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“Last year in Milwaukee County alone we lost 668 individuals…that’s according to the medical examiner’s report,” said Tahira Malik with Samad’s House.

In a solemn display, 668 purple flags fluttered in the wind on Saturday, each representing a life lost to overdose in Milwaukee County this year.

International Overdose Awareness Day is Aug. 31, but on Thursday, Aug. 29, Milwaukee leaders gathered to stress the importance of raising awareness and promote overdose prevention.

City of Milwaukee officials on Thursday, Aug. 29, held a news conference to announce planned events for International Overdose Awareness Day.

August 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD), and the City of Milwaukee is utilizing that date to increase awareness with a series of events aimed at remembering those who have lost their lives to drug overdose, supporting families, friends, and survivors affected by the citywide crisis.

"It's to highlight the folks that we've lost, but also to highlight those that are there in recovery, to show folks that recovery is possible as well," said Amanda De Leon, with Community Medical Services.

The county’s Children, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) worked with the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute to review grant applications. De’Shawn Ewing, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute's Outreach and Engagement Manager, said the grant winners proposed “incredible projects that were quite varied.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, alongside Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, announced an $800,000 investment in the youth and families of Milwaukee County on Thursday.

At the Community Advocates building in downtown Milwaukee, six hometown organizations each received more than $100,000 in grant funding to further their mission of early childhood development both in Milwaukee and across the Badger State.

Crowley and the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute selected six local organizations to receive American Rescue Plan Act dollars to help boost eligible Milwaukee residents' access to resources across the community.

"Our mission in Milwaukee County -- by reaching racial equity, we'll become the healthiest county in the state of Wisconsin," Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said.

It’s a welcome sign when estimates place the US recovery community at tens of millions strong—and when harm reduction and recovery are sometimes characterized as opposing mindsets, rather than different points on a continuum.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has reinforced its backing of substance use prevention by awarding grants to various regional coordinators across the state, including Community Advocates, a group serving Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties.

At Samad's House and UMOS Inc., as well as a final event at Milwaukee Park, organizations offered Narcan — a nasal spray to reverse the effects of an overdose — as well as fentanyl test strip training and treatment and recovery options.

Milwaukee County ranks eighth in the nation for overdose deaths among large cities and counties. Advocates are working to change that, and their call to action is growing louder.

Addiction is a struggle many may believe they're facing alone, but on International Overdose Awareness Day, those impacted by drugs were welcomed with open arms by a strong, supportive community spread out across Milwaukee.

Attendees will be able to hang ribbons for loved ones, get trained in using Narcan, talk about their experiences at an open mic, receive grief counseling, and participate in a march to end overdose.

The RISE Drug Free MKE coalition and its collaborative partners are calling on the community to mark International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31 by uniting for support, commemorating lost loved ones, and accessing vital resources. The goal is to tackle the opioid crisis head-on and bring about lasting change.

"While rates are dropping for the general population, this community is still being targeted and it's still is an issue," Charlie Leonard [of the City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance] said. "This ordinance is a step toward reducing the impact and the targeting that's happening to my community."

The Stronger Families Milwaukee program is in its infancy but its goals are ambitious. It collaborates with agencies to make sure families that attract the attention of Milwaukee Child Protective Services get the help they need. Community Advocates Public Policy Institute launched the program in April under a five-year contract with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.

"We’re seeing an upward trend these past three years, and I know that we predicted that we’d still be on an upward trend and I know that this solidifies that data," said Alexandria Kohn of the Milwaukee County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

Today local and state health groups weighed in on the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rules to prohibit menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and the City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance support the FDA's proposed rules.

Mike Bare, the research and program coordinator for Community Advocates, said housing and health are linked. “You can draw a straight line from housing issues to suicides,” Bare said. “So what people might see as an individual housing problem becomes a public health issue and that becomes all of our problems.”

