigenous communities to run lab tests with it, the participants have to build relationships with Indigenous tribes and community members—but that takes time. “We have a fraught history here in the United State of settler colonialism and assimilation projects,” explains Majhor. “The medical industry—and other industries—are areas where western science and medical projects have done harm and are looked at with suspicion from Native communities.”

Science, Culture, History

This is why it’s vital for the Indigeneity Lab to take an approach that looks at the science, culture, and history of the plant. And by doing that, there is the potential to mend relationships with the Indigenous community and potentially reintroduce the plant into the Milwaukee rivers.

“If we grow it in the Menominee River, we can grow awareness of the community that we haven’t seen before,” states Barrett. But even beyond the far-reaching cultural impacts this could hold, the ecological impacts would be tremendous. “If the grain can even grow, it would speak volumes to the water quality and how healthy the environment has become.”

Numerous Milwaukee organizations and the local government have been working to clean up the water for years. If wild rice could grow, it would show the success of those efforts. And to take it a step further, the plant has the ability to clean the water it grows in.

There are many layers to this project and a deep-seeded history of oppression that needs to be talked about. Marquette University is taking an important step in acknowledging its own history and working to mend relationships with the Indigenous communities in the region. Wild rice is a central part of that process and has the potential to restore ecosystems, repressed Native knowledge, and culture. 

Learn more about the Indigeneity Lab at today.marquette.edu/2022/05/indigeneity-lab-students-honored-with-student-activist-award/.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Here of the Month.

“I think about my 20-plus years advocating for the safety and empowerment for women, and healthcare has always been core to everything we do,” says Mariana Rodriguez, director of the Latina Resource Center at United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS). “When women have resources and when they have options, they’re safer.”

The Latina Resource Center serves victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking in the Latino community. Rodriguez has been with the center since its inception in 2001 when there were no cultural services available for the Latino community—only general services that were harder to access.

Immigrants and Spanish speakers who experience domestic violence and sexual assault face additional barriers when trying to get help—challenges like being undocumented, not speaking English, or finding legal representation. And now the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade only reduces the choices these women have when seeking refuge.

How It All Started

Twenty years ago, Rodriguez was part of a group of community members who came together to fill this need and provide Latins with more options. Thanks to the support of UMOS, those ideas became the Latina Resource Center, a separate space for the community now housed in the UMOS building on the south side of Milwaukee.

That initial steering committee had a vision of a center that offered long-term solutions and created real change for future generations. They wanted to make sure the children of victims were not falling into the same cycle and understood how to be advocates for themselves. So, they chose to focus on three main areas: financial solutions, legal help, and safety.

For Rodriguez, this work has always been personal. Growing up, she experienced domestic violence in her home. “It impacted me as a young woman. As a young girl, I was trying to figure out relationships and I promised myself that things were going to be different for me,” she says. Now she has two daughters of her own and wants to make sure they understand how to have healthy relationships.

The Growth of the Center

Rodriguez brings her personal and professional experience to her work and has helped the center grow based on the input from the people they serve. “This was created by the community for the community, and I truly believe this is their work,” says Rodriquez.

In addition to assisting with legal services, housing assistance, and answering crisis calls, the center now offers youth services to teach teenagers about healthy relationships and a program for children who witness domestic violence. All of these expanded services happened because of the center’s close relationship with the community.

There’s no question about the impact the Latina Resource Center has made over the last two decades. “I’ve learned a lot about women’s determination. They’re much more courageous than we really truly understand,” says Rodriguez as she reflects on her time at UMOS. “When we think they’re vulnerable, they are very much in tune to what they need for themselves and for their children.” The center has shown, when women are given choices and resources to advocate for themselves, they will thrive.

Learn more about the Latina Resource Center at umos.org.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

On July 4, America celebrates its independence—our day of freedom. But many of us may never truly appreciate the freedom we have because we’ve always had it. For centuries, America has offered the promise of safety and a better life for those fleeing war, religious persecution, or other hardships. Unless we are Indigenous, our ancestors came to this country seeking that freedom we celebrate today.

“As an immigrant and refugee, (the promise America offers is) being able to practice any religion you want, being able to work and have that American dream,” says Sheila Badwan, the Executive Director of the Hanan Refugee Group in Milwaukee and Vice President of the Board of the national organization.

The Hanan Refugee Group in Milwaukee is a chapter of the larger national nonprofit organization which offers services for refugees including language courses, therapy sessions, daycare, assistance with paying bills, and many more. On a daily basis, Badwan and her team in Milwaukee welcome struggling families seeking shelter and a safe haven.

The Milwaukee chapter of Hanan—and Badwan’s involvement with this work—began six years ago during the Syrian refugee crisis when millions of Syrians fled from the country’s civil war. “It was heart wrenching to see families in the conditions they were in and really needed the support of the community,” says Badwan. The influx of refugees in Milwaukee showed the need for services that would help these families adjust to the new life they would have to build.

