Podcast RSS

Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction is a growing public health concern in Wisconsin and across the country. In 2013, more Wisconsin residents died from drug overdose than motor vehicle accidents. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reports that, in 2015, Wisconsin experienced 872 drug overdose deaths. Waukesha County has been greatly impacted by this epidemic, a crisis that affects people from all backgrounds, income levels, and ages. Mike Ingrelli, owner of Mike Ingrelli Plumbing, has personal experience with addiction.

Only 61% of students in Milwaukee Public Schools graduate in four years. The remaining 39% may take longer than four years to graduate, or drop out of school completely. Students who drop out of school are eight times more likely to become incarcerated and three times more likely to be unemployed. Students who drop out earn roughly $1 million less over their lifetime than high school graduates.

However, research shows that students who reach 10th grade on track and on time are four times more likely to graduate. That’s where City Year comes in. City Year Milwaukee partners with school districts to place their corps members in the schools to provide students with both small group and one-on-one support to overcome challenges they face both in and out of school. In addition to working with individual students who are at-risk of dropping out, City Year corps members provide support to help transform the whole school, including leading school-wide events and activities, after school programming, and in class support for teachers.

Today we sit down with Sarah Heffley and Matt Holubecki, members of the United Way City Year Milwaukee Team at James Madison Academic Campus (JMAC), which is also part of the Milwaukee Community School Partnership. Sarah and Matt share success stories they have witnessed in their time at JMAC, what their days are like, and how they apply their own educational experience to their work with City Year.

Today we talk with Gabriella Allen, coordinator of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, program at La Casa de Esperanza in Waukesha. Gabriella shares information about multiple benefits that lower income families and individuals can take advantage of this tax season, including the EITC and free tax preparation services.

Who is the CEO of your bank? Do you know their name? Better yet, do you follow them on social media or see a commercial featuring them when you pay your bills?

The presidents and CEOs of major corporations tend to stay behind the scenes, running their business and not worrying about having one-on-one chats with customers through Twitter or goofing around in a commercial to promote giving to a good cause.

Greg Marcus, CEO of The Marcus Corporation, is different. Greg runs his own Twitter and Snapchat accounts (just follow @GregLovesMovies) and stars in the beloved annual United Way trailers, which play before each and every movie at Marcus Theaters during our fall campaign. You can even meet Greg and hear him play piano at Blu at The Pfister most Tuesdays!

For Greg, being CEO of The Marcus Corporation comes with a responsibility to his community. However, Greg says that it’s not just altruism that drives this charitable spirit… doing good is good for business. We chat about how he incentivizes Marcus employees to get involved during their annual United Way campaign, why supporting health and human services and the arts is so important, and the one moment in his philanthropic life that he will never forget.

Default Description for Episode

The motto for IT United, a United Way donor network group comprised of IT Professionals, is “connecting the dots.” Throughout the year, IT United members volunteer their time to put on an IT Career fair for college and high school students at UW-Milwaukee, as well as coordinating a variety of job shadow opportunities for these students to learn more about the IT field and connect with professionals. Katrina Hightower, a 25-year-old student at UW-Milwaukee studying Information Technology, saw the benefit of these connections when she found her dream internship with ManpowerGroup as a result of her volunteerism at the IT United Career Fair.

Think back to when you were thirteen years old. Were you secure, happy, and confident all the time? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably no. Thirteen is the average age when young women and men are forced or coerced into Human Trafficking. Traffickers look for people who are vulnerable; those who lack confidence in themselves and are looking for a protector-figure. Anyone can be a victim of human trafficking, regardless of gender, age, or socioeconomic status, and it happens in both urban and rural areas. In fact, the latest data shows human trafficking has become a $150 billion dollar industry worldwide.

Dana World-Patterson is chairperson for the Human Trafficking Taskforce of Greater Milwaukee and founder of Foundations for Freedom, and organization that “exists to strengthen women and girls, reduce their vulnerabilities and eradicate human trafficking, through education, awareness, advocacy and prevention.” Dana believes in starting education young and emphasizing confidence-building during in-school programming for students.

Laura Johnson is a Survivor Leader who works with the Taskforce by sharing her inspiring personal story with a variety of different groups. However, the last thing Laura wants is sympathy. Laura is triumphant and strong, and has found the courage to share her story through her work with Dana and the Human Trafficking Taskforce of Greater Milwaukee.

A year ago last October, Joey Papa and his wife Nikki lost a child, Canaan. For the entirety of her brief life, Canaan, though never formally diagnosed, dealt with innumerable medical complexities and was what one might describe as a child with “special needs.” In their grief, filmmaker Joey and his wife Nikki felt that Canaan had handed them a baton and that it was their turn to spread the word about their special daughter.

Imagine that you’re suffering from a chronic disease that affects your personal and professional life and your overall health including your sleep and diet. This disease is something that has an official diagnosis and can be treated with professional therapy and medication, however people in your community believe that you simply need to “think positively” or “turn your frown upside-down” to feel better. For the one out of every four people living with mental illness in our country, this scenario is often the reality. After a positive experience working through her own mental illness and, Libby Sinclair, a social worker living and working in Waukesha County, decided to expand her role in working with those affected in her community.

incredible story about losing her infant son, and how this tragic event spurred her passion for preventing infant mortality. Last August, as the episode aired, United Way celebrated the first-ever HaRUNbee 5k Walk/Run to Prevent Infant Mortality, which took place in Tonda’s own neighborhood of Harumbee.

From there, we covered topics ranging from homelessness to fatherhood to suicide prevention and addiction. We spoke with people of all ages, across our 4-county region, each of whom shared personal, emotional moments that changed their lives and shaped the work they do.

Living Local will take a break next week, but will be back with new content in 2017. To cap off the year, we wanted to share some of our favorite clips from the 2016 episodes. When we started the podcast, Brian McKaig, VP of Marketing & Communication here at United Way, told us to reach for those “driveway moments,” when you are listening to something so good, that you stay in your car to finish listening when you’ve already arrived home. These were those moments for us.