Fox 6 News was in attendance at our August 31st Sherman Park Public Action. Watch the video by clicking here.

Congregations from Waukesha County gathered on June 23 to introduce and discuss further development of Common Ground in that county.  Leaders expressed their excitement about growing this effort in Waukesha County.  On August 20th, we will gather again at 6:30 pm at St. Anthony on the Lake in Pewaukee.  Over the next few months, we will begin the process of listening sessions, one-on-one meetings and a possible neighborhood walk to learn of issues present in the city of Waukesha.

In addition, Common Ground U will be held in October at St. Anthony on the Lake.  We encourage Core Team members from our western suburbs to attend.  Common Ground U is a nine hour curriculum focused on helping strengthen the volunteer leadership of your organization and teaching people the skills for public life.

If you are aware of congregations and organizations in Waukesha County who might be interested in membership of Common Ground, please email us with contact information, Email

On June 12 INVESTORS.com had an article regarding the difficulties of creating a Health Care Co-op – article.

Common Ground has begun a Friends of Common Ground Campaign in order to raise $300,000 over the next three years to hire 1 1/2 new organizers to staff Common Ground.  A Friends Committee of 7 leaders are conducting 50-60 individual visits with potential contributors to the Campaign.  If you would like to contribute, contact Bob Connolly at 414-272-0101 or Email or fill out this form (click on the word form) and mail it to the address indicated at the bottom.

On Monday, May 18, upwards of 40 Common Ground members gathered at Greater New Birth Church for another Amani Neighborhood Walk.  Small teams received their street assignments and then walked door-to-door to canvass residents about the problems caused by the presence of nearby boarded-up and abandoned homes.

Other neighborhood issues also emerged from the conversations (traffic patterns, problem corner stores, drug use and distribution), and they are currently being researched by the Greater New Birth/Immanuel Presbyterian Action Team.  In an effort to create relationships and develop strategies to solve these problems, team members continue to meet with Common Council members, community leaders, assitance organizations, and police officials.

The Youth Jobs Issue Campaign and The City of Milwaukee’s Earn & Learn Partnership

Print a copy.

At Common Ground we believe that improving job opportunities for Milwaukee youth will improve the economic and social well-being of the area.  Given the current crisis it is even more critical that opportunities are provided to our youth so they may participate in the economic recovery.  On behalf of Milwaukee youth, Common Ground is asking Milwaukee area businesses and foundations to participate in this program by providing jobs and/or by making grants to assure that Earn and Learn has adequate resources.

Provide a Job and Transform a Life

The City of Milwaukee’s Earn & Learn Summer Job Program provides opportunities for qualified high school students to gain valuable workplace experience, and puts a few dollars in some empty pockets.  By breaking the cycle of joblessness and exposing young adults to the culture of work, Earn & Learn:

- Lays the foundation for a trained workforce
- Provides job readiness skills
- Offers real work experiences and a variety of career possibilities
- Allows experienced employees to participate in positive change in their community

The Greater Milwaukee Committee and Southeastern Wisconsin Common Ground, a broad-based citizen organization, have supported the expansion of the Earn & Learn program and are now helping to recruit businesses and area foundations involvement.  The goal of this effort is to increase the number of summer jobs from about 1300 last summer to 3000 in the summer of 2009.

Earn & Learn Program Information

Earn & Learn is a collaborative partnership of the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board (MAWIB), the City of Milwaukee, businesses, and community based organizations.  Its mission is to assist young people from Milwaukee to make a successful transition from adolescence to productive adulthood.  The MAWIB staff works with employers to place students in meaningful work and ensures the program’s effectiveness.

All youth participating in private sector Earn and Learn jobs have at least one previous job experience and receive job readiness training prior to starting the job.  MAWIB staff provides support and service for the employer throughout the duration of the youth’s employment.  At the end of their job, students go through an evaluation that determines what they have learned and what they need to do to improve their work perfomance.

Participating employers are asked to provide summer jobs which:

- Provide student workers with a written job description
- Provide at least 20 hours of work per week for a minimum of seven weeks
- Pay at least minimum wage
- Are located in the Milwaukee County area for youth accessibility to the job location

After positions are posted MAWIB staff will assess the request, prescreen applicants and then recommend one or more youth that meet employer requirements to fill the position.