Fleeing Violence, Oppression

Badwan explains that no refugee wants to leave their home and stable job. In the case of the Syrian, Afghan, and soon to be Ukrainian refugees Hanan Refugee Group works with, they are running from violence and oppression. “They go through a lot of stress – a lot of the unknown,” states Badwan with tear-filled eyes.

Refugees are connected to the center through Hanan’s networks of partner organizations, religious groups, or community connections. Their Facebook Group, Milwaukee Refugee Supporters, is also a powerful tool for connecting supporters to those in need.

By the time families make it to Hanan’s center on South Howell Street, they may be dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and grappling with survivor’s guilt for being the ones who made it out. Then there are the day-to-day challenges like not speaking the language or having to work in a minimum wage job after having a more prestigious career.

Badwan emphasizes the resilience and will of the refugees she works with. Their strong work ethic and dedication to supporting their communities are prominent themes when she speaks about the people that come to the center. “Refugees really contribute heavily to the economy,” she says. “They are not just on government benefits. Every Afghan family I’ve worked with that has come since this Afghan crisis, all they want to do is work (to provide for their families.)

The Hanan Refugee Group has grown tremendously in the last six years, building programs to meet the needs of the immigrant community, including expanded women’s services and driving assistance. Hanan’s work has been an integral part of building a thriving Afghan community in Milwaukee.

Immigrants and refugees come to this country because it offers possibility and a place to thrive. Badwan’s story is proof of that. When her parents were young, they immigrated from Palestine to build a life for her—a story familiar to many of our own families and ancestors. “To be able to have that freedom and have an opportunity—that’s big,” she says. So, as we celebrate our freedom this July 4, think about the many people who have given up everything for a chance to take part.

Learn more about the Hanan Refugee Group at hananrrg.org.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

Three thousand, nine-hundred and twelve children up to the age of six were reported being poisoned by lead in Wisconsin in 2018—and that’s with a testing rate of only 10 percent of children. The fact is simple. There is not enough being done in Wisconsin to prevent lead poisoning and to help families who are being lead poisoned.

“There is no safe exposure level,” says Richard Diaz, founding member of the Coalition on Lead Emergency (COLE), a volunteer-run group advocating for policy and funding to address the lead crisis. “Even the lowest blood lead levels can affect the developing brain and central nervous system having irreversible effects.” Lead exposure has been shown to cause diminished academic abilities, increased attention deficits and damaging behaviors. Unfortunately, communities of color and lower-income residents are impacted most by lead.

For Diaz, this work is very personal. He has seen the impacts lead poisoning has had on loved ones who have trouble keeping jobs and have extreme behaviors. Those firsthand experiences caused him to dedicate himself to helping others with lead poisoning, which eventually led him to COLE. In 2018, he brought community groups and volunteers together, and was integral to the beginning of COLE.

The actionable level of lead in the blood

Early on, COLE set out to lower Wisconsin’s actionable level of lead in the blood stream according to the state statute. The “actionable level” refers to the specific amount of lead one must have in their blood for the health department to respond to the problem. At the time, Wisconsin defined someone as lead poisoned if they had 20 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL) of lead in their blood, even though the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s definition is only five µg/dL. That means the health department was not responding to anyone who had lower than 20 µg/dL of lead in their blood. Even then, the health department didn’t have the funds to respond to all children and families who test at 20 µg/dL.

“The health department has had its struggles because it’s been under resourced,” says Diaz. “The health department gets about two percent of the city budget when the police get like half.” COLE, led by Diaz, actively worked with health department officials and advocated at the 2021 state biannual budget hearings for more money to address lead poising. Thanks to their work, the health department received $26 million from the American Rescue Plan which reduced the state’s actionable lead level to 10 µg/dL.

Addressing lead poisoning, boosting the economy

As Diaz explains over and over, addressing the lead crisis will not only benefit the health of our residents, but it will boost the economy and save the state billions of dollars. “Wisconsin reports that if lead poisoning in children were completely eliminated, annually the state would save $7 billion in costs for medical treatments, special education, crime, and juvenile delinquency,” he says.

COLE focuses a lot of its efforts on workforce development because removing lead from homes and water presents a huge opportunity to create new jobs and train workers. Lead service lines need to be replaced around the state and homes need to be lead abated (removal of lead-based paint), but the state doesn’t have enough trained workers to do these jobs, much less the money to pay for these projects.

Recently, COLE successfully negotiated $3 million in funding to go to Employ Milwaukee, the workforce investment board of Milwaukee County. That money will allow them to recruit, train and hire 250 lead abatement workers over the course of two years.

This is a big step, but not nearly enough to prevent lead poisoning across the state. “We need an army of lead abatement workers,” says Diaz. “We need those to be Black and Brown workers especially.”

Our state—and this country—have a long way to go. COLE has successfully brought in millions of dollars to improve the lives of communities with lead exposure, but there are still thousands of people across the state who face this health threat. “We’re still going to organize so that families are protected,” states Diaz, “so that we have access to economic mobility for folks, and so families who are poisoned by lead are taken care of.”

