Thread by @DavidCrowleyWI

A little look behind the scenes as our team sets up for this morning’s first Community Health & Healing series. Follow the conversation live on YouTube at 10 AM:

It’s time to come together and have some real conversations about what our community needs. Together we can bring an end to senseless violence and needless drug deaths. We can unlock the true potential in all of our neighborhoods.

We are live! Tune in:

Dr. Smith kicks things off by recognizing #InternationalWomensMonth & asking to think of the women around us who faced challenges and still poured into us and helped get us where we are today. We often don’t think about the battles some of the strongest ppl around us are facing.

Growing up I had friends/family who needed help, but the stigma of addressing mental health was so strong that it prevented many from getting help. That still rings true today, but we shouldn’t be afraid of getting help or talking about these issues with those we love.

Many want to know what we’re doing to get to the root cause of these issues. Our strategy from day one has been investing upstream to prevent problems before they manifest on our neighborhood blocks.

That means keeping people in their homes through eviction prevention programs, expanding mental health services, investing in long-term youth mentoring services. This is what we’ve done for the past two years and we plan to continue this strategy moving forward.

We also want to build a bigger table than has existed in the past. Generations of ppl haven’t had a say in how services get distributed -which means many haven’t seen County government work for them. We’re changing that w/our strategic plan and vision. bit.ly/3J0F8Ty

Many times the problems in our community get pinned on our youth. We have to stop being afraid of our young people and recognize the struggles they are going through. They need us, the adults/leaders, to take them under our wing to unlock their unlimited power & potential.

At the end of the day it’s about relationships & connecting w/young people. As a kid, I wanted to make my mentors proud as gratitude for all they did to guide me. That’s why we’ve declared 2022 the Year of the Youth to foster more of those relationships. bit.ly/3J1zlgJ

We know there are ppl here passionate about service & improving our neighborhoods. To those people I say come join our team at MKE Co. We need your talent and passion to connect with everyone on our blocks and bring services to their doorstep. Learn more: Jobs.MilwaukeeCounty.org

Dr. Smith asks how we can end systems that have harmed ppl for too long. The answer lies in a cornerstone of our strategic plan: intentionality. When we focus on intentionally changing systems of power from the ground up it is more than lip-service it’s an every day mission.

Thinking about our personal assessment of mental health needs now. Conversations about mental health can be as simple as taking an account of what we need to be a human being. For me, that’s spending time with my daughters. I communicate that often & make those needs clear.

Great question from our participants here on how we can build better relationships with the state and city to meet the needs of our residents. We have ambitious goals here and we can’t do them alone. I am focused on bringing more people to the table to move our area forward.

“What needs to happen in the next five years to achieve racial equity?”

Great question and the answer lies in two places: 1) resources and; 2) influence. We need more help from the state to raise revenue and make investments in local priorities.

We also have to show those investments are working. Like our Housing First approach to battling housing insecurity which produced the nation's lowest per capita homeless population. When we highlight what works we influence others to replicate our success. cbs58.com/news/new-numbe…

Mrs. Patterson from my grade school days used to say “if you’re not part of the solution then you’re part of the problem.” That’s how I feel about those turning a blind eye to the problems in our County…

Ask yourself what are you doing to be part of the solution, and if the answer is nothing ask yourself if you’re part of the problem. If we’re going to be one County, one community, moving forward together we all have to find our role to play in moving MKE. Co forward.

That’s a wrap on the first of our Health & Healing series. Thank you to Dr. Kweku Smith for moderating, our participants for great contributions to the discussion, & to you for following along. Stay tuned for details on our next event in the series & how you can get involved.