“We’re excited to bring back Light & Unite Red Week to support the health and wellbeing of Milwaukee County residents after two years of coping with a stressful and isolating pandemic,” Milwaukee Fire Chief and MCSAP Chair Aaron Lipski said.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson also explained about the City’s partnership with the Rental Housing Resource Center, and announced that Milwaukee Public Library branches would begin distributing informational materials to residents that explained the resources, education, and services available through MKE RHRC that could help prevent evictions and increase housing stability.

"We’re still averaging hundreds of referrals weekly, so much of the work we're doing right now relates to the need for financial rent assistance or energy assistance," said Deborah Heffner, housing strategy director for Community Advocates.

Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson called for a “holistic” approach to eliminating lead risks in Milwaukee. Often, the conversation focuses on replacing lead-based laterals, which connect homes to water mains, he said. [Subscription required to read story.]

To help voters make an informed choice, a virtual forum with six candidates who are on the primary election ballot was held.

During the forum, candidates were asked six questions addressing things like lead pipes, affordable housing, increased accessibility throughout the city and generating revenue for Milwaukee. In one of the questions, candidates were asked how they will address policing and the mental health crisis response in the city.

Organizers said the goal of the forum was for candidates to share their ideas with voters, not debate each other. One of the first questions proposed to candidates was what they plan to do to fight back against attacks on Milwaukeeans' ability to cast their votes in elections.

“For us, it has been absolutely devastating to see it come to nothing, and then, apparently, just sit on a shelf,” Community Advocates' Julie Kerksick said. “I just don’t know how many more times we can try to make the case.”

“This extreme need was not news to those of us who have been in the housing insecurity space for decades,” said Mike Bare, the research and program coordinator for Community Advocates. “The pandemic just shined a light on issues we’ve been discussing.”

“This is a pretty clear violation of parents’ constitutional rights,” says Mike Bare, research and program coordinator for Community Advocates, a Milwaukee-based social services organization. “The 14th Amendment guarantees due process."

“I really appreciate Don Utech and Jim Gaillard's sense of mission to provide a door for those who were previously incarcerated,” Community Advocates Public Policy Institute's Conor Williams said.

Mike Bare said that there is a need for legislation that would “provide incentives and make affordable housing development more viable in a number of ways.”

The event, hosted by the Milwaukee County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, helped put faces behind the grim tally of drug overdose victims, said Jeremy Triblett, prevention coordinator for Community Access to Recovery Services, or CARS.

Aug. 31. is a big day for drug overdose awareness, not only nationally but locally. Leaders are urging families and anyone who may have an addiction to take advantage of city's resources.

On International Overdose Awareness Day, Tuesday, Aug. 31, fatal drug overdoses remain an ongoing concern in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee County medical examiner said Tuesday that they are investigating two unrelated deaths of toddlers who each died of fentanyl overdoses.

MCSAP's Alexandria Kohn spoke with Homer Blow about the importance of paying attention to and discussing overdose in Milwaukee.

Mike Bare leads the Healthy Housing Initiative at Community Advocates, which provides rental assistance to Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. He said the extension is good news for everyone who is struggling to pay their rent because it covers all but a handful of Wisconsin counties.

An additional $25 million in rent assistance has been paid since June 2020 by Community Advocates, a nonprofit that also works with cash-strapped and low-income tenants. The agency has an additional $6 million on hand but estimates it will need about $80 million to meet the needs through September 2022, said Deb Heffner, Community Advocates housing strategy director.

Community Advocates Housing Strategy Director Deb Heffner discusses the support for tenants and landlords in Milwaukee County who are struggling to pay their bills.

"The overdose trend is alarming," said Alexandria Kohn, coordinator for the Milwaukee Area Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. The decade-old organization partners with area public health departments, hospitals and community clinics, emergency services, advocacy groups and nonprofits to prevent and reduce substance misuse in Milwaukee and its suburbs.

MCSAP's Alexandria Kohn said, "While we were in an opioid crisis before the pandemic, I think this has really shown our infrastructure couldn't handle the sheer amount of people who are needing substance abuse help and resources."