Learn more about COLE at coalitiononleademergency.org

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

After working in the healthcare industry for over 15 years, Ericka Sinclair had a vision of redefining patient care by creating a community-based clinic. In traditional clinical care, she saw patterns that were not beneficial to the patients: physicians weren’t trained to have deep conversations with them, and people often didn’t know how to use their insurance. As a response, Sinclair had her sights set on a “systems change,” she says, so in 2015, she started what is now called Health Connections, Inc.

Health Connections started as a medical center meant to provide primary care for vulnerable populations with a special focus in HIV treatment and prevention and is now known for its specialty in transgender care. Sinclair built a model that prioritized training staff to have deeper conversations with clients and teach patients how to use their insurance.

“So, you have insurance, but you don’t know how to use it,” Sinclair says. “There needs to be a bridge there. I wanted Health Connections to be that—be the bridge, fill the gap, make sure people understand how systems work.” Their patients may have hour-long primary care appointments, rather than the standard 15-minutes at most major institutions—it depends on the needs of the patient.

It's About Relationships

The care providers at Health Connections make a point to build a relationship with their clients and learn about the outside stressors in their lives that may impact their health. The point, Sinclair explains, is to leave people feeling whole at the end of their visit. “What could [the healthcare system] look like if we were really invested in getting people care,” she wonders.

The success of this model is exemplified in some of their earliest patients who were both transgender and HIV positive. With the help of her main nurse practitioner Linda Wesp, Sinclair realized these patients’ HIV medication wasn’t working properly because of the hormones they were taking—often under the table from friends.

Once realizing this, Sinclair and Wesp were able to get those patients’ hormones covered by their insurance and find a combination of medicine that worked. Little did they know, Health Connections was filling a gap in the Milwaukee area for transgender care.

Building a Workforce

Since the beginning, Sinclair has prioritized mentoring and supporting her staff, but now she has big plans for expanding that model. She has long believed that changing the healthcare system requires investing in the workforce by giving care providers both the support they need and experience across disciplines.

Health Connections is beginning to partner with medical universities including UW Milwaukee College of Nursing, Trinity School, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and Bryant & Stratton College. The plan is to build a rotation for students to fill clinical hours, which allows them to gain experience across disciplines and institutions. These community clinics would be based in different neighborhoods around the city so they can serve different patient populations. Sinclair wants to disrupt the traditional siloed model of training and create spaces that build community, trust, and safe space for learning.

Most importantly, the caregivers would have access to counseling and support that keeps them healthy. Sinclair says they’ll graduate from the program with the skills they need to be professionals, “but they will also walk away with an understanding of how to be healthy themselves as caregivers, so that when they are taking care of other people, they are literally operating at the highest level they can.”

Sinclair envisions a future where our health care system looks different—one that invests in people. “We want to change systems in real tangible ways,” she says.

Learn more about Health Connections, Inc. at healthconnectmke.org.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

For Dontrell Corey Fells, co-founder of Black Space, therapy wasn’t always a pleasant experience. When he was a teenager in late high school, his mother passed away. “After that, there was just a young boy that wanted to be able to find somewhere to live and to figure out life for myself,” says Fells.

His family suggested he see a therapist to cope, but the man they found made Fells uncomfortable. As a young Black man, Fells couldn’t relate to his therapist who was an older white man. He felt the need to use coded language and give additional context to explain where he grew up and the challenges he faced. It wasn’t working.

Soon after, at 18 years old, he enlisted in the military “to find some type of solace, some type of consistency,” Fells explains. But the military left him with a lot of questions and after eight years of service, he found his way back to Milwaukee to begin his life as a civilian—unsure of what to do next.

Black and Brown

Filled with anxiety and living through a global pandemic in 2020, Fells was looking for answers. His friend suggested he see a therapist, so he decided to give it another try. This time, he found Dr. Lia A. Knox, a therapist from his neighborhood who looked like him—someone who could relate to his experiences and struggles. He felt like he could be himself and didn’t have to put up any walls.

Therapy took on a whole new meaning and he began telling friends about it, including his friend Darius Smith, who was on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter marches, leading thousands of people. It wasn’t long before Smith, Fells and Knox identified a need in Black and Brown communities and began discussing ways to offer therapy for free. 

Thus, Black Space was started. “The name Black Space is a symbolic name—there’s a gap between providing Black and Brown people with the necessary tools for something like therapy because there’s this classism surrounding therapy,” says Fells. He explains that many people he knows see therapy as expensive and unattainable. Additionally, the traditional format of therapy—a short one-on-one session—doesn’t lend itself to the culture of Black and Brown people. “We’re storytellers, so that one hour isn’t enough for us.”

Fells, Smith and Knox chose to offer group sessions, led by Knox who is trained in cultural competency, where people can share their experiences with others who can relate to them. Their goal is to foster connections in each group, which are separated into Black and Brown men, Black and Brown women, and Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ identifying individuals. The group therapy experiences continue to fill up, showing the need for an inclusive, safe space addressing mental health.

