The Dominican Center has cut some of its staff.
The organization, located at 2470 W. Locust St., has a 30-year history of serving the Amani neighborhood with housing, education, safety and community resources.
“The Dominican Center recently made a limited number of staffing adjustments as part of long-term sustainability planning to ensure continued service to the Amani Neighborhood,” said Britney Roberson, the executive director, in an email Tuesday. “These decisions were made with board oversight and were focused on aligning our internal structure with evolving needs.”
Roberson said she could not share personnel-specific details.
Dominican Center hosts food and supply giveaways, connects residents with resources, runs a hydroponics lab and partners and hosts meetings with Amani United, a resident-led community group.
NNS sent emails on Monday to the organization’s director of operations, communications manager and community organizer, and received identical automatic responses that stated that they are no longer with the organization and to direct inquiries to Roberson.
Former staff member raises concerns
Elizabeth Brown, president of Amani United and a staff member of Dominican Center until spring 2025, said she heard the organization let go of several employees on Friday.
Roberson and at least two other employees remain on staff, according to Brown.
Brown said she believes the employees were fired and raised concerns that the organization has not been publicly sharing required financial information.
“I think what’s most upsetting is all the changes being made without consulting residents,” Brown said. “Most of what [Dominican Center] does is the result of conversations with residents. Now they aren’t even considering the residents they claim to serve in the plans.”
Robert Sullivan, president of the Dominican Center Board of Directors, has not responded to requests for comment.
Roberson said the organization remains committed to its mission and the residents it serves.
“The organization remains financially sound, and our core programs and partnerships including our work with the Amani Neighborhood continue without interruption,” she said.
The center was open on Tuesday. Roberson said that Dominican Center is in a brief transition period but does not anticipate that it will need to reduce services.
Dominican Center had eight staff members before the changes, according to its website.
Leadership had discussed possibility of changes
Roberson, who was hired by the board as executive director in May, told NNS after being hired that she expected to spend a few months getting caught up on the organization’s operations before considering making changes.
Sullivan, the board president, said at the time that the organization had no plans to alter programs or staffing.
He said the center always looks for ways to secure income to support its programs, but it would continue to focus on housing, education and neighborhood security.
The organization has an active fundraising campaign. A letter attached to the fundraising campaign said the Dominican Center opened an expanded computer lab and offered an adult computer basics class, served more than 330 families with 8,800 pounds of food and necessities at mobile food pantries and hosted 42 community events and meetings in 2025.
PrincessSafiya Byers contributed to this report.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
