Ashley Luthern

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention has received a $5 million, five-year grant to address trauma and promote resiliency in high-risk youth and families.

The grant, awarded by the national Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is for communities that have recently experienced civil unrest, but Milwaukee officials applied for it before a fatal police shooting touched off two nights of violent protest last month in Sherman Park.

"There are individuals who don't have a sense of hope or opportunity and we have an obligation, I think, as a community to create that hope and opportunity," Mayor Tom Barrett said, adding the grant will focus on reaching young people who have not been connected to jobs and services through traditional channels.

The grant is among the largest ever awarded to the Office of Violence Prevention, which is housed within the city's Health Department. The city will work with grass-roots organizations, including Community Advocates, Center for Youth Engagement, The Parenting Network, My Sister's Keeper and the "Saving Our Sons: I Will Not Die Young" campaign.

More partners are expected to join the effort, said Reggie Moore, director of the Office of Violence Prevention.

The grant will be used to employ young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who may have been missed in the city's Earn and Learn summer jobs program, Moore said. The specific types of jobs and pay are still being determined, he said.

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The infusion of grant money also will be used to train after-school program providers in trauma-informed practices and to hire someone to connect different organizations and connect youth with more serious challenges to professional support, such as county mental health, if needed, Moore said.

"We talk about post-traumatic stress, but quite honestly we're in continuous traumatic stress," Moore said. "There isn't, unfortunately, oftentimes a break with some of the issues going on in our community so it's critical that young people and families know where to go to get support."

The project comes as more criminal justice and child welfare officials nationwide consider the lifelong effects of childhood trauma when creating policy and programs. The shift is informed by the Adverse Childhood Experience Study, which analyzed the relationship between childhood trauma — such as abuse, neglect, witnessing neighborhood violence and drug and alcohol abuse in the home — and health and behavior problems in adulthood. The study found the more adverse childhood experiences a person had, the more prevalent and more serious health problems emerged in adulthood.

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Kwabena Antoine Nixon and Muhibb Dyer, professional poets who created the "Saving Our Sons: I Will Not Die Young" campaign, work with young African-American men and girls in Milwaukee schools, surveying them on violence they have witnessed and teaching them how to cope with their trauma through writing, spoken word and, eventually, creating a life plan.

Typically they visit about 20 schools each academic year and plan to increase their reach with the help of the grant, Dyer said.

"We are committed to preserving humanity in general, but specifically for African-American males and females who oftentimes are misunderstood and oftentimes are falling victim at a rapid rate to the socioeconomic conditions, like incarceration and homicide, that prevent them from being able to get to their dreams and being productive citizens," he said.

The campaign has held mock funerals where students hear from mothers who have lost children to violence. When the students file by the casket, look down and see a mirror reflecting their image, it's a stark warning of how their lives could end up.

"We have to create a movement-like atmosphere," Nixon said. "Ignorance is being sold and young people are buying. We need city government on down to the community to be an alternative to what they see."