Significant Initiatives/Partnerships of the Milwaukee Education Partnership (MEP)

College Access Initiatives

The MEP collaborated for three years with the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) College Access Centers to promote the completion of the Free Application for Financial Aid (FAFSA) and the UWS Universal College Application.

Current partners in this endeavor include Milwaukee World Festivals Inc. (Summerfest), religious communities, athletes and social media influencers.

For the year, 2024, the MEP presence at Summerfest was supported by grants from the Ralph Evinrude Foundation and the Forest County Potowatami Foundation. Thanks to the generosity of the Ralph Evinrude Foundation the MEP FAFSA initiative will continue through the summer of 2025.

 

Early Childhood Literacy Initiative

With the participation of over 20 local partners, a Community Solutions Action Plan (CSAP) was developed that aims to improve literacy from birth through grade 3 in Milwaukee.  This effort began with the Milwaukee Education Partnership joining the National Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, co-sponsored by the National Civic League. 

Through this initiative the MEP has collaborated with numerous partners invested in the development of our communities’ youngest and most vulnerable members.

The State of Wisconsin will partner with organizations endeavoring to improve K-12 students literacy achievement through investments in successful literacy initiatives around the state. The MEP will collaborate with our K-12 partners to access state funding to improve student literacy in our partner districts.

 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiative

This significant collaboration between area K-12 schools, over twenty of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and the MEP will bring new opportunities to enhance African-American lives in the Milwaukee region through our HBCU institutions. From this partnership, the initiative will encourage more Milwaukee youth to pursue education beyond high school.  This initiative also will strengthen the support system needed for students to complete college or university degrees and begin their professional careers primarily throughout southeastern Wisconsin.   Our partnership will further create important professional development opportunities for educators and emerging educators who want to serve in urban school districts.  Our aim is to encourage degreed professionals from HBCU institutions in the fields of education, engineering, healthcare and information technology, to come to Southeastern Wisconsin to help build a stronger region socially, economically and culturally.  The first two MEP/HBCU conferences were held in 2014 and 2015. Successive conferences have been held each year since through 2019.

Currently, the MEP seeks to place HBCU student teacher candidates in regional K-12 schools to complete their pre-professional experience. The goal is to enhance the pool of HBCU prepared educators available to teach in traditional public and CHOICE/charter schools.

This past Summer, 2024, three interns, one each from Morgan State University, The University of Wisconsin - Madison, and Milwaukee Rufus King High School completed 8 week internships.

The Partnership initiated HBCU Sunday in 2019, which is an annual celebration of the contributions of HBCU institutions to the development of African American professionals. The celebration takes place the first Sunday of October among Wisconsin’s African American faith congregations and has been supported with a generous grant from the Forest County Potowatami Foundation.

The successful 2024 HBCU Sunday events were sponsored by Pawn America, a respected regional retailer, and The Milwaukee Times Newspaper. 2025 HBCU Sunday events will be held on October 5th.

 


Leading Men Fellows Program

The Next Door Foundation of Milwaukee and the MEP partnered with the Literacy Lab of Washington, DC to prepare a cohort of young men of color who are recent high school graduates (mostly from MPS) to serve as compensated literacy coaches to Milwaukee’s preschool children.

Ultimately, the coaches are encouraged to and supported while pursuing a higher education degree preferably as certified teachers to serve in Milwaukee schools.

The generous and enthusiastic support of the local foundation community and government has been instrumental to the success of this initiative which has now expanded to the Racine Unified Schools District.
The seventh cohort of Leading Men Fellows began August 2024.

 

MEP Webinar Presentations

The MEP presented webinars in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin System.

Webinars included presentations by Dr. Cassandra Herring Executive Director of the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity, the National Center for Teacher Residencies African American Male Initiative that prepares educators for service in participating school districts as well as a presentation October 2020 by the former Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Jerome Adams who addressed disparities in the nation’s healthcare delivery system.

This Spring 2025 season, the MEP will present a webinar highlighting the University of Illinois- Chicago School of Education’s “Call Me Mister” Initiative.