What do Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Unfinished Legacy founder Brema Brema and HOOPS artist Nicole Acosta have in common?
They’re all alumni of Public Allies Wisconsin, an AmeriCorps program that places young people in roles supporting Milwaukee and Racine-area nonprofits for 10-month terms while providing professional and personal development.
It’s one of many AmeriCorps programs affected by the recent federal funding cuts. Programs affected also include WisCorps, which does environmental conservation work statewide, MathCorps which does educational intervention and tutoring, and Marshfield Community Corps, which supports healthcare services.
Gov. Tony Evers announced last week he will join a lawsuit to stop the cuts. Still, the future of AmeriCorps programs like Public Allies is uncertain.
Lake Effect’s Sam Woods is an alum of Public Allies, and he takes us through what the program is and the effect it's had on Milwaukee’ culture and social safety net.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What is Public Allies?
Public Allies is a program within AmeriCorps, a national service organization that pays stipends for volunteer work. It tends to attract young people in their late teens and 20s who are drawn to public service. The three-decade-old organization is one chapter in a nationwide network, and among the most prolific. The Milwaukee chapter claims more than 900 alumni, or about one-tenth of all nationwide alumni.
People currently in the program are colloquially referred to as simply “Allies.” Its hallmark piece is its apprenticeship program, a 10-month experience where Allies work full time in partnership with local nonprofits.
Marisa Zane is a clinic supervisor at the Milwaukee Justice Center. She says the two Public Allies assigned to her organization support multiple initiatives.
“Our Allies support our pardon clinic, which prepares pardon applications for folks trying to get a governor’s pardon,” Zane says. “One of our Allies also works with the eviction diversion program, which [...] tries to provide solutions for landlords and tenants to avoid eviction or get eviction records sealed.”
One Ally was working on a process to help people understand if they would be eligible for help, saving the client and the Milwaukee Justice Center the time and resources it would normally take to determine eligibility.
“If someone is applying for a governor’s pardon, they need [records] that are challenging to get and cost money,” Zane says. “One of the things our Allies has done is to make that process easier for [us] and for the client trying to get the pardon.”
In a typical week, Allies work Monday through Thursday with their placement organizations — such as the Milwaukee Justice Center, TRUE Skool or MPS. On Fridays, Allies gather at a different location in the Milwaukee area for professional and personal development training, often involving a facilitator from the community with expertise on the day’s topic.
The professional development aspects cover skills like writing emails and cover letters, or what is and is not business attire.
But the personal development aspects are where the program really shines, according to Public Allies Wisconsin Executive Director Nanis Rodriguez. They often involve discussions on topics ranging from knowing when to speak up versus when to give space for someone else to speak up, to analyzing how “isms” — racism, sexism, ableism, etc. — shape the world we live in, how we perceive the world and how we see ourselves.
“During these trainings we’re really challenged to look at ourselves as whole human beings,” says Rodriguez. “And looking at the ways we might unintentionally be inflicting harm through racist or sexist or classist beliefs that we may not have ever had language for.”
Rodriguez says the end result is a lot of tough love, where Allies practice keeping each other accountable to maintaining an environment of continuous learning and create space for a cohort of aimless youth to become the best versions of themselves.
“And when you equip people with that, I think there is a blooming. A blooming of a person. So, I think that is part of the magic of Friday trainings.”
The program’s lasting impact
After completion of the program, Allies will often credit the program for giving them direction to use their talents for a purpose.
Brema Brema is a Public Allies alum and founder of Unfinished Legacy, a clothing brand that has enjoyed nationwide success and partnerships with the Milwaukee Bucks, Brewers and Muhammad Ali estate. But 10 years ago, he needed direction on how to use his artistic talent and a reason to feel at home a few years after immigrating from East Africa.
“College wasn’t really for me, so when I dropped out I felt like a failure, and there was a deep self-reflection about why I am in America in the first place,” Brema said. “I think from that sense of feeling like a failure and wanting to be a part of something impactful and personal, that’s when I came across Public Allies.”
Brema would serve two years with Public Allies, working with TRUE Skool and as a photographer with MPS. He says the impact of Public Allies is woven into the fabric of Unfinished Legacy — as much a part of the brand as its signature butterfly design.
“We’re not a business that likes to talk about diversity and inclusion, because we live it,” Brema says. “All of the things we’ve learned is just part of our bloodstreams, and it’s just natural for it to be part of what we’re doing in the world right now.”
Jene Tate, the event coordinator and community specialist at Unfinished Legacy, still remembers the impact Public Allies training had on him about a decade ago. He said the training helped him gain new language to describe the world around him and resources that could help people in his life.
“At the time, my nephew was just born, and he was the first differently abled child in our family,” Tate says. “So being able to identify new resources was huge.”
What the future holds
Milwaukee’s Public Allies program may be coming to an end soon, after substantial cuts to AmeriCorps recommended by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency eliminated the grant it relies on. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced last week that Wisconsin is joining a lawsuit to stop the cuts, but for now, the work of Public Allies in Milwaukee has ceased.
For the Milwaukee Justice Center, that means a less efficient justice system. Zane describes the impact of losing their Public Ally and the end of the project they were designing to streamline the pardon appeal process.
“We wanted to empower people to understand their legal situation, but also to make sure that we were using our capacity the best we could by making sure the folks we were bringing in were folks we could help,” Zane says. “Unfortunately, that work has been halted.”
For Public Allies’ future, Rodriguez outlines short- and long-term goals. In the short term, it’s taking care of the young people in this year’s cohort who were blindsided by the sudden loss of a paycheck.
Long term, Rodriguez is focused on finding a way to continue in uncertain times and reckoning with the loss this is for the organization — and for our city.
“I think one of the hardest parts of this week has been telling our Allies that I don’t know, that we don’t know,” Rodriguez says. “But what I do know is that Public Allies is such a force, it is a home to so many, that it feels impossible for us to have a Milwaukee without Public Allies.”
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