An expansion and renovation of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Washington County’s West Bend facility is receiving $100,000 in funding from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

The $1.2 million project will nearly triple the space of the facility at 925 N. Silverbrook Dr., adding 7,500 square feet to the existing 4,000-square-foot building. The expansion is in response to participant growth at the West Bend location. Membership grew from 325 to 1,300 between 2005 and 2014 and is expected to increase in the coming years.

“The Boys & Girls Club has done an impressive job over the years serving more and more kids with its after-school and summer enrichment programs and activities. It’s clear that they need a larger facility in West Bend,” said Fred R. Gutierrez, senior program officer for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. “We’re glad to join our partners in West Bend to make the dream for a new facility become reality.”

The grant was among more than $838,000 awarded during the Foundation’s second quarter competitive grant cycle to address key issues in the community. The total includes more than $300,000 granted to area visual arts programs during its second quarter from the Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund and other funds. Additional grants of $15,000 and above include:

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Increasing economic opportunities

Center for Veterans Issues: $50,000 to support a vocational training and employment incubator for veterans at Troop Café, a not-for-profit café and commercial kitchen for its Veterans Manor housing facility.

Strengthening education

First Stage: $25,000 in support of expanding Next Steps, a special summer theatre academy for young people with autism spectrum disorder.

Milwaukee Ballet Company: $25,000 for programmatic outreach to school-age children in Milwaukee in alignment with future goals of the Harmony Initiative. A collaboration between the Ballet, UWM’s Peck School of the Arts and the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Harmony Initiative will house the Ballet’s offices and school, performance space for UWM dancers and a full sports medicine clinic.

Milwaukee Film: $20,000 in support of the Milwaukee Film’s educational screenings, which will expose 7,000 students at 55 schools to quality cinema from all over the world. The grant will cover the development of curriculum packets for participating educators.

Bradley Family Foundation: $20,000 to support the Summer Art Education Institute, which consists of six, daylong professional development courses at the Lynden Sculpture Garden that teach educators about arts education strategies.

Building strong neighborhoods

Sixteenth Street Community Health Center: $66,000 to organize stakeholder engagement to ensure that residents and other stakeholders have a voice in the economic and ecological redevelopment of the Inner Harbor, an area on the near southeast side of Milwaukee where the Menomonee, Kinnickinnic and Milwaukee rivers meet.

Albright Methodist Church: $15,000 in support of the implementation of Healthy Neighborhood Initiative strategies in Milwaukee’s Capitol Heights neighborhood. The grant also will cover a portion of a youth program supervisor, who will oversee youth participating in the Mayor’s Earn & Learn Program for summer youth training and employment. 

Investing in regional vitality

Ko-Thi Dance Company: $125,000 over two years to support capacity development of Ko-Thi, African American Children’s Theater and the Hansberry-Sands Theater Co.

Ozaukee Washington Land Trust: $30,000 to help develop a comprehensive plan to identify and protect key properties in the Milwaukee River Basin.

Public Policy Forum: $25,000 for the Outpatient Mental Health Clinical Capacity Analysis, which will assess the continuum of clinical outpatient services in Milwaukee County for low-income adults and children to inform collaborative planning and help shape the behavioral health care system in Milwaukee.

Northwest Side Community Development Corporation: $24,000 to provide better service coordination for grandparents serving as guardians for their grandchildren at the Villard Grandfamilies apartments.