"It's disturbing to me how many evictions are still happening ... it's really scary," said Deb Heffner, housing strategy director at Community Advocates, a nonprofit that works with tenants. “There is this mistaken belief by many that you can’t get evicted.”

"It has to do with stress and it's an easy population to exploit. It can be challenging sometimes," said Charlie Leonard, Coalition Coordinator with City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance.

"I think we got to keep in mind we don't know the lasting impact of the pandemic and that we have to be aware and almost ready in case those cases go up of overdoses and use and misuse," MCSAP Coordinator Alexandria Kohn said.

Community Advocates' Julie Kerksick said: “This extra money could be the difference between keeping a roof over your head, putting gas in your car, being able to buy food.”

Parents could earn $3,600 for newborns to children aged 5, and $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17, Julie Kerksick, senior policy advocate at Community Advocates, explained. The child tax credit will be paid out on a monthly basis for the remaining of the year, she said.

“When individuals are left behind by labor market forces, it is not only a loss for them, but for all of us. We cannot afford to keep writing off the loss of human potential, when we face so many challenges as a nation and society. Sen. Van Hollen’s Long-Term Unemployment Elimination Act is a timely and urgent response to chronic unemployment that affects all parts of our country,” said Julie Kerksick, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

Over the last year, lives have changed dramatically. But Wisconsin's opioid crisis has not. In fact, it's gotten worse. PPI's Hannah Lepper participated in this TV and streaming special on opioid misuse and abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery.

Heffner said, you should receive rental assistance within 14 days of completing an application, and often tenants will get it sooner than that. Heffner added that once an application is completed, the landlord will be notified. This can help put your landlord at ease even if the aid will not arrive by the time your rent is due.

“There are still some concerns about what post-January will look like,” said Deborah Heffner, housing strategy director with Community Advocates’ Public Policy Institute. “But there are reasons to be hopeful.”

Housing Strategy Director at Community Advocates Deb Heffner says the eviction crisis is something Milwaukeeans have been struggling with for a long time even before the coronavirus pandemic.

Will a Joe Biden administration give new life to a jobs program to help the chronically unemployed? Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) hope so.

Riemer and Kerksick say that in order for a contemporary federal jobs program to be successful, it would be important that it closely match the experience that workers would have in any other job—with the main difference being that the government would be the one issuing paychecks.

With pay coming in less steadily, Pettigrew and his wife, Stephanie, fell behind on the rent. Eventually, they were many months late, and the couple's landlord filed to evict them. Then Pettigrew saw the rental assistance sign.

That the country’s top public health agency ordered the moratorium spotlights a message experts have preached for years without prompting major policy action: housing stability and health are intertwined.

Deb Heffner said that many landlords have provided tenants with information about the rent assistance programs and urged them to apply for help. "It's unbelievable how many households are not aware this even exists," Heffner said, referring to the rent assistance programs.

Mike Bare went onto say, “The danger of just delaying things is that there’s also a possibility of an increasing amount of debt a tenant might have, which is a more difficult hole for people to climb out of,” come December 31 of this year when the moratorium expires.

“Most federal assistance programs, both congressional and via executive actions, are set to expire by the end of the year,” Mike Bare said. “Lawmakers could help to prevent people from struggling with housing insecurity by making more assistance available for a longer period of time.”

"Please give us a call. We're here to help. That's our job," said Andi Elliott, CEO of Community Advocates. "We're here to make that bridge for you to make sure that you remain in stable housing."

“This new eviction moratorium is a helpful step for tenants facing evictions, but it’s an incomplete policy approach,” said Mike Bare, who leads the Healthy Housing Initiative at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

Bare pointed out that the order doesn’t identify or direct funds. “What’s really needed is immediate relief — rental assistance and emergency housing assistance,” he said. “A better solution would be a comprehensive approach by Congress, administered by state and local governments in partnership with stakeholders in the community.”

