nonprofit center milwaukee

Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, Inc. [Volunteer Center Association of Wisconsin], Milwaukee, WI. Northern California Presbyterian Homes & Services (NCPHS) - San Francisco, CA. Polk County Board of County Commissioners – Bartow, FL ...Information about Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, Milwaukee.... Great Plains Institute, Great Valley Center, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Greater Washington Task Force on Nonprofit Emergency Preparedness ...1/2 Off Milwaukee ... The group of more than 70 mostly obsolete vessels in Suisun Bay has been at the center of a nearly three-year deadlock between state water regulators and the federal government, which manages the fleet. Porcari said the ships will be cleaned in dry-dock ... Talks are under way with a nonprofit group to turn the fleet's best known member, the battleship USS Iowa, into a museum, Porcari said. Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ...Among the results were the formation of the Milwaukee Farmers' Market Association, expansion of the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, increased partnerships between the university and non-profit groups, and development of a ...October 8, 11:30am- 1:30pm “Pandemic Influenza Planning for Businesses” Lunch and learn session Nonprofit Center, 720 Garden St. Reservations required. Included in Membership. Prospective Members $10. October 9, Park Ridge Executive ...The park expanded to 132 acres until it was entrusted to the Milwaukee County Park Commission in 1932. In 1968 the park opened its Senior Center and, shortly after, the boathouse was rehabilitated into a community center. ... Project and Urban Adventures programs offer participants the opportunity to explore nature and experience the “spiritual uplift” Olmsted had hoped for. Milwaukee Color is brought to you by WMSE 91.7. Photo courtesy of Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee ..."In a report to be released on Monday the nonprofit Center for Arts Education found that New York City high schools with the highest graduation rates also offered students the most access to arts education." .... MILWAUKEE (AP) – "A southern Wisconsin legislator wants to change a law that prohibits kids from performing in taverns and night clubs. GOP Sen. Neal Kedzie of Elkhorn has introduced a bill on behalf of 9-year-old blues guitar prodigy Tallan Latz." ...This 'lunch and learn' session will be held on Thursday, October 8th, 11:30 to 1:30 at the Park Ridge Nonprofit Center, 720 Garden Street in Park Ridge. The purpose is to help Park Ridge plan and respond to the potential pandemic and ...Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is proposing to privatize the County zoo by turning over its operations to a nonprofit, possibly even the Milwaukee County Zoological Society: Operation of the Milwaukee County Zoo, ... The same story has repeated itself several times over the last few years, most recently with discussions about privatizing a County call center and a potential long-term lease of General Mitchell airport. Perhaps the zoo proposal offers a way out of ...
By COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 28, 9:37 AM ET



DETROIT - The broad-brimmed western hats, colorful festival dance dresses and Mayan-style pottery that line the shelves at Xochi's Mexican Imports are common sights at stores in the Southwest.

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But it's southwest Detroit on a cold, dreary winter day, not sunny El Paso, San Diego, Tucson or other cities just north of the Mexican border.

From its Mexican Town restaurant district to the new shops of the La Plaza Mercado retail development, southwest Detroit is doing something it hasn't done in years — grow and prosper.

"We come starving for a better life," 32-year-old dance instructor Valeria Montes said. "We want to strive and we've found in southwest Detroit a place to do it. The opportunity was here for us and we took it."

Latinos are carving out a niche in neighborhoods far from the southern border more and more — from Bagley Street here to the Mitchell Street area in Milwaukee to Bailey's Crossroads in Fairfax County, Va.

A new wave of Latino immigrants is following others who established communities in northern cities in the 1950s after getting jobs in the auto and other manufacturing industries. The attraction now is employment in restaurants, shops and other service-oriented businesses that cater primarily to residents in those communities but also draw non-Latinos.

"A number of folks who are coming up — documented or undocumented — are finding jobs," said Enrique Figueroa, director of the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The now-vibrant neighborhood wasn't always so.

Its fate had mirrored most other areas of Detroit that began to lose businesses and people following the city's 1967 riot. Boarded-up buildings and an unappealing mix of fast-food stops, dank bars and seedy strip clubs lined the streets.

Gang violence was rampant and the housing stock crumbled.

"It wasn't a neighborhood where you could walk down the street," Southwest Detroit Business Association deputy director Edith J. Castillo said. "Now, you can actually walk down West Vernor. You can take your family out for ice cream after church."

Castillo's nonprofit is one of several working with city officials and businesses to resurrect the area.

More than $200 million has been invested in southwest Detroit in the past 15 years, which has attracted retail and new homes, including an $11 million condo development.

"It's one of the few places in the city where you are seeing a lot of private investment," said Olga Savic, of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the city's public/private development arm. "West Vernor Avenue was once primarily vacant. Now, it's 90 percent full."

The neighborhood is doing so well the mayor didn't include it in his plan to pump millions of dollars into distressed areas.

Blight hasn't been totally wiped out, but older Latinos and the new immigrants are helping with the transformation.

"These are people who are risk takers ... and understand if they are going to make it, it's up to them to make it successful," said Ruben Martinez, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University. "Many others, who have been here for several generations, don't have that."

The Detroit neighborhood is known as "Mexican Town," but it truly is a melting pot.

About half the residents claim a Hispanic heritage, 25 percent are black, 20 percent are white and 5 percent are Arab-American, according to the Southwest Detroit Business Association.

In contrast, more than 80 percent of Detroit's 920,000 residents are black.

And while the city's overall population has plummeted in recent decades because of white flight and more recently the exodus of the black middle class, the southwest side's population has grown considerably, up 6.9 percent to more than 96,000 people from 1990 to 2000.

The city's Latino population grew by nearly 19,000 over that period to more than 47,000.

Without the manufacturing jobs that attracted many to places like Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, Latinos have found opportunities in their own backyards, Figueroa said.

"Once you had a cousin, uncle or aunt there, that was a logical place to come because there were still jobs," he said. "The Detroit economy and Milwaukee economy have not done so well in the '80s and '90s. But what has occurred in the Latino community is the establishment of new businesses, primarily service-oriented businesses that serve the Latino communities that were established in the '50s and '60s."

Mexican restaurants and bars along Mitchell Street and in other parts of Milwaukee attract non-Latinos, but it's Latinos that keep the bakeries and grocery stores open, Figueroa said.

"There is enough money in the economy that people can sustain retail establishments by primarily relying on Latino clientele," he said.

It's that sense of community that led Montes and her husband to move from a downriver suburb of Detroit to the southwest side.

"I feel like I'm at home," she said. "I go to get a haircut, I speak Spanish. I go to mercado (market), I speak Spanish. My daughter goes to school and there are a lot of Latino kids. It's a great feeling."
**** Just wanted to post something that didn't portray immigrants as gang bangers, drug cartels, or welfare recipients. I am sure articles like these get overlooked.****