Fells seems to have found his calling shepherding the organization to help more and more people of color, but he continues to work through his angst and find meaning in his own life. Now with a baby on the way, he has a new motivation to create a future his child can thrive and feel safe in. “That is my ultimate goal,” he says, “to make sure this world, or at least this place, is better off than I left it when I was a young kid.”

Learn more about Black Space at blackspacehq.com.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

You may have heard, there’s a new book seller in town and she’s been doing things a little differently. Cetonia Weston-Roy started Niche Book Bar in 2020 with the goal of making Black literature more accessible and, due to the pandemic, she has had to be creative from the start.

She has hosted dozens of pop-up book and author events around the city, has created a book bike (a mobile cart full of books she attached to her bike) and sells books through her website. But from the beginning, her dream has always been to have a physical bookshop and she’s almost there. She is in the process of purchasing the building at 1937 North M.L.K Dr. in the heart of Bronzeville and plans to open her bookstore later this year.

Reading has been a passion of Weston-Roy’s since she was about seven years old and remembers getting lost in books like Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron. However, she recalls not being able to connect with many of the characters she read about, often unable to find books that centered around Black characters.

Beyond Trauma

The books she could see herself in were usually based in trauma – as in, stories that center the pain of Black people. “I still think it’s a problem that trauma-based literature is so easy to connect to, that’s what everyone is putting on their top lists,” says Weston-Roy. “You have to know real life, you have to know past, present, and how it affects the now. But I don’t believe that it should only be trauma work that’s easy to find.”

She believes that trauma-based novels are important to understanding racism and what causes it, but those should not be the only literature available. It’s easy to see how it can be damaging when the only books one can find with Black characters are based in pain. But Weston-Roy is set on changing this issue. “I want to center Black literature in those genres you don’t see,” like sci-fi, romance, and fantasy, she says.

Beyond the books she stocks, Weston-Roy has big aspirations for her soon-to-be bookshop. She envisions a space based in community where families can gather, people can make new connections, or simply read a book while having a glass of wine. Since the inception of Niche, she has been hosting community events, centering local Black authors, and fostering spaces that generate conversation.

Most of all, she’s determined to be an integral piece of the thriving Bronzeville neighborhood and be a part of its growth. “This is going to be the best M.L.K. street in America,” she says. Weston-Roy has already built the heart of her bookshop, now she’s waiting eagerly to open the space.

Learn more about Niche Book Bar at www.findyournichemke.org.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

Twelve years ago, Darrell Jack opened a small fitness facility called Fast Forward Fitness; driven by his love for athletics, he understood how fitness could help people take on the challenges of everyday life. According to him, getting fit requires a deep dive into one’s mindset and the day-to-day concerns that affect one’s psyche. “If we don’t have the mentality, the physicality doesn’t matter,” he says. Years later, that approach to fitness led him to his work with Parkinson’s clients. In addition to personal training and group classes, Jack now offers regular kickboxing classes for those with Parkinson’s disease that teach improved mobility, agility, and other functions.

The idea for kickboxing classes centered around Parkinson’s came up when a friend of Jack’s developed Parkinson’s disease about six years ago. The friend knew Jack was a certified kickboxing instructor and told him about Rock Steady Boxing, a national organization that assists coaches around the country to build kickboxing curricula that improve the quality of life of those with Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder that may cause motor skills, balance, sensory function, and speech to deterioration over time. More than 60,000 people are diagnosed with the disease each year. According to the Rock Steady Boxing website, studies have shown that intense exercise, especially rigorous targeted movement, may slow the disease progression and protect neurological functions.

After learning about the kickboxing program, Jack traveled to the Rock Steady headquarters in Indianapolis for training. Shortly after, he built his affiliate program at his gym that now sits on Greenfield Avenue in West Allis.

Forced Intensity

The program Jack developed is primarily built around “forced intense exercise,” which is a way to push people beyond what they think their limits are. “I always tell people when they come in, ‘you’re going to be blown away by the things you’ll be able to do,’” says Jack. He uses targeted movement exercises to address the main challenges of the disease. For example, he has his clients stand on a board and PVC pipe to address balance issues by strengthening those muscles.

Because mobility, balance, and slowness of movement are some of the main challenges of Parkinson’s, Jack works on keeping his clients agile, mobile, and improving their core strength and posture.

Just like his approach with his other clients, Jack helps his clients with Parkinson’s build a strong mindset while they train. “It’s about getting into the psychology of the person and helping them move past the limitations they are putting on themselves,” he says. Jack strongly believes that his clients’ successes in the gym translate into everyday life and his favorite part of his job is seeing their growth. “At the end of the day, you’re adding to the world not taking from it.”

