What does it feel like to feel safe?
Of course, there is feeling physically safe, where your body is not in danger of physical harm. But at Greentree-Teutonia Apartments, the subject of a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel series, safety comes in many forms.
Legally, the Greentree and Teutonia Apartments are separate entities. Located alongside each other, the two function as one community, "Greentree." Together they house about 700 residents in 328 units. Rent is calculated based on income, and the units are managed by the Housing Ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin.
Reporter and photographer Angela Peterson led the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel series by spending 15 months visiting the community at Greentree, through the O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University. But it did not take long to get a sense of what makes the place special.
"When I went through the door, I felt safe," she says. "That's what I took away within two days of being there."
Peterson notes that not only do the kids at Greentree feel physically safe, "they feel safe to be themselves."
"They feel safe to run around. They feel safe to be in a space where they can learn. They feel safe to be where they could be encouraged," she says.
At the center of that safe feeling is Vicki Davidson.
Vicki Davidson is the program director at Greentree-Teutonia Community Learning Center. She has 26 years experience there, and lived in the apartments for almost half that time.
For adults, the center offers equipment and employment services for the Greentree community to find stable income. For children, it offers everything from scholastic support to field trips to African dance classes and back.
The result is a center where children feel safe to ask for help, and to create lifelong memories.
"When children remember something with joy, a field trip or something Mr. Martinus said or did, that's where the joy comes in," Davidson says. "We've had some tragedies over the years, but those are the moments that we live for."
Davidson will be the first to tell you that progress can be slow, and some folks slip through the cracks, unable to meet the expectations set by the learning center or apartment complexes. But overall, public housing communities like the Greentree and Teutonia Apartments, and the Greentree Community Learning Center, have found a way to get countless Milwaukeeans back on their feet. One job application at a time, one reading lesson at a time, one calming exhale at a time.
After three decades, Davidson gets her share of Greentree alumni coming back to give her life updates, and to thank her for giving them a space to become themselves.
"We've done a lot, and a lot of people have come through our doors. But you know what the most rewarding thing is? When people come back," Davidson says. "For you to see from whence they've come and where they are now. That's the most rewarding thing to me."
The full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel series contains more stories, journal entries, photos and videos.
