Journey House Inc

Programs: Youth development - journey house's youth development programs include academic offerings to bring skills up to grade level and to encourage continuing education; gender-specific leadership programs to build positive life skills; athletics to incorporate healthy, physical activity, character building and family participation; and arts programs to offer participants the chance to enrich their lives emotionally and intellectually. Academics, athletics, and arts (visual and performing) youth development programs allow low-income youth to learn and improve their educational and life skills necessary for success. Journey house also operates highly organized athletic leagues that infuse education and life skills, including the journey house packers football league and felix mantilla little league.

community learning centers - journey house operates three community learning centers (clcs) in partnership with milwaukee public schools. These clcs give students a safe, structured and supervised after-school environment where they can gather, learn, share and have fun. The programs increase student achievement and learning, provide alternatives to being home alone, and offer safe havens from unwanted influences.

clark square neighborhood initiative is an initiative to increase the quality of life in the clarke square neighborhood with priority focus on housing, economic development, and project 10 (health & wellness and economic prosperity).

adult education - the journey house family learning center empowers adults and families of milwaukee's near southside by developing the language, adult basic skills/ged/literacy, and life skills necessary to secure and retain family sustaining employment. Our programs combine classroom instruction in english language learning, adult basic education, and ged in english and spanish with individualized case management and a personal education plan. Bilingual, on-site child care provides a curriculum rich in social, physical, and intellectual stimulation designed to prepare children for head start and k4 is offered to our participants at no charge. Workforce readiness - the urban careers institute financial opportunity center helps low income residents obtain gainful employment and provides financial coaching and works seamlessly with our thrive career pathway program, which is an intensive initiative designed in a 9-week training course plus an additional 4-week internships (paid or non-paid. Thrive (transforming healthy responsible inspired valued employable) prepares low-income adults (career interns) for the workforce in career pathway trainings, including mental toughness bootcamps and internships. Industry leaders co-developed the program design to ensure throughout the project term that we are keeping up with the industry and having opportunities to place career interns into internships and job placements in the field of their choice. Family engagement - journey house offers a variety of family engagement activities and resources, including large-scale autumn and winter family celebrations for engaged participants: halloween spooktacular, thanksgiving dinner, and winter wonderland. Journey house campus housing initiative is an initiative to provide affordable housing to motivated youth, who are homeless and aging out of foster care. A priority focus is renovating foreclosed properties in clarke square in partnership with a diverse array of local government, business, and community partners. Journey house campus housing also assists in decreasing crime and increasing neighborhood beautification. Community gardens: in partnership with uw-extension, we also launched a clarke square food system initiative to grow our own food and become a healthier community with wellness activities. A vacant lot across the street from our journey house center is now a thriving community garden complete with a water gazebo to collect water and provide peaceful shade for neighbors to gather and build relationships through growing food together. Zilber neighborhood initiative- the zilber family foundation grant allows journey house to grow capacity and strengthen the sustainable operations of its facility and programs, allowing journey house to act as an implementing partner and focus on the comprehensiveness of the zilber neighborhood initiative's clarke square quality of life plan strategies: (1) lifelong learning, (2) employment and training, (3) youth, parks, and recreation, (4) housing, and (5) neighborhood beautification. The journey house center for family learning and youth athletics, a partnership with h. W. Longfellow k-8 school of milwaukee public schools, serves as the physical "hub" of the community. Zilber funds help us to find a balance between operations, maintenance, and sustainability for our new building and programs and services.