Learn more about Fast Forward Fitness at fastforwardfitness.org.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

The health and fitness industry has been built to serve a certain type of person. “Health looks white. Health looks like straight teeth. Health looks thin… So, health has a look and if you don’t match that look, people judge on outside appearances and they’re going to assume you’re not healthy,” explains Jessica Sunier, Owner and Founder of the gym FitPower LLC. Sunier studied health and worked in various gyms, but she was tired of being in an industry that was focused on appearances and making money. So, in 2011, she started her own gym.

FitPower was founded with one main goal: to help people be strong, no matter their body type. Sunier makes a point to label the gym as LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) friendly, and often says that any body is welcome. In its early days, the gym started with a few personal training clients, but has since developed into a powerlifting, jiu jitsu and judo-focused facility located on Vliet Street.

As the gym grew from a small basement room on 92nd and Bluemound, the space expanded and so did Sunier’s ideas for improving inclusivity. She continues to widen her and her staff’s understanding of what an antiracist, judgment-free space really means. The atmosphere she has built is one that fosters trust, community, and a place where individuals are recognized for who they are. That is apparent when walking into the space and talking to any of the gym’s members.

In 2019, FitPower hosted its first Everybody Pulls Deadlift competition, which is a fundraiser for a Milwaukee-based nonprofit and a way for people of all body types to showcase their strength. It has since become an annual event and this year all the proceeds went to Black Space Milwaukee. The event was started, in part, as a response to power lifting federation bans to trans lifters on the platforms. Most mainstream competitions also have a dress code, so women who wear a niqāb, like one of FitPower’s clients, wouldn’t be allowed to compete. At Everybody Pulls, anyone can compete, regardless of how they identify or what they wear. Sunier’s annual competition continues to grow and make ripples in the community.

It’s really the day-to-day things that show how FitPower lives its values, such as their non-men jiu jitsu class, labeled as such to be inclusive of nonbinary folks and a space where Muslim women can remove their head coverings. The gym also modifies its personal training programs for all bodies to fit the needs of individuals, like their clients who are pregnant or in a wheelchair. “It doesn’t matter what body you’re in or how you come through our doors, you’re work is going to be programmed to you so you can hit your goals,” says Sunier. They even offer a three-month grace period for membership dues for any members who are having financial issues – something Sunier has built into her business model.

When you walk into the small gym nestled in the Washington Heights neighborhood, it feels different than other gyms – it feels like a community, as many of FitPower’s clients refer to it. That’s because of the work Sunier put in over ten years to build a business for people, rather than making money. “You work with people,” says Sunier. “That’s how communities stay close.”

Learn more about FitPower on their website: www.fitpowermke.com.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

Thresa Stevens, who is Menominee, works with Native women and men in Milwaukee who fall victim to this violence and suffer from trauma. As the Native American Advocate for Women and Children at Healing Intergenerational Roots (HIR) Wellness Institute, she helps people find resources, gets them to a safe space, and if they want, she connects them to counselors at HIR Wellness.

As the name suggests, HIR Wellness focuses on healing trauma that develops through generations of people who have been marginalized and colonized, a part of the mental health field that is overlooked. Many of the people Stevens helps have likely suffered from intergenerational trauma prior to falling victim to violence. Our country’s historical injustices have caused this trauma and led many Indigenous women to fall victim to sexual violence.

Stevens can understand this historical trauma firsthand. “My grandma went to the Indian boarding schools, so she was never loved, and she didn’t show love at all,” she says. “So, it got passed on to my mom. My mom was the same way and for me, I had to realize she’s not able. And that took a lot for me.”

Many Indigenous people like Stevens still know or are related to someone who was forced to go to boarding schools that the U.S. government created to strip Indigenous children of their heritage. Children were subject to violence, and many died due to illness and lack of health care. This is a weight that many Natives carry—and the traumatization continues today as the federal government upholds laws and practices that oppress these communities.

Missing and Murdered

Also a legal advocate, Stevens explains how the laws in place cause more cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The 1978 Supreme Court ruling of Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, for example, made it so tribal nations could not prosecute non-Natives if they commit a crime on tribal land. As a result, it is shockingly common for Native women to be abducted and the offenders to go uncharged for the crime. “We can kill you, we can kidnap you and there’s nothing anyone can do. You can’t charge us,” Stevens explains. “It shows how the system just fails.”

With the support of HIR Wellness, Stevens is doing what she can to right those wrongs and help women get out of violent circles. She is one part of HIR’s Circle of Care, a model for healing that was created by Founder and CEO Lea S. Denny. This Circle of Care allows Stevens to connect these victims with counselors or occupational therapists at the wellness institute depending on their needs. This approach creates a communal support system modeled after the way Indigenous tribes have communal healers with unique specialties.

Thresa Stevens and HIR Wellness Institute have helped so many Indigenous women and men escape from violence and provided them with a path for healing. But if the systems in place and federal laws do not change, the problem will continue. “I can only do so much,” says Stevens.

Learn more about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women at mmiwusa.org or get involved with the Wisconsin Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force.

Learn more about HIR Wellness Institute at hirwellness.org.

Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column Hero of the Month.

Val Lopez has always been one to take care of others and now as an occupational therapist at the Healing Intergenerational Roots (HIR) Wellness Institute, she truly puts her heart into her work. Lopez helps people who have mental health problems, disabilities, and other impairments participate in their communities by teaching them rehabilitation exercises, job readiness and other everyday life skills. Building a trusted connection with her patients and making them feel safe is her first step in finding a path for healing.

For many people, the story of how they found their way to their professional career starts with their schooling, but Lopez’s story starts with her mother. A strong loving woman who raised eight children on her own, her mother taught her children the importance of treating others with respect and dignity. Lopez took her mother’s lessons to heart and from a young age, she found a passion in caring for others.

The oldest of her eight siblings, Lopez chose to push back her college education and instead work full time to help her mother support the family. Later she got married and had two children and when her daughter was two years old, she started her part-time college career while continuing to work a full-time job.

Love and Pride

So much of Lopez’s devotion to bettering others’ health comes from the love and pride that her mother showed her. “I want to make [my mother] proud and my kids proud and I know that I am. I get my strength and my courage from her to be able to speak my truth and help others heal, the way I healed throughout the years,” she says.

Through much of her life, Lopez has struggled with depression and personally understands how mental health can impair people’s everyday lives. This experience led her to the field of occupational therapy and the unique approach HIR Wellness takes to healing mental health and intergenerational trauma.

At HIR Wellness Institute, Lopez works with Black, Indigenous and people of color who suffer from trauma that occurred through generations of oppression—a critical part of mental health that is often ignored in today’s mental health field. Lea S. Denny, the founder and CEO, developed a model for healing this intergenerational trauma called the Circle of Care. The patients at the wellness institute, or relatives as they are called, have the option of seeing multiple therapeutic specialists: an occupational therapist, a counselor (like Xavier Smart who we featured last month), and a trauma specialist.

Because HIR Wellness offers care for free, they don’t have to adhere to the restrictions that insurance companies enforce, like making it too expensive to see multiple specialists. Instead, they can offer an integrated medicine approach that meets the needs of the people they are serving. Denny developed this model in response to how Indigenous communities heal—often in a communal way and with caregivers of different specialties.

Lopez is one part of that circle, bringing her compassion and dedication to the healing spaces. She describes her role in the Circle of Care: “a mender of hope, dignity and function who helps people reach their utmost potential through methods as dynamic as they are. Occupational therapists help the person be their best self so they can participate in activities that are important and meaningful to them.” It’s clear Lopez is making a significant impact on many people’s lives and helping them heal. “That’s what my purpose in life is.”

Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.

A recent graduate from Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, Xavier Smart is a young counselor and community healer at the Healing Intergenerational Roots (HIR) Wellness Institute, a nonprofit that offers free mental health services to Indigenous groups and communities of color. He describes himself as Afro-Caribbean with roots in the Bahamas and Florida. During his time in school learning psychology, he felt something was off about the lessons he was learning.

“Through my undergrad experience, I realized there was a lot of information out there, but a lot of it, I felt, didn’t apply to myself and my community,” says Smart. Most of what he learned was about how to heal the individual without involving the community they are a part of. “Our communities of color, we are very community based. We’re very for the people, together.”

Smart knew that if he was receiving this type of individualized treatment, he wouldn’t respond well to it. His lived experiences as a Black Caribbean man were rooted in community and shared spaces. To heal without that, seemed impossible.

While working on his graduate degree, he found HIR Wellness Institute and participated in their internship program. He discovered their new model for healing intergenerational trauma—a model called Community Activated Medicine (CAM) developed by its founder Lea Denny. This uses the idea the that communities of color are often in shared communal spaces, so they should have the opportunity to heal in those spaces as well. When Smart began working in this environment, it resonated with him, and he knew he found a place to stay.

Circle of Care

At the wellness institute, they have also created what they call a Circle of Care, in which a person receiving care, or “a relative” as they are referred to, has the option of working with multiple caregivers trained in different disciplines. In most spaces, people seeking care are forced to choose one type of care because of limitations by insurance, whether that be an occupational therapist, counselor, or trauma specialist. But at HIR Wellness Institute, services are free and insurance companies don’t dictate the care people receive.

Xavier Smart is one piece of that puzzle. He specializes in one-on-one counseling and community healing, going to community spaces to educate groups on mental health and teach stress reduction strategies. But many “relatives” need more help than that. After meeting with one healer, the staff may offer the services of an occupational therapist or an advocate trained in sexual assault.

“The Circle of Care indigenizes the way we provide healing in a way that brings us back to who we are as people. We are a community,” says Smart. Our Western medicine has siloed caregivers, but in Native American culture for example, there are multiple healers available in a tribe to offer different expertise and perspectives. The wellness institute brings that tradition back and offers a communal space for healing.

In next month’s hero article, we will work our way around HIR Wellness Institute’s Circle of Care by listening to the perspective of Val Lopez, a Mexican American occupational therapist who helps people realize the outside factors that impact their mental health.

Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.

When Jay Anderson was killed by a Wauwatosa police officer in 2016, it hit home for Lisa Jones, the Executive Director and Lead Organizer of Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH). At the time, she was living down the street from the park where Anderson was shot to death while sitting in his car. “It just disturbed me that I would be driving past this park,” she said. “One day I actually pulled into a parking spot, and I thought, ‘could this be the spot?’”

Jones now leads MICAH, a Milwaukee-based organization of multiracial and interfaith organizations that fight for justice issues such as criminal justice reform, fair housing, education, health care, and more. But until 2016, Jones was not involved in social or racial justice movements, although she was acutely aware of the unjust systems in our country since a young age.

Growing up as a Black girl in a predominantly white neighborhood in Bayside, Jones experienced racism first-hand. She remembers being called racial slurs more than once. As an adult, she closely follows news reports, like the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Dontre Hamilton who were killed by the police—understanding that it is far more likely to see Black men and people of color fall victim to police violence.

It wasn’t until Jay Anderson was killed in her own neighborhood that she felt she needed to get involved and change our oppressive systems in some way. She thought to herself, “Am I just going to sit by and cry because of the next person who is murdered by the police? More than likely, they are going to look like me.”

Harnessing the Power of Faith

Not knowing where to start, Jones began attending prayer vigils for the Anderson family and offering her support using her training in lay pastoral care. She then found her way to a Coalition for Justice meeting led by Markasa Tucker and Nate Hamilton. Since then, she hasn’t looked back.

In April of 2019, Jones was officially hired onto MICAH as the Leader Organizer and Executive Director. Now a leader and role model to many in Milwaukee, she puts her heart and soul into harvesting the power of community connections to create a more livable and just city for people of all races and religious beliefs.

MICAH is unique in the wide array of religious organizations and congregations that make up its membership base and the multiracial crowds that show up at their events. “When you go to our events and see this religious diversity, it’s a picture in time,” says Jones. “This is beloved community. It’s a little pocket of us working together in unison on a common goal.”

Through Jones’ leadership and its long legacy of social justice advocacy, MICAH has created real grassroot power by creating trust and building long-term relationships. They have shown that community-led movements can make a real impact on the lives of underrepresented citizens. Now in the midst of statewide discussions around fair housing, affordable healthcare and justice reform, they are thinking about how they can strengthen community influence and create systematic change on a larger scale.

Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.

On a quiet overcast morning, I sat next to James Godsil on a bench overlooking Lake Michigan—this was his office, he told me. Full of life and humor, he had plenty to say, often looking off at the lake and speaking about philosophical ideas and future possibilities. Many know Godsil as a community connector, a co-founder of Sweet Water Organics, a civil rights advocate, or a long-time community roofer. One could say he is a part of this city – a man who has put his heart and soul into helping Milwaukee grow and flourish since he moved here in 1969.

Reflecting back on his early years in Milwaukee, Godsil remembered the booming working class and industrial jobs that paid for the giant beautiful houses we can still see in the central city. But in the ‘80s and ‘90s those industrial jobs began leaving the city and left many people in ruin. In that time working as a roofer, Godsil would drive around neighborhoods looking at the large percentage of old roofs—the broken and decrepit pieces showing the obvious disinvestment.

Early on, he began to dream about developing neighborhoods and creating what he called a Milwaukee Renaissance. What started as an idea eventually manifested itself into a website where he would tell the stories of extraordinary everyday people around Milwaukee or the “Olympian mensch” as he would say. This led to community organizing with the help of key partners who worked to development group emails as a way to reach people on a larger scale. “Demonstrating one of the things my life has underscored profoundly,” said Godsil. “A small number of people with an idea that’s in the grain of history who can play in the sandbox together…can accomplish huge mounds of things.”

Still Happening Today

His Milwaukee Renaissance is still happening today, and he knows that to be true because, as he says, there’s a part of the population that has fallen in love with Milwaukee and will use the resources they have to “dig in” and make the city better place to live.

Now after being in Milwaukee for 52 years, Godsil sees the changes and the vibrant welcoming city Milwaukee has become. Streets like Locust, Center and Capitol have lively store fronts and are cultural hubs. Unlike in the ‘70s, roofs on the East Side are new and well-maintained. And even though Milwaukee has come a long way, he knows there is still work to be done, communities to bring together and roofs to be replaced.

At the age of 76, Godsil is reluctantly slowing down, but not by much as he continues to connect people across the city and lend his support to the Sweet Water group in Chicago and the Norris Academy just outside of Milwaukee. Diagnosed with a rare blood cancer, he is making sure to spend every valuable moment with his children and grandchildren.

When I asked him what his hopes for Milwaukee were, he said this: “I think it’s good that people among us dream big dreams. Like Dr. King had a dream where ‘little Black boys and girls can join hands with little white boys and girls, and they will be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.’ And I witnessed that dream manifesting. A crucial thing is patience. Oh, it’s not the intensity, but the duration of passion that interests me. My vision, my dream, my hope, is that Milwaukee continues (and it will, I imagine) fighting the good fight like I’ve witnessed.”

