Young Men Rise in Milwaukee

We Will All Rise is thrilled to announce MKE Rising, an initiative that will bring Black and Brown men in Milwaukee to a professional space that they rarely occupy: the early childhood classroom. This three-year funded project will go much deeper than mere exposure to the art of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teaching.  A cohort of young men of color, ages 18-24, will receive hands-on training, coursework, and mentorship as they explore whether a career in education may be their pathway to personal fulfillment and generational impact.

MKE Rising is led by executive director and Wisconsin native Calvin Lewis, who also serves as senior advisor to We Will All Rise. An urban education doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with over a decade of experience in youth education and non-profit management, Lewis says that the research is clear: “Increasing the representation of teachers of color across the public preK-12 continuum is beneficial for all students, especially Black students.” Each year, the program will select 8-10 Black and Latinx high school graduates and provide ten months of experience that Lewis believes will change their lives and improve educational outcomes for the more than 150 four- and five-year-olds they will serve.

How does a program take a young person who may have never before considered a career in teaching and invest them in the profession in less than a year? A deliberate and intensive process developed over an 18 month planning period sought the input of an advisory committee of scholars and educational practitioners with a diverse set of perspectives. Together they designed a model where MKE Rising Fellows are placed in early childhood classrooms at partner sites alongside experienced, licensed teachers. Spending 20-25 hours per week in this paid residency, their learning is bolstered by biweekly convenings of the full cohort to discuss challenges in their work, engage in curricular training, and ensure culturally responsive practices.  By year’s end, the young men will have received 150+ hours of professional development that will assist their transition to full-time employment or to attainment of a degree at one of the city’s post-secondary institutions. 

Since the Fellows are not expected to already possess an interest in teaching, Lewis is more focused on personal qualities when selecting young men for the program’s inaugural cohort.  He cites a commitment to social justice, to giving back to one’s community, and to educational equity as the essential values of program participants. Once on board, the Fellows will receive specific training in an early learning framework that will support the young men’s abilities to provide literacy instruction to small groups of students in their classrooms.  They will also develop capacity to support whole-class exploration of STREAM: Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Tying together this curricular content will be a focus on culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in service of an anti-racist learning experience for the city’s youngest students.

We Will All Rise Founder and CEO Ricardo Neal considers MKE Rising to be a signature program that highlights All Rise’s pillars of economic empowerment and workforce development.  “Sometimes with youth development initiatives, the intentional focus on Black and Brown men and their success is non there,” says Neal.  “In this case, we’re using education as a vehicle, but our focus is most importantly on the young men’s outcomes and what they plan to do with their lives.”

Organizations across Milwaukee have been inspired by MKE Rising’s mission and see a clear benefit to the city - to its young men and to its youngest learners.  Milwaukee Succeeds, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Herb Kohl Foundation, Bader Philanthropies, Next Door, and Malaika Early Learning Center all serve as stakeholders that have been instrumental in the program’s development and upcoming launch. Funding partners have also expressed belief in the power of this model through their considerable support, investing $600,000 to date.

MKE rising will welcome its first cohort of educators in September, 2022.