A U.S. Senate bill to create a long-term program of subsidized jobs for people put out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic has gained support from Milwaukee’s mayor and a collection of Wisconsin social welfare and workforce development organizations.

Mike Bare, research and program coordinator for Community Advocates, a nonprofit that works with low-income individuals in the Milwaukee area, says part of the problem is low-wage jobs.

"We have seen a tenfold increase in calls for assistance since the start of the pandemic," says Mike Bare, the head of the Healthy Housing Initiative at Community Advocates. "Just this week, we received 1,700 calls for help with housing."

The persistence of job shortages even in good times is, for Riemer, an argument for one of his longtime policy proposals to help bring more people into the labor force: a transitional jobs program. The bad times brought by COVID-19 makes such a program even more important, he says.

Most of the products purchased were cheap, flavored cigarillos. This type of tobacco product enjoys a lower tax rate than traditional cigarettes while still packing the same punch as a pack of cigarettes.

“The pandemic’s dual health and economic effects are obviously profound and have revealed the inadequacy of our public health system, the racial and class disparities that consistently lead to inequity in outcomes, the over-politicization of basic government functions, and a safety net stretched far too thin,” says Mike Bare, research and program coordinator at Community Advocates Public Policy Institute in Milwaukee.

David Riemer — a veteran Wisconsin policy architect who last year published Putting Government in Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0 — was among the people who worked with the letter’s authors to assemble the ideas it advances.

Community Advocates, a nonprofit that works with low-income individuals, has brought in "six new staff to be able to meet the demand," said Deb Heffner, the group's housing strategy director.

According to DWD Employment and Training Supervisor John Thomas, the “Home to Stay” events had been “gaining great momentum” prior to the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Thankfully, Thomas—along with Schuldt, Hruska, Community Advocates’ Conor Williams, and students and faculty from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), Marquette University, and UW-Milwaukee—has been able to quickly set up an online version of the “Home to Stay” program.

“We’ve been getting double the calls we normally get, sometimes triple, depending on the day,” Deb Heffner said. “All throughout the night people are calling and leaving voice messages, and rightfully so. It’s a scary time, people are worried.”

"Tuesday is certainly a day when landlords have an opportunity to start thinking about filing an eviction," Mike Bare, Director of the Healthy Housing Initiative with Community Advocates said. "We're about to see something close to double or triple or maybe even quadruple the amount of need we saw during the height of the Great Recession."

Community Advocates CEO Andi Elliott anticipates a flood of evictions because the moratorium meant to protect renters during the pandemic’s peak ends on May 26. Community Advocates and other local organizations have been working to soften the impact, but Elliott says it's critical that tenants reach out now for those resources.

Hiding in plain sight, the New Deal’s policies laid the foundation for much of the legislation Congress just passed to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic and revive the economy. The real question is: “What additions to the New Deal should be put in place to get us out of the fine mess we are falling into?”

Deb Heffner with Milwaukee organization Community Advocates says to not hide that you are in a financial crisis with your landlord. “We’re urging individuals and families who know that they’re not going to be able to make their rent to seek help now.”

Hundreds of thousands of workers are unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many have yet to receive unemployment insurance. Here are a number of resources you can use to prepare to get back into the workforce.

“When the moratorium ends we expect there to be a flood of eviction filings,” Bare says. “We expect there to be a crisis. With swift intervention a crisis of housing insecurity or homelessness is largely preventable.”

“Residents of Milwaukee and Wisconsin should have access to this information in a simple and timely way unless there is a clear and compelling reason why the public can’t be informed,” Riemer said. “People’s lives hang in the balance.”

The nonprofit will help renters find and determine eligibility for temporary financial assistance, said Deb Heffner, Community Advocates housing strategy director. It also provides services for landlords by helping arrange rent payment plans with tenants, she said.

If you can’t make your rent payment by April 1 because of a COVID-19-related reason, Deb Heffner, the strategic housing director at Community Advocates, said you should talk with your landlord about the changes to your income, and reach out to local organizations to try to get short-term assistance.