Godsil stressed the importance of grandiosity and “stretching one’s mind and imagination to utopian levels” because in order for a renaissance to happen, we have to dream impossible ideas for our city.

Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.

Noor Jawad has been a healer and an integral part of the alternative medicine community in Milwaukee area for over 35 years. As a founding contributor to CORE El Centro, a current member of the Milwaukee-based Share Collaborative, and the owner of her own private practice offering life coaching, she has helped many people discover new methods of healing.

Jawad believes in the holistic approach to medicine—helping her clients improve the health of their body, mind, emotions and spirit. Without working on all the parts of oneself, she explains, we become imbalanced and can’t be fully present in our everyday lives.

The path to a healthy mind, body and spirit was not always clear for her. As a child, Jawad was often sick, in and out of doctors’ offices, and was prescribed a lot of medications in an attempt to solve her illness. Because she was often weak and unhealthy, she grew up introspective and developed an interest in alternative healing practices.

Mind and Body

Constantly reading and researching throughout her adolescence, she became fascinated with how the mind and body worked. Her grandmother also acted as an influence, teaching her how to make natural remedies and tea using tree roots. She began experimenting on herself, looking for ways to improve her health without using traditional medicine. “I had a lot of hospitalizations and medications that served a purpose to a limit but didn’t really get to the core issues and help me heal,” she says.

That’s a big part of where our society’s health system is broken, Jawad explains. Standard medications and antibiotics put a band-aid on a health problem, but don’t address the fundamental factors causing the issue. In her practice, she’s focuses on the origins of her clients’ health concerns and begins her healing process from there.

Her practice extends beyond working with individuals. In her work with the Share Collaborative, she teaches culture reverence to teams within organizations, which enables the organization to support their employees who are Black, Indigenous and people of color. Through the Cultural Humility to Cultural Reverence training, Jawad helps employees become aware of their cultural biases and understand how institutional racism may show up and be damaging to their organization.

“Learning how to have reverence with human beings and their uniqueness, versus their differences, is what Cultural Humility to Cultural Reverence is all about,” says Jawad. This is a different type of healing – a cultural healing that addresses the root problems in our institutions and can benefit people in future generations.

Whether it’s one-on-one healing sessions or trainings with organizations, Jawad stresses the importance of awareness. To be our best selves and truly thrive, we must be aware of our cultural biases, how our hierarchal structures can be damaging, and be aware of our body, mind and spirit.

The decades of time Jawad has committed to improving the health and wellbeing of people has undoubtedly had a significant impact on communities throughout Milwaukee. “Being an influencer and a supporter for others to evolve is very enriching and very rewarding,” she says while smiling. “I really feel that my whole life has prepared me to do this work.”

Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.

Newly elected to the Milwaukee Public School Board representing District 5, Jilly Gokalgandhi has big plans for her new role. Committed to following through on her campaign promises, she is determined to make policies centered around equity, which include funding for special education, multilingual education, and working on restorative justice practices. As an immigrant, she brings a unique lived experience to her role and cares deeply about creating an education system that is inclusive for all students.

Born in Mumbai, Gokalgandhi moved to the United States with her family at the age of three and continued to go back and forth between India and America throughout her childhood. “I have this understanding of culture and how the world works from two perspectives: South Asian and American.” she explains. She was inspired by the Indian freedom fighters who helped India win its freedom from the British (only 74 years ago), as well as the many other activists who fought against the establishment. That fascination with the country’s history sparked her interested in government and democracy.

This year, Gokalgandhi decided to run for office for the first time after years of working in public education. “What motivates me to run is we need people who have seen first-hand what’s going on in our community and who have stories like mine and like our students,” she says.

Rethinking Discipline

She’s most excited about working on ways to rethink the disciplinary systems in our public schools and repairing harm with students rather than punishing them when they do something wrong. “Our kids don’t need to be spending an afternoon in a juvenile detention facility,” she says. “Our kids don’t need police in the building. They are children.” Gokalgandhi heard story after story from families during her campaign telling her that the current system doesn’t work – punishing students doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, Gokalgandhi explains, we need to repair relationships between students and staff and establish policies that teach staff and students how to resolve conflicts.

This work starts by taking a deep look at the current theories around restorative justice in the school district and partnering with the people that have already been doing this work like the organization Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT). She says we need to “understand how we can further champion and fund that work, so that it’s given the importance it needs to be given.”

Gokalgandhi says she’s learned so much from the people she met across the city on her campaign trail and she’s using those stories to fuel her work in her new role. “This campaign has reminded me that there are amazing people in our community who are really committed to making sure that we live in a thriving place.” With a fresh set of eyes and diverse experiences, she brings a passion to Milwaukee’s school board, fighting to make sure students of all backgrounds have equal access to education.

Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.