As a teen, Shontaine Walker experienced instability and made hard choices as a result.
As an adult, she spent years working to help children with backgrounds like hers have more promising futures.
And when several job and career changes didn’t turn out to be what she felt like was enough, she opened Walking in by Faith Inc., a nonprofit that supports young people ages 11 to 24 from adolescence into adulthood.
‘Feeling like I was left alone’
Walker, 40, said working with young people is a calling rooted in her own experience.
Raised primarily by her grandmother because her mother struggled with addiction and her father was frequently incarcerated, she grew up knowing what it felt like to lack stability and search for belonging.
“I was always feeling like I was left alone because everyone else had parents there. I didn’t,” she said.
After her grandmother died, Walker began spending more time at neighborhood youth programs.
‘They believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself’
One of them was Northcott Neighborhood House, 2460 N. 6th St., where she was known for fighting, cursing and testing boundaries. Despite her behavior, she said, Director Bob Johnson continued to pour into her.
Other mentors, including educators who recognized what she needed beyond the classroom, did the same.
Those adults helped Walker return to school after dropping out.
Valerie Benton, Walker’s high school teacher, said Walker was always bright; she just lacked structure.
“She’ll tell people she hated me at the time,” Benton said. “But that’s OK, I was OK with being the bad guy as long as it got her to where she needed to go.”
She said their intervention during some of the most difficult moments of her adolescence, including when she learned her father was returning to prison, left a lasting impression.
“They believed in me and I didn’t even believe in myself,” Walker said.
Her older cousin, Neka Willis-Dorsey, described her as a diamond in the rough.
“She didn’t have the most standard upbringing, or the most standard family dynamics, and she’s just had everything thrown at her,” Willis-Dorsey said. “She’s still perfect though. Perfectly imperfect.”
A career of helping young people
Walker said she found herself becoming a trusted adult for young people at her various jobs.
Her career took her through childcare, residential care, crisis stabilization and youth assessment programs. She worked with young people considered high risk, including youths experiencing homelessness, substance use, detention, family instability and trauma.
Willis-Dorsey said Walker’s life experiences positioned her to work with young people.
She said overcoming the challenges she had with her parents, and being a teen mother with limited education, gave Walker the experience to help others.
“She’s great with her sons, and helped raise multiple others; she’s still a leader in her church,” said Willis-Dorsey. “Who’d be better than her as someone who can speak to a lot of the things that they’re going through? God has chosen her.”
Over time, Walker said she became frustrated with the way certain systems seemed to address immediate crisis situations without preparing young people for what came next.
According to Walker, a young person in a crisis situation might receive housing, a gift card or a temporary placement.
She worried about what happened when service providers left. Who taught them how to budget, find employment, manage credit, navigate housing applications or build a stable life?
“That was my whole thing,” Walker said. “It’s too many blocked doors.”
She is especially concerned about young people that age out of traditional systems. Assessment centers may serve adolescents until 17. Group homes may provide temporary placement. Walker asks what happens afterward.
“Where are the successful stories at?” she said.
Her answer became Walking in by Faith, a business she first envisioned in 2017 and is now working to build a fully operational organization.
Walking in by Faith
Walker is president of Walking in by Faith, who mission is: “When you are weak, we are here to make you stronger.”
The organization offers a three-tier model designed to support young people beyond crisis intervention.
The first 30 days focus on stabilizing basic needs and connecting youths with doctors, schools and other essential services. The following 60 to 90 days focus on goals, education, budgeting and practical life skills.
The final piece is a continued connection, like checking in, celebrating milestones and holding young people accountable even after they leave the program.
Walker describes her role in the program not as someone working above or below a young person but beside them.
“I’m holding your hand on the side of it,” she said. “When you take a step, we take a step.”
That philosophy extends to Walking in by Faith’s planned workshops, which address topics including mental health, trauma, cognitive behavioral strategies and self-care.
Walker wants young people to understand themselves from the inside out, rather than simply learning how to survive whatever crisis brought them to a certain place.
She said success means more than getting a young person through a placement.
It means being able to see them graduate, secure housing, manage their money, find employment and build a future.
What’s next
Today, Walking in by Faith is operating without consistent funding, relying on Walker’s determination, relationships and occasional assistance to help young people when she can.
She hopes community support will help the organization expand its programming and eventually provide the comprehensive, long-term support she believes Milwaukee’s young people need.
Walker carries with her the lesson she learned from the people who refused to give up on her and is now passing forward.
“I never made my circumstances be my mark,” Walker said. “Don’t allow your circumstances to be your mark.”
As an O’Brien Fellow in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University, NNS reporter PrincessSafiya Byers is looking at the factors that push young people into housing instability and often trap them in cycles that extend into adulthood. Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.
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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