Black and Latino/a Ecosystem and Support Transition (BLEST) Hub

Vision

Our vision with the BLEST Hub is to contribute to improving life outcomes for Black and Latino/a students in the Milwaukee area by strengthening spaces, initiatives, and connections that support our youth during periods of transition from middle school through post-secondary completion and/or fulfilling and stable employment.

This broad vision encompasses:

  1. Supporting the synergy across organizations, institutions, and government efforts

  2. Understanding and identifying gaps in services offered to our young people

  3. Working towards amplifying and supplementing what is available 

Mission

Our mission with the BLEST Hub is to concretely build an understanding of the ecosystem of supports for Black and Latino/a students in Milwaukee from middle school through post-secondary completion and/or fulfilling and stable employment, as well as to lay the foundation for providing logistical, informational and catalytic support to these students and the organizations and institutions serving them.

Underlying this mission and the connected actions is a commitment to be attentive to our positionality. For those of us at CURTO, we are especially cognizant of ourselves as adults embedded within a private, Jesuit, Predominantly and Historically White Institution of higher education. Our efforts seek to be open to the needs, voices, and perspectives of young people themselves and those whose work is committed to serving them.  Concretely, this entails striving to center and amplify students (including giving them space to share in the process), as well as to not replicate or complicate the efforts of others. We particularly do this by being attentive to organizations resources and the time and humanity of employees, advocates, and activists.

 

Aims

  • Creating a space where Black and Latino students find supportive resources during formation and transnational times 
  • Highlight opportunities in the city of Milwaukee that support high school and post-secondary students' academic and social aspects 
  • Review, highlight, and establish metrics for local organizations that seek to close the education gap 
  • Aid with the increasing dual enrollment of Black and Latino males from MPS’ Black and Latino Males Achievement program into existing summer programs at UWM, Marquette, and MATC 
  • Aid with increasing participation of Black and Latino/a students into UWM, Marquette, and/or MATC  

Yearly State of the Ecosystem Report

 

Current Areas of Focus 

  • Ecosystem Mapping (see below)
  • Restorative Justice
  • Dual Enrollment
  • Research 

 

Support & Services Ecosystem Map for Milwaukee Black and Latino/a Students

One of the most important tools is the ecosystem map using KUMU software. KUMU allows us to visually represent the actors and partnerships that exist between the number of non-profits, government entities, for-profit organizations, grassroots organizations and coalitions that exist in Milwaukee. Our objective is to create a usable tool to understand the resources for Black and Latino/a students, and to highlight the nature of connections that unite the number of organizations in the city. We believe that this visual representation of quantitative and qualitative data we have been collecting will help us better understand MKE as an ecosystem and serve as a community resource once it is publicly disseminated.

acess-map-qr-code

 

 

 

 

The Team

  • Dr. Gabriel Velez, Faculty Director 
  • Dr. Troy Washington, Director, BLEST Hub Global Initiative
  • Dr. Robert S. Smith, Director, CURTO 
  • Walter Lanier, CEO, African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee
  • Verónica Mancheno
  • Saúl López

Partners

  • Milwaukee Area Technical College 
  • Black Male Achievement Advisory Council 
  • Milwaukee Public Schools, Black and Latino Male Achievement Initiative  
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Roberto Hernandez Center
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Black Cultural Center 
  • Employ Milwaukee