This spring, over 100 women and girls of all ages from Milwaukee’s North and South sides gathered four times to discuss safety and violence prevention in the city. Their dialogues were used to create a report aimed at recommendations the authors feel could improve safety for Black and brown women and girls in the city.
The intergenerational dialogues were organized by NNS Connects, the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service’s community outreach wing, and Ethos Insight LLC, a local research firm.
The facilitated dialogues, held at PEAK Initiative, Milwaukee Community Crossroads, Leaders Igniting Transformation and Greater Little Hill Church of God in Christ, gave different generations the opportunity to share their lived experiences, perspectives and concerns in a safe space, according to organizers.
“We did that so we could build trust,” said NNS Connects project manager Bevin Christie. “As a newsroom, we wanted people to feel comfortable and for it to not feel extractive.”
It was agreed upon before the events that participants would remain anonymous. Here are key findings from the report.
Safety beyond physical protection
Participants in the dialogues said that besides physical protection, they feel the safest when they know there are friendships, families, faith communities and other networks that will make them feel heard and supported.
“(I’ve been) thinking who’s doing the heavy lifting for me to feel safe,” one participant said. “I feel like I have a very good support system, I have my spirituality and I have a lot of women I can rely on to talk to when I’m not doing well.”
Women and girls also raised concerns about the lack of third spaces, causing some individuals to feel lonely and disconnected from the community. They said this results in them spending more time on social media and avoiding in-person interactions.
“After COVID, a lot of those safe third spaces are non-existent anymore,” a participant said. “Everything is so virtual and so lonely nowadays for our youth, with our young girls.”
Reducing safety and emotional burdens
Dialogue participants mentioned that Black and Brown women often have to implement different safety measures into their daily routines, like carrying personal protection devices and knowing what environments to avoid.
“I’m still mad that I can’t walk outside at night and by the time the day is over and my kids go to bed. I want nothing more than to just go walk outside,” one woman said. “Every time I have the urge to do it, I tell myself not to.”
Women also said they often carry the emotional burden of taking on family responsibilities and working.
“I think Black women show it all the time, single mothers, poor mothers, the working poor, because of where we stand in society,” a participant said. “We don’t have a choice but to be survivors and resilient and persevere because there’s not a lot of options for us outside of our race and within our race.”
One participant said she’s seeing these types of burdens appear in younger age groups, too, like when siblings have to watch each other at a young age or go to work early.
“If you’re the backbone of the family, you can’t just walk away from a job or situation, even when something feels wrong,” she said.
Social challenges impacting Milwaukee women
Women and girls expressed socioeconomic factors like transportation, education, healthcare and other systems that can contribute to improving safety.
“(I) work on the Milwaukee County Trauma Response Team with youth aged 6 to 17, who experience trauma, and sometimes we’ve had young girls because there is no
school bus,” a participant said. “Our Asian population is a huge target for sex trafficking and out there in the morning, so we need buddy systems.”
To give girls and women an opportunity to have a voice in shaping policies, participants felt that centering them in workforce development, youth councils and other initiatives would benefit them.
One mother was seeking mental health services for her daughter but was waitlisted for six months. Women discussed how there needs to be an increase of affordable and responsive mental health services for youth and families.
“I live in fear every morning that she might not wake up between now and six months from now,” she said. “I’m college educated, I have resources and I know how to work the system, but I can only imagine parents who don’t have access.”
Violence in different forms
During the dialogues, participants discussed how violence isn’t always physical but can also include boundary violations, emotional abuse and online exploitation, especially considering the emergence of new technology.
“With the rise of AI, people can take your picture and make it do whatever they want, or they can fake texts,” one participant said. “If you were to report something, there’s ways for people to make things look like they were fake.”
Participants said these and other unhealthy behaviors featured on social media are becoming so common that girls are beginning to think it’s normal.
“So then getting a cat call doesn’t seem so bad, but because folks are watching significantly worse things on their phone at crazy rates every day, it just doesn’t seem as serious,” a participant said.
To help young generations identify unhealthy behaviors, community members felt that there should be more education on healthy relationships, consent and digital safety, and bystander intervention training.
Christie said when the broader community hears about violence and violence prevention, the community associates it with gun violence. Though it came up, she was glad that participants were able to identify the everyday microaggressions and macroaggressions that also build up over time.
“I was pleased that it wasn’t just focused on gun violence like in the headlines,” Christie said. “Women really focused on the everyday things that make them feel unsafe and the things that they would like to see change so that they do start to feel safe.”
The dialogues were generously sponsored by Report for America, which plays no role in editorial decisions at the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.
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