MILWAUKEE (AP) - Community leaders in Milwaukee are looking for ways to head off problems during summer months, including classifying some violence-prone areas as “promise zones” to allow for extra funding and attention.
The city’s promise initiative is among several efforts that leaders hope will help head off violent crimes that can come with warm weather, WUWM-FM (https://bit.ly/2r0gIkJ ) reported. The city has also deemed May as violence prevention month.
Alderman Ashanti Hamilton noted that a primary goal is to find jobs for adolescents. He said jobs will range from cleaning up neighborhoods to rehabbing houses, to youth reaching out to their peers with encouraging messages.
“We want them to know that there’s an opportunity for them to work, there’s an opportunity for them to make some money and there’s an opportunity for them to have a positive impact in this neighborhood,” Hamilton said.
Funding will come from the promise initiative. Under the 2014 city program, promise zones can be assigned to neighborhoods where more than 45 percent of households make less than $25,000 annually, the median household income is less than $26,000 and, in some areas, where more than 56 percent of the total population - and more than 71 percent of children - live in poverty.
Hamilton, who authored the legislation, notes that one neighborhood with the promise designation is around the busy intersection of 27th and Atkinson. He said the unemployment rate in the area is nearly 55 percent.
“Right now, we’re filling these public spaces with a lot of public activity. It’s going to be a garden a block away from here, there’s going to be a number of activities in the park that’s right behind us,” Hamilton said, noting that a nearby church was applying to be a work site for the neighborhood.
“We know that with our collective effort that we are going to be successful,” he said. “It is not an option.”
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Information from: WUWM-FM, https://www.wuwm.com
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