More Information on the Earn & Learn Program

City offers Options for Jobless Teens – December 2008:  http://www.jsonline.com/business/36770639.html

Editorial:  Work for Kids – The Milwaukee Common Council should boost funding for the Summer Jobs Initiative to provide more opportunities for youth. – November 2008:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/34054794.html

Hope in the Lives of Young People:  1500 gain experience through Earn and Learn – July 2008:  http://www.jsonline.com/news/29411434.html

Youth to Get a Slice of the Pie:  Palermo Villa a Leader in City’s Summer Jobs Program – April 2008:  http://www.jsonline.com/business/29588764.html

Open Letter from Earn & Learn Co-Chairs Mayor Tom Barrett and Giacomo Fallucca, President/CEO of Palermo’s Pizza – March 2008:  http://www.mkedcd.org/earnlearn/pdf/Letter031408.pdf

The mayor talks about the importance of the Youth Jobs program in his February 13th E-Newsletter:  http://www.city.milwaukee.gov/thebarrettreportarchives/Feb.06.09NewsFromTheMayor.htm

Earn & Learn Website at www.earnandlearnmke.com

Contact Information

Interested businesses can attain more information about the program and post a youth job opportunity by contacting:

Bill Malone, Youth Jobs Coordinator, via phone 414.286.5894 Email

Or Common Ground Issue Campaign Leaders:
- Debra Schneider:  414-550-2167 or Email
- Denise Fried:  414-333-0709 or Email

On May 13, 2009 students & their families, volunteers and board members celebrated the pilot program for OnRamp.

OnRamp is a program in Milwaukee, WI where minority students are exposed to the creative/design industry through working with design professionals and visiting various related locations.

The program was originated by Hanson Dodge Creative’s involvement with Common Ground.

In the pilot program, 13 students from Community High School worked with 9 Milwaukee-area design professionals to design a line of t-shirts. These shirts will be available for purchase after mid-July to fund future programs.

More information, including how individuals can get involved in future programs, as well as photos from the program, can be found here.

The Common Ground Health Care Reform Team is working on the development of a Health Insurance Cooperative for small businesses, non-profits, unions and the self-employed.  The Cooperative is getting closer to development.  We are hoping for a July 1 start.  The Committee is now approaching the State of Wisconsin for assistance in finding one time “seed money” to aid in the development of the Cooperative.  May 6th is our next date for visits with State legislators.

Thank you to the over 400 Common Ground members who attended the March 19th Delegates’ Assembly.  For pictures from the assembly click here.

At the Delegates’ Assembly we were able to:

Confirm the selection of the Common Ground Strategy Team.
Frame and consider the economy in a practical and relevant way by gathering in small groups and sharing how the economy is affecting our lives.
Celebrate our victory in the Youth Jobs campaign of having the Milwaukee Common Council agree to invest an additional $250,000 to the Earn and Learn Summer Youth Jobs program.
Identify next steps related to the Healthcare program.

Now what?  Here are our next steps:

Summer Youth Jobs:

We are asking each member organization to identify one business that may be willing to hire a student through the Earn & Learn program.  Click here for information about the next meeting and signing up for the program.

For Each Member Organization

Bring together 5 to 15 people as your organization’s core team
Identify 1 business interested in hiring a youth this summer
Recruit youth in your organization to apply to the summer youth jobs program
Identify 2 of your members to work with state legislature on the healthcare effort
Identify 1-5 local public works projects by mid-April, i.e. lighting, park improvements, pot holes, cross walks, etc. winnable projects, that we can address this Summer

Healthcare
For more information related to our next steps, please contact Bob Connolly (Email)

More details for all of our next steps will be added to the site as they become available.

Strategy Team: A team of leaders began to develop this list in August of 2008.  The individuals recommended for this team were asked throughout the fall and winter.  Those who accepted the nomination are on the list below.  On March 19, 2009 Common Ground delegates voted to affirm this slate.

Rusty Borkin is a Senior Communications Strategist at Kahler Slater.  In his former position as Vice President at Hanson Dodge Creative, Rusty led the organizing effort there to make this marketing firm one of the few companies to be Common Ground members.  He facilitated the branding process that resulted in Common Ground’s name and its graphic representation.  Rusty is involved with several of the Common Ground initiatives;  the Youth Jobs Team, the Communications Team, the interim Strategy Team and the newly formed fundraising group.  He lives on Milwaukee’s East Side with his wife and misses his two grown daughters who reside in Washington DC and New York City.

Keith L. Cogburn is the Director of the Lakeland Baptist Association.  He has played a role in helping organize Common Ground almost since its inception.  He received national training through the Industrial Areas Foundation in November 2007.  Keith has lived in Wisconsin since 1997, having previously resided in New Jersey and Texas.  He and his wife, Laura, a teacher in the St. Francis School District, have two young adult children.

Bob Connolly is a member of Gesu Parish and Co-chair of the Common Ground Health Care committee.  He is currently a member of the interim Common Ground Strategy Team.  Bob was the President of the Greater Milwaukee Sponsors which raised the $750,000 in seed money which helped Common Ground get started.  Bob is a small business owner.  As co-owner of The James Company, a fundraising consulting firm, he has helped congregations and religious non-profits raise over $850 million over the past 26 years.

