Community

From August 17–23, Milwaukee hosted its seventh annual Hip Hop Week MKE, a citywide celebration of hip hop culture that blended music, education, wellness, and civic engagement.
The week began with the Clipse Reunion Tour at The Rave, with Earthgang also performing. A two-night Beat Battle featured top producers from Breaking and Entering’s Big Beat MKE tournament, judged by 9th Wonder, Conductor Williams, and others, with a special performance by Benny The Butcher. At TRUE Skool, DJ Skool sessions gave young people the opportunity to learn from local DJs.
Workshops on financial literacy and legal rights gave attendees helpful guidance. The week also highlighted health and wellness with spin classes at Spinn MKE and a community run and walk with live DJ music.
Along with performances and workshops, the week encouraged connection. A job fair at Manpower Group connected participants with employment resources, while other events supported voter registration, mental health awareness, and civic engagement.

Hip Hop Week MKE 2025 once again highlighted how hip hop can be a meaningful space for creativity, education, and community growth across Milwaukee.

We are happy that Matt Talbot could support the great work Upper Room Bible Church is doing to help people in need especially those who are struggling or going through tough times.

With this support, Upper Room Bible Church has been able to keep several important programs going. These include Push and Talk recovery meetings (AA/NA), mentoring for youth, visits to prisons and nursing homes, and running Garfield House, a sober living home. These efforts are all part of the church’s mission to bring hope, support families, and build strong, spiritually healthy communities.

One way the support helped is with the church bus. The bus is used to take people to events like cookouts and youth trips. With the support, the church was able to keep the bus working. Another big event that happened because of the support was the Church and Family Cookout on Saturday, July 23rd at Mitchell Park Domes. Many joined the gathering, including friends from Matt Talbot, Howard House, and Janetta Robinson House. The kind support helped make this event a success and also assisted the church in covering the rent for July.

Rock Da Block is an annual event in Milwaukee designed to support youth, adults, and families in need. Recognizing the economic challenges many families face, they strive to offer meaningful assistance. The event takes place every September, coinciding with the back-to-school season. This year, it will be held on September 14th from 1-5 pm at N. 35th & W. Center Street.

The event features a musical concert and a giveaway of free book bags and school supplies for children, primarily for elementary and middle school students. There will be live entertainment from local artists, a cookout with hotdogs and burgers, free groceries, and informational tables from various organizations. Attendees can also enjoy bouncy houses, games, free haircuts and hair braiding, face painting, horseback riding, and an animal petting zoo.

Additional highlights include a Milwaukee Fire Department engine for children to explore and learn about fire safety, a jail on wheels replica, guest speakers, and much more. All activities and items are provided for free to ensure that families can enjoy the event without any financial burden. Stay tuned for more updates.

On December 20th, 2023, the organization hosted its annual holiday dinner, and the accompanying photos clearly capture the joy and enthusiasm of the youth who actively participated in the event.  We are a proud supporter of All 4 Kidz and we were pleased to make a financial contribution for this event.

Recently, our contributions have benefited All 4 Kidz Inc., an organization established to create secure environments for young individuals in the foster care system, fostering emotional healing and enhancing mental health awareness. All 4 Kidz is committed to offering essential support services to children navigating the complexities of the child welfare system and dealing with trauma. The organization conducts life skills training and workshops, equipping foster youth with vital skills to navigate adulthood. We derive great satisfaction in our contribution to their success and are pleased to have played a role in supporting their mission.

Join us on Friday, October 13th, 2023, as elected officials, community leaders and families gather to celebrate the 70th birthday of iconic community advocate, organizer, and non-profit leader Mr. James Nelson. Expect a night of delicious food, live entertainment, a dance contest, door prizes, and the company of wonderful guests.  We are pleased to pay for the food for this event.

Nurturing Compassion: Extending Support to a family in need.

We were recently approached by a local Church about one of their parishioners, a family of a mother and six children who had been without a stove and refrigerator since Thanksgiving.  One of our managers is involved in the Church ministry on a volunteer basis.  We arranged to buy and donate these needed appliances to the family to ensure that they do not endure the holiday season without these essential appliances.

We are pleased to sponsor the food at the upcoming annual community celebration on October 13, 2023 in the heart of Milwaukee’s Central City at Garfield’s 502 – https://www.garfields502.com/ – a neighborhood bar featuring “live music, great food and amazing atmosphere”.  Garfield’s 502 is the premiere social gathering place for Milwaukee’s political and community leaders, elected officials, and families.  Our sponsorship is a testament to our commitment to the community and our love for our beautiful City of Milwaukee.

