To streamline support for people leaving incarceration, Employ Milwaukee in November moved reentry staff into the City of Milwaukee’s Office of African American Affairs.
The move created a single North Side location where people referred by nearby correctional institutions can access job assistance and other city resources.
Employ Milwaukee provides job-readiness training and one-on-one coaching to those referred through its reentry programs – among other services – while the Office of African American Affairs provides mentoring, financial counseling and other community resources to residents.
By more closely aligning with the city, Employ Milwaukee wants to streamline various steps involved in rebuilding life after incarceration, said Wylbur Holloway, reentry services manager for the agency.
“It’s a location where those that are returning from incarceration can access needed services in a coordinated and comprehensive fashion,” Holloway said.
What Employ Milwaukee does
Employ Milwaukee is a nonprofit workforce development agency that helps both youths and adults gain the skills needed to get and keep good jobs.
“It’s a good organization and some great people,” said Doyle Sprewer, who helps people with felonies understand and navigate the state’s pardon process. “I believe they have a care and concern for the community as well as those coming home from the prison system.”
Employ Milwaukee offers pre-release and post-release assistance through programs such as Windows to Work, including job readiness training, career planning and supportive service referrals for employment, housing, and medical and psychological needs.
These programs accept referrals from selected correctional institutions.
At the North Side office, people referred in can receive resources for work-skill development, employment support, financial literacy and guidance on applying the cognitive-based approaches.
Coaches can work with individuals before release – beginning months ahead at times – to build a release and employment plan.
After release, participants receive case management, follow-up support and additional resources.
“I always say it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been locked up, you’re coming back to a foreign land that you don’t know of,” Sprewer said.
Employ Milwaukee has staff working inside three correctional facilities: the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center and the Racine Correctional Institution.
The agency also works to build up the number of employers who hire people with criminal records.
“What’s encouraging – we’re actually having a lot more employers willing to engage in the conversation,” Holloway said. “Ten years ago, that conversation in terms of hiring someone with a background was a little closed off. I think, since COVID, the market has changed.”
Employ Milwaukee doesn’t ask for special favors for people who are incarcerated, he said, but urges employers to recognize that Employ Milwaukee can help connect them to “viable candidates who can check all the boxes.”
The city
The Office of African American Affairs provides mentoring, financial counseling and other community resources to city residents.
Melissa Buford, director of the Office of African American Affairs, said the office focuses on filling gaps and connecting people with the services they cannot get elsewhere.
“If we don’t provide those services, we definitely will connect them with the organization or a partner that does,” she said.
Buford said the collaboration with Employ Milwaukee directly strengthens the office’s youth- and family-related services, which she is working to build out.
“If these individuals are coming back and they’re transitioning back into society, they more than likely have a family that they need to support, that they need to be in the moment for,” she said. “So this was perfect … and it’s a good location as well. We’re on the bus line. We’re right in the heart of the city.”
How to access services
People who are interested in learning more about Employ Milwaukee’s services and who are not referred by a correctional institution can call 414-270-1700.
People with questions about the Office of African American Affairs can visit the website, call 414-286-0222 or email oaaamke@milwaukee.gov.
Holloway and Buford said their teams will do their best to get people connected to resources – no matter the need.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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