A new report from a Wisconsin research group connects the dots between a person's housing situation and his or her overall health.

Bad housing or no housing can lead to chronic stress, which is linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer, according to the report, which focuses on housing and health in the Milwaukee area.

“The policies may seem audacious, but many of these are just common sense,” CHA of Wisconsin's Langston Verdin said. “These are upstream policies that can prevent kids, and even adults, from ending up in the emergency department. To accomplish that you have to think big and introduce policies like the ones included in this report.”

We must insist on better policies that improve both housing and health and reduce long-standing racial and economic disparities, says Mike Bare, director of the Healthy Housing Initiative.

“It just struck us as time to stop putting Band-Aids on these problems, having only an emergency response, and instead, have a proactive policy agenda that could drive affordability, quality and stability,” Bare said.

A new report details 32 policies that local, state and federal government can pursue with private organizations and individuals to improve housing and health in the Milwaukee area.

All of those factors in housing — affordability, quality and stability for tenants — have a direct impact on people’s short- and long-term health, according to Mike Bare, research and program coordinator for the institute.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde and City of Milwaukee Alderman Nik Kovac have announced the members of the Milwaukee City-County Joint Taskforce on Climate and Economic Equity and scheduled the group’s first meeting for Nov. 11. Taskforce members include Julie Kersick of Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

Riemer believes it’s time to thoroughly update the New Deal. He’s written a book that comes out Thursday, Nov. 7, to advance his ideas: Putting Government in Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0.

A panel of experts in advocacy working in government affairs led the workshop answering questions and sharing experiences. Members of the panel included Kari Lerch, deputy director, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

As Riemer reminds us, without government (and the taxes that pay for it), streets would be unpaved and unploughed in winter and only the rich would enjoy police and fire protection. New Deal 3.0 includes many proposals to simplify taxes, constrain health care costs and reduce deficits.

In his new book “Putting Government in its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0,” David Riemer first looks backwards in order to imagine a better future. Riemer sees the New Deal (and the subsequent polices built on top of it) as enormous political accomplishments, but also argues that changes in our economy and flaws in the original design have created a series of policies unable to properly meet the economic realities Americans are facing.

Downtown Milwaukee is experiencing a “happy epidemic” of new public art. That’s according to Beth Weirick, the CEO of the downtown business improvement district, who emceed the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Mauricio Ramirez‘s new mural “Heart and Sol.” The 5,000-square-foot piece, Ramirez’s largest to date, is painted on the eastern side of non-profit housing assistance organization Community Advocates' building along N. 6th St. just north of W. Wisconsin Ave.

The name may sound silly, but the message behind the "Hold on to your Butt" campaign is very serious. Tuesday, the initiative kicked off, urging beachgoers to use trash bins and their new cigarette receptacles.

Hold On To Your Butt MKE organizers and supporters launched this initiative at Bradford Beach with a beach cleanup and press conference.

Topping the list of these deserving but overlooked job-seekers are community members who have been involved in the criminal justice system—an estimated 1.4 million individuals in Wisconsin—at the same time employers say there’s a labor shortage.

A cheeky campaign has launched in Milwaukee, part of a national effort to clean up our streets and beaches and encourage smokers to kick the habit.

PPI's Kari Lerch discussed the organization's efforts to prevent substance abuse throughout our community.

Mike Bare, research and program coordinator for the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, said resources can make the difference. "We make a tremendous investment when we incarcerate somebody, we should make an equal investment when they [get out]."

New this year are smoke-free stage areas. Smoking and vaping are banned. Tobacco-free advocates said Mexican Fiesta is the first festival to expand smoke-free areas to this extent.

It had been 18 years since 49-year-old Tommie Wright had seen Milwaukee. "It didn't look like this when I left," he said about the downtown area, shaking his head. He started looking for a job on June 18, the day he walked out of prison. Wright attended the Home to Stay Fair co-hosted by the Milwaukee Justice Community Council and the Department of Workforce Development on Wednesday at Employ Milwaukee. The fair hosted more than a dozen employers and resource providers, including Progressive Community Health Center, RITUS, 414Life, Hope Street, Community Advocates, Volunteers of America and Literary Services.

