This local nonprofit spreads institutional change in Milwaukee through discipline and consistency.
By Adam Rogan
Jahmorris Torres-Currin and Kahlil Stewart speaking in support of better driver education access. Photo courtesy of Common Ground
About 15 years ago, Dr. Francisco Enriquez was campaigning for cleaner energy in Milwaukee – and getting nowhere. He was trying to make a stir at community meetings, but the audiences were small and not particularly engaged. “I felt that all the people who were all involved were not organized,” he says. “We didn’t have a strategy. We could not bring that many people together.”
Amid this effort, Enriquez – a longtime pediatrician with Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers – found himself at a meeting in support of Fair Play, a campaign to improve Milwaukee Public Schools’ most deteriorated athletic facilities. It was standing room only. This was the energy Enriquez was looking for: the power of capital-O community Organizing.