 The October 13 event is led and coordinated by the well-known community advocate Mr. James Nelson, formerly of Milwaukee’s iconic Career Youth Development https://www.facebook.com/Careeryouthdevelopment/ and principal assistant to its founder Ms. Jeannetta Robinson.  Ms. Robinson , who passed away in 2008 and her mother, the late national civil rights leader Ms. Claretta Simpson (affectionately known as “Mother Freedom”), founded Career Youth Development (CYD) as the premier social services organization in Milwaukee that assisted thousands of children and indigent families escape the plagues of drugs, poverty, homelessness and mental illness for over forty years. Many of Milwaukee’s leaders in the public sector today received in their youth education, nurturing, inspiration and leadership training from Jeannetta. The motto of CYD was “love in action”.  (Note: Our own CEO – Karl – was CYD’s “Man of the Year” 2002.)

Sister Jeannetta Robinson –  fondly remembered with love and affection, greatly missed and forever in our hearts.

“Bishop Willie Brooks of the Upper Room Bible Church in Milwaukee has just published a very important book – “A Journey of Faith” available at Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Path-Servant-Leadership-Journey-Faith/dp/B0CD94ZTMQ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2IKL2BJ8BBDQX&keywords=a+journey+of+faith+brooks&qid=1694378164&sprefix=a+journey+of+faith+brooks%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-5.  The book is a philosophical reflection by the Bishop of what it means to be a servant leader.  At the same time, it is a practical guide on how to be a leader.   We purchased 300 copies of this book and distributed it within the community in order to get the Bishop’s message out about topics such as “humility”, “compassion”, ”empathy”, “listening”, “healing” and “stewardship”.  We have also made the book required reading for our Executive Team Members and key managers. 

The Back-to-School event organized by the Upper Room Bible Church took place on September 2nd, from 11 am to 4 pm at 2025 West Fond du Lac Avenue. This gathering featured dedicated volunteers, including barbers and nail technicians, who provided haircuts for boys and nail painting for girls. Additionally, those who attended were offered tasty meals, and backpacks loaded with school materials were given out. The children and their parents showed deep appreciation for our donation. To add to the fun, they had a bouncy house for the kids to enjoy while they waited for their turn with the barbers and technicians.

We are pleased to have recently provided our support to the Rock Da Block Concert and Book Bag Giveaway. This event is scheduled for Saturday, September 23rd, 2023, from 12 noon to 5 pm on 35th Center Street (the entire lot on the northwest corner). The music concert will be complemented by various organizations setting up information tables, offering children’s games, providing reading and coloring books, setting up bouncy houses, distributing book bags and school supplies, offering free food and refreshments, and of course, presenting a lively music concert.

As proud sponsors of this event, we are continuing our tradition of wholehearted support as we’ve done before. Our contribution will go towards providing school supplies that will be placed inside the book bags

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, we celebrate the rich diversity of America.  Freddie Smith, Member of our Executive Management Team, represented us and participated in the 2021 Juneteenth Day celebrations of Washington County.

We are pleased to have recently contributed to the upcoming St. Francis Parish’s Golf Outing on September 20, 2023. Father Mike of St. Francis of Assisi Parish allocated $35,000 in scholarship funds from the previous year’s Outing to 9 young individuals who dedicated their time to community service. The combined efforts of our support and that of others significantly impact the lives of these young individuals. We are grateful for the opportunity to extend our help and make a meaningful contribution to this noble cause.

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, we believe that youth and family are key to building strong communities.  We are proud to sponsor “Agape Love Ministries Youth Outreach Event”.

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, we believe that families getting together to share food and have fun makes for strong, vibrant communities.  We were proud to provide financial support for “Hood Love Community Pop-Up Event”.

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, we believe that “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt.

We are a proud sponsor of the “Youth Empowerment Fundraiser”, helping to create a brighter tomorrow for our youth.

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, we believe that children are our future.  We are proud to sponsor and participate in “Rock da Block Concert and Bookbag Giveaway.

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, in our programming we seek to educate men about the scourge of domestic abuse and empower women to free themselves from their abusers. We are proud to support www.ExposedThePodcast.com

On July 16, 2022 we participated in and financially contributed to the “Youth Panel about Violence, Drugs and Mental Health”. 

Kids are our future. Let’s nurture them. We are proud to be a supporter of ALL 4 KIDZ.  https://www.all4kidz.org/

For 21 consecutive years in a row, during the months of November and December we reached out to all the neighbors in our block and provided them with holiday gift cards for Thanksgiving and for Christmas.  At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, we believe in being good corporate citizens.

We are committed to working with our neighbors to keep our neighborhood litter-free, clean and beautiful.  Our employees participated in the Blitz the Block Clean Up on Friday, August 26, 2022.

Proud supported of “STOP THE VIOLENCE” party.

Our Company is committed to being a good corporate citizen.  We distributed gift cards to all our immediate neighbors in order to allow them to buy turkeys and other items to celebrate Thanksgiving 2022.

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS,  Neighbors and neighborhoods help make communities and families strong.  We are a proud supporter of Neighborhood House

At SUD RECOVERY CENTERS, We believe that kidz are our future.  Proud supporter of All 4 Kidz 2022