Meet COA’s new Early Education Center Directors!
Ashley Harrell: Burke Early Education Center Director Ashley Harrell joins COA's early education team with almost 15 years of early childhood education and 10 years of community relations experience. She discovered her passion for early childhood education at the age of 15, and started towards a degree in Early Childhood Education at Milwaukee Area Technical [...]
A Bright Future for Children in Amani: COA Builds New Early Education Center
COA and the Amani neighborhood celebrated the groundbreaking for the new Burke Early Education Center at COA Youth & Family Centers' Goldin Center on Friday, April 17th. The event marked the start of construction for COA's second early child education center, which was made possible by a $2 million capital grant from The Burke Foundation [...]
COA Scholarship Provides Path to Driver’s License for Hundreds of Local Teens
The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service recently featured teen participant Joshua Leonard in an article about COA's free drivers education program. From the article: "About a decade ago, students participating in COA’s three-day youth leadership institute camp proposed a scholarship-based driver’s education program to alleviate the barriers they were facing in getting their licenses. A pilot program [...]
Determined Residents Put Amani Neighborhood on New Path
COA was recently highlighted in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on the changing landscape of the Amani neighborhood. From the article: "Amani — bordered by N. 27th St., W. Keefe Ave., N. 20th St. and W. Center St. — historically has been one of Milwaukee's most challenged neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and crime. [...]
Milwaukee Magazine Features the 53206 Zip Code
This month, Milwaukee Magazine featured an article with an in-depth look into Milwaukee's 53206 zip code. COA opened the Goldin Center in the 53206 zip code ten years ago to offer after-school and summer opportunities for youth in one of Milwaukee's most distressed neighborhoods. Since then, COA has opened a pediatric and family clinic in partnership with Children's Hospital [...]
Good Kid Brew City [Official Video]
Kiran Vee and Day'zhane Andersen put together "Good Kid Brew City," which tells the story of a brother and sister confronting the tensions of life, art, and violence.
Milwaukee Rep’s “A Christmas Carol” delights and raises funds for COA!
The “Ghost of Christmas Present” is alive and well at COA this holiday season! The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol adopted COA’s HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) program to benefit from its post-production tradition. Following each performance of A Christmas Carol, actors invited audience members to make a donation [...]
Who are you when no one is looking?
A sign hangs on the wall at COA's Goldin Center that reads,"Who are you when no one is looking?" Kris Johnson, a pre-teen program staff member at the Goldin Center has taken this message to heart. Kris grew up only a couple blocks from COA's Goldin Center in the Amani neighborhood. He was looking for [...]
MATC Educational Foundations Track Student Dedicated to “Saving” At-Risk Youth
As a youngster, Jermaine Howard was considered a "bad kid," piling up daily suspensions from class on the days he showed up for school. Growing up in a struggling family, living in a poverty-stricken, crime-ridden Milwaukee neighborhood, Howard said he was almost certainly on track to end up in jail. He said he was "saved" by the support and interaction he received at a COA after-school program.
Art project teaches Doerfler students about advocacy and community engagement [OnMilwaukee.com]
"Ten seventh and eighth grade students from COA Youth and Family Center’s CLC program have been working with Kowalczyk and Heredia to envision an intersection mural to be installed at 30th and Scott. The installation would beautify the neighborhood and build youth visibility and leadership." ...Read more at OnMilwaukee.com.