88.9′s Neighborhood Project catches up with Common Ground at Sherman Perk. Listen now.

Another success for Milwaukee Rising!
Deutsche Bank has made a commitment to Common Ground
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/124388964.html

Sue Giaimo, Deutsche Bank CEO Mr. Josef Ackermann, Mark Fraley

Photo taken at the 2011 Annual Shareholders Meeting in Germany.

Read about how our persistence is paying off!  http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/124170179.html

On March 21^st 2011, 200 Common Ground members gathered to discuss next steps for our Education Initiative “It’s About Our Children.” We learned how the budget process at the state level works.  We heard from parents and children that will be affected by the looming budget cuts in our state, and we learned how the cuts will affect our schools. See photos and some of the details here.

Our goal is to work together with local and state leaders to make our schools better.

We are currently in our research phase.  We are meeting with people who are involved in Education across our public, charter and choice school landscape.  After we finish our research phase, we will decide on an issue that our member organizations can get behind and work to achieve for our children.  Stay tuned!

Little did we know a year ago that Common Ground would be engaged in three campaigns that have the potential to impact so many lives in southeastern Wisconsin.  At the March 7 Delegates Assembly held at Mount Mary College 120 members heard updates on our campaigns and discussed next steps in these important campaigns. (more…)

On Monday February 28^th, over 500 Common Ground members, concerned about looming budget cuts to school funding, gathered to call for a meeting Governor Walker and Senator Alberta Darling to discuss how we can work together to deal with these cuts in a way that won’t sacrifice the quality education of our children.

Hundreds of members committed to meeting over the next 3 weeks in small groups – called Listening Sessions – to put together ideas about how to deal with these cuts.

We will gather again on Monday March 21^st to bring our ideas and talk about next steps.

If you are interested in attending one of these Listening Sessions, please join us. We also encourage you to hold your own listening sessions at your organizations. We’ll provide training on how to conduct these sessions. See below for details.

If you have questions, please feel free to send us an email

Training on How to Conduct Listening Sessions

Listening Sessions

Our Next Meeting: Ideas and Next Steps

See more photos from the evening here

PLEASE JOIN US for an Important Common Ground event in Milwaukee!

Monday, February 28th at 6:30 pm

Hopewell Baptist Church

2375 N. 25th St., Milwaukee

In the midst of political turmoil throughout our state, we must not lose sight of a critical issue — the education of our children. Multiple news sources state massive education budget cuts are coming. The Journal Sentinel reported that Title I funding might be refused. This is federal funding to help academically and economically “at-risk students.”

Common Ground is going to do something about that.

Common Ground wants to work with Governor Walker to develop a strategy. We should be talking about the education

of our children. Let’s start the conversation.

Bring your children and your voices.

As a major follow up to our Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy People event just 3 weeks before, over 200 Common Ground members listened as banks committed to move forward with us on tackling the foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee. The meeting took place on November 15th, 2010 at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

All five banks were again in attendance (including Deutsche Bank, who originally declined our invitation) agreed to our short-term demands. They clearly recognized the importance of their relationship with Common Ground and the City of Milwaukee. The demands are

1. Provide reasonable maintenance and monthly status reports on properties under their responsibility.

2. Commit to bring people with decision-making authority to a mid-February 2011 meeting to review a Sherman Park Revitalization Plan.

A most valuable new partner in the issue campaign was also announced  – Mercy Housing, represented by Cindy Holler, President Mercy Housing Lakefront in Chicago.  Mercy Housing is a non-profit, nationally known organization with twenty-four years of experience in the management of housing development and rehabilitation for the purpose of preserving communities. Ms. Holler reported that Mercy Housing recently opened an office in Milwaukee and is very excited about the opportunity to work with Common Ground, the City of Milwaukee and the banks to develop and execute a plan that will revitalize the Sherman Park neighborhood and beyond.

This is a stunning achievement because just a year ago the banks barely responded to our invitations to discuss the foreclosure crisis.

The meeting was a satisfying report on the progress of the Faces of Foreclosure Campaign but it closed with a reminder that there is still much to be done. Common Ground members committed to photograph and evaluate the condition of two to six vacant properties each month.

This shows that we are serious about our commitment to Transforming Lives and Strengthening Communities.

See photos of the event here.

On September 10^th, Common Ground leaders along with city officials packed the hearing room at Milwaukee City Hall to listen to what the banks and servicers had to say regarding the upkeep of the homes they are responsible for in Milwaukee neighborhoods.

July Meeting with Banks and Servicers

In July banks and servicers (companies hired by banks to “service” their work with mortgage customers) met with Common Ground and representatives of the City of Milwaukee. That meeting was the culmination of long, steady pressure by Common Ground on Deutsche Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank to take responsibility for vacant foreclosed properties throughout the City of Milwaukee. In that meeting, the servicers agreed in principle to several demands and to a meeting in September to review their results.

September Follow-up with Banks and Servicers

The agreed-upon follow-up meeting took place on September 10 at Milwaukee City Hall. Prior to the meeting Common Ground Faces of Foreclosure Issue Team members had worked with city representatives to create clear steps each bank or servicer must make to take care of these properties. Banks and servicers must:

• Register all of their vacant foreclosed homes with the city

• Provide a responsible contact person in Southeastern Wisconsin

• Present a plan to maintain the vacant properties

• Explain their current state of services

The banks and servicers responses were mixed. Some of the banks were prepared and provided clear results and plans. Others seemed not to have taken the demands seriously, providing flimsy excuses for not taking action and not bringing the requested information. Common Ground leaders  and the City of Milwaukee presented up-to-date poster size photos of properties, demonstrating where banks and servicers are not living up to their commitments. In their signature brown Common Ground t-shirts, twenty-five participants created an obvious demonstration of citizen interest.

Common Ground and the City of Milwaukee will continue to work with the banks and servicers until all are responding to requirements.

Read this recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about the meeting. The article states that there was an “overflow committee room.” Common Ground filled the majority of the seats in the room that day.

We had an outstanding trip to Germany in late May!

Mark Fraley and Sue Giaimo of St. Catherine’s traveled to Frankfurt Germany to attend the Deutsche Bank Shareholder’s meeting and present Common Ground’s demands concerning Deutsche Bank’s involvement with the foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee.

On Wednesday, May 26th, they met with the German press and a member of the German Parliament in order to share our plight and gain international attention.  The next day, they attended the Shareholder’s meeting where they addressed the CEO, Board and Shareholder’s with two speeches about the poor state of homes Deutsche Bank holds in trust and our analysis, including a series of informational questions about Deutsche Bank’s relationship to these houses.   At this time, they also asked for a face-to-face meeting in Milwaukee with Deutsche Bank staff.

We are happy to report that Josef Ackerman (CEO of Deutsche Bank) responded.  He committed his legal staff for Deutsche Bank in New York to meet with Common Ground leaders in Milwaukee.  The time and date of this meeting is currently being worked out between both parties.

In addition, Common Ground received outstanding press for our effort, including:

A front page article in the “TAZ”, a Berlin newspaper
An article in the Financial Times Deutschland – the major German newspaper
 A 4-page article about Deutsche Bank’s involvement with foreclosed homes in Mind Der Spiegel – the major news magazine in German

We thank all of the leaders of Common Ground for their hard work and commitment to this campaign and we are excited to begin seeing some results!