Rev. Willie B. Davis is the Youth Pastor of Greater New Birth Church, which serves over 300 youth through programming and mentorship.  Pastor Davis has through his efforts of community service partnered with organizations such as Marquette University in the development of a community transformation project which targeted the inner city for social development, housing and education.  He is currently working with Common Ground where one of the most recent achievements was the 2009 Summer Initiative Program which allows for 3,000 additional jobs for the youth in our communities.

Rev. Jean Dow serves as an Associate Pastor at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Milwaukee’s Lower East Side, with primary responsibilities for mission and education.  She has been involved with Greater Milwaukee Sponsors and Common Ground for the last three years.  A lifelong Midwesterner, she has lived in Milwaukee for 7 years and currently resides in the Brewers’ Hill neighborhood.  She has a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and a Master of Divinity from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

Rev. Thomas Eggebrecht is the pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church and a Circuit Counselor, Circuit 5, South Wisconsin District of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.  He was a founding member and secretary of Greater Milwaukee Sponsors and an original member of the interim Common Ground Strategy Team.  Pastor Eggebrecht has served congregations in North Carolina, Virginia and Milwaukee, where he has been pastor of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in the Sherman Park neighborhood for the past twelve years.  He is an Adjunct Professor of Theology at Concordia University – Wisconsin, coaches high school baseball, and has served on various community and church-related boards and committees.  Tom lives in Sherman Park with his wife Tammy.  They have two children:  Ashlyn (20) and Benjamin (19).

Jonathan Gundlach has been an active participant in Common Ground since April 2007.  He co-led Hanson Dodge Creative’s effort to create materials for the Founding Convention in April 2008 and is involved in the Youth Jobs campaign.  Jonathan graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1988 with a degree in fine art.  He is a manager at Hanson Dodge Creative where he has been employed since 1997.  He is married to his wife, Mary Kay, and has a young son, Sam.  He is an active photographer and painter, taking photographs for Common Ground, local bands and other events.  Johnathan’s paintings can be seen at www.jonathangundlach.com

Rev. Jeffrey R. Haines is a pastor at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in West Bend.  He is Dean of District #6 of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee (Washington County) and a member of the Board of Directors of United Way of Washington County.  In Common Ground, Fr. Haines has participated in the work of the Strategic Planning Task Force Recruitment of new congregations and organizations in Washington County. He has assisted in the development of the local core team and the identification of community issues. Fr. Haines is a graduate of Marquette University (B.A. Liberal Arts in 1981) and St. Francis De Sales Seminary (M. Div. 1985.)  He has 24 years of experience in pastoral ministry in parishes located in Milwaukee, Fox Point, Whitewater and West Bend.

Pastor Roy Hopgood, Jr. is the founding pastor of Mt. Horeb Baptist Church in Milwaukee.  He is a consultant with the Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist Convention in African-American ministries and a founder and director of the Leadership Training Institute in Milwaukee.  He has nurtured the beginning of several new congregations in Milwaukee and served as a key leader in the Lakeland Association.

Paul Hull is the Christian Education Minister at Progressive Baptist Church in Milwaukee where he is the Co-Sunday School Superintendant.  Paul has an Associate Degree in Computer Science from MATC and was a Milwaukee Firefighter for 25 years.  As a founding member of Common Ground he is dedicated to both a diverse and nonpartisan agenda for Southeastern Wisconsin.  Paul has been married for over 29 years and has one daughter.

Howard Karsh is originally from Denver Colorado.  He has a B.A. degree in English and History from Northwestern University.  He attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin receiving degrees in U.S. Foreign Policy and Secondary Education.  After 10 years in business, he has spent the rest of his working life in the Milwaukee Jewish Community in a variety of capacities, always teaching somewhere at the same time.  He has lived 50 years in Wisconsin, 40 in Sherman Park and has always been invloved in the community. Howard represents Congregation Beth Jehudah, a community of 170 families and 1000 people all living in just a few square blocks beginning on 52nd and Burleigh.  The Congregation is led by a second and third generation of Chasidic Rabbis, Rabbi Michael Twerski and his son, Rabbi Benzion Twerski, both committed to leading and growing the last urban Jewish community in Milwaukee.

Vanessa L. Llanas is affiliated with CORE/El Centro, a founding member agency of Common Ground, where she is a board member.  She became involved with Greater Milwaukee Sponsors in May of 2007 and has been a leader with Common Ground since its founding in April 2008.  Vanessa has worked in the non-profit sector for over 15 years.  She has worked with families on a variety of issues that include:  child abuse prevention, financial education, housing counseling, domestic violence, and immigration.  Vanessa believes strongly in civic service and is a steering committee member of the Milwaukee Latino Health Coalition, an Alumni of AmeriCorps VISTA (Chicago), Public Allies (Milwaukee), Latino Non-profit Leadership Program and the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program.  Vanessa currently works at the American Lung Association in Wisconsin as a Tobacco Disparities Program Coordinator.

Clare Peiffer is on the staff at St. Anthony on the Lake Catholic Church in Pewaukee as Coordinator of Service Learning, coordinating service and outreach for families and high school youth.  She has been involved in Common Ground since May of 2007 with the group from St. Anthony and leads the core team there.  Clare is the co-chair of the Housing Action Committee and serves on the committee to increase membership in Waukesha County.  She attended Common Ground U in February, 2008 and has served on the interim Strategy Team over the last year.  Clare is married to Jeff and has three children ranging in age from 12 to 20.  She has lived in southeastern Wisconsin for 35 years and is excited to be involved in an organization dedicated to bringing positive change to the region.

David Quam is a member of the North Shore Education Association – Nicolet Chapter.  He is the union president and is the science department chair at Nicolet High School.  He has been a teacher for 18 years. He attended Common Ground U about 2 years ago and became immediately interested in Common Ground.  Since then he has been involved as a member of the interim Strategy Team and as a Health Team committee member.  David has a Doctorate from Cardinal Stritch University in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service.  He also has a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction and a BA in Chemistry and Education.  He has coached high school football for 17 years.  David is married and has 3 children (11, 8, 5.)

Rev. Franz Rigert is the minister at Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Grafton.  He has served on the interim Common Ground Strategy Team, guides his congregation’s commitment to Common Ground, works collaboratively with Habitat for Humanity trying to get an affordable housing project off the ground in Grafton/Cedarburg and strives to build Common Ground organizational support in Ozaukee County.  His wife, Trinn, is an early education specialist for the Cedarbug Schools.  They have three children, Mitchell (15), Jordan (12) and Marianna (9) and live in the town of Cedarburg.  Franz enjoys music, traveling, cross-cultural experiences and landscaping.  He has served Pilgrim UCC for 14 years.  This year the congregation is celebrating Pilgrim’s 50th Anniversary!

Bob Schuelke is the Director of Human Concerns at Three Holy Women Parish in Milwaukee.  He has been working in social justice work for two Catholic parishes for approximately 6 years.  He has been involved with Common Ground since its onset.  He was on the board of Greater Milwaukee Sponsors, participated in Common Ground U and was co-leader of the intial housing issue campaign.  Bob has been married almost 40 years and has 3 children and 3 grandchildren.

Rev. Brian Sonderman is the Lead Pastor at Metrobrook Church in Milwaukee.  In addition to serving on the interim Strategy Team and building relationships with regional leaders, he has worked to recruit other Evangelical congregations to join Common Ground.  In 2005, Rev. Sonderman helped launch Metrobrook Church with a vision to serve and transform Milwaukee through a movement of the Gospel.  Prior to serving in full-time ministry, he worked as a Certified Public Accoutant in Milwaukee.  Rev. Sonderman is a lifelong resident of the Milwaukee area and resides with his wife, Mara, and 3 children in Waukesha.

Theresa Tobin is a member of  the Three Holy Women Catholic Parish Common Ground core team and is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Marquette University where she works primarily in ethics and women and gender studies.  She also teaches courses in health care and medical ethics.  Theresa is co-chair of the Common Ground Health Care Reform Committee.

Rev. Debra Trakel is the Rector at St. James Episcopal Church located in Milwaukee.  She was on the original Board of Directors and a charter member of the interim Strategy Team of Common Ground.  Rev. Trakel has been the Rector of St. James for ten years.  She grew up in the Milwaukee/Waukesha area including all of her education before seminary.  In addition to being an Episcopal priest she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has worked privately and in state government for twenty years.  She has a passion for justice.

Pa Vang is currently an Associate Outreach Speacialist at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, School of Continuing Education-Center for Urban Community Development.  Since 1996 Pa has worked on different projects and programs including domestic violence, refugee education, evaluation capacity building, court interpreting, batterer education, participatory action scholarship and community involvement in Wisconsin with special focus on the underrepresented groups and refugees.  For the past seven years she has coordinated professional development courses that integrate classroom instruction and family engagement with an emphasis on learning language, content and culture for teachers working with English Language Learners.  Pa is the wife of Pastor Tongber S. Vang of Hmong First Baptist Church in Milwaukee.  They have 3 sons.