A local group is advocating for outdoor festivals in Milwaukee to go smoke-free. The City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance is hoping to make all festival grounds, like Summerfest, smoke-free. That means no cigarettes, cigars or vaping. "Reducing smoking at these outdoor festivals would go a long way in keeping our community healthier," Dr. Malika Siker, Associate Professor of Radiation/Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said.

Community advocates are ramping up their efforts to curb repeat crime by juveniles by helping program facilitators become resource coordinators for youths re-entering society from detention. Jeremy Triblett, a training and technical assistance coordinator from Community Advocates' Public Policy Institute, and Conor Williams, an economist and policy analyst for the Public Policy Institute, hosted the training session.

Kwabena Antoine Nixon, a poet, author and opening speaker, walked around the room and asked everyone to tag their selfies on Snapchat, Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #iseeyou in a show of solidarity.

An estimated 45,000 African Americans die each year from tobacco-related illnesses, according to the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network. While this number is in itself staggering, African American smokers are more than 10 times as likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than their white counterparts. How are these two statistics related?

"I think this didn't just happen overnight so there’s no silver bullet to change this issue. It's going to be continued years of work," said PPI Deputy Director Kari Lerch.

To show how effective transitional jobs are, MTJC hosted A Celebration of Transitional Jobs, in which they honored Eloise Anderson, Secretary of the State Department of Children and Families.

"Studies have found that a lot of youth don't know that they contain nicotine. They actually contain a different formulation of nicotine — they use salts — so it affects the brain differently," explains Anneke Mohr.

Tobacco ads aimed at Latino and African American children? A UW-Milwaukee researcher says it's a trend at corner stores and gas stations in certain zip codes.

Marquette and MCSAP placed a safe, secure drug drop box in the Marquette Police Station.

If you live in predominantly African American or Latinx neighborhoods in Milwaukee, your children are far more likely to be targeted by tobacco companies trying to turn them into smokers.

Circles of Support plans to work with anyone who has been released for at least 90 days. The circles will include two “circle keepers,” professionals who lead the circle, and community volunteers.

"We know that liquor stores and convenience stores can be a force for good. We're just trying to promote responsibility and accountability," said 53206 DFC's John Eshun.

Getting out of prison and facing the world can be tough. Community, religious and government organizations try to fill in the gaps by offering help with job training and housing, or transportation and mental health counseling.

The Milwaukee pilot — dubbed Healthy Workers, Healthy Wisconsin — is in its second year under a five-year grant from the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Richard Rothstein will be in Milwaukee to deliver the keynote speech at the 10-year-anniversary celebration for Community Advocates Public Policy Institute. Ahead of the event, he spoke with Lake Effect’s Joy Powers.

The package of Wisconsin bills that rushed from press conference to passage in a matter of weeks is the wrong direction.

To commemorate its first decade and outline the roadmap for the next ten years, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute hosted a special night at the Milwaukee Public Museum on April 26.

“No matter what’s being said in popular culture, marijuana use for youth is still very detrimental," said 53206 Drug-free Communities Coordinator, John Eshun. "It does affect your brain development.”

“If you’re not healthy, it’s difficult to work,” said Mike Bare, research director for Community Advocates’ Public Policy Institute in Milwaukee.

Features PPI's partners at UWM's Institute for Child and Family Well-Being who are raising awareness of childhood trauma's impact on workers. We're screening for trauma among transitional jobs workers and other Milwaukee job seekers.

During an event at Community Advocates in downtown Milwaukee, Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) said the plan promoted by House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans "rewards wealth" and "favors those at the top."

A tax plan that rewards work, that's the idea behind a tax reform effort from Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Cory Booker.

We want to bring our youth home so that they can receive comprehensive care in the community and change their lives for the better instead of being abused or exposed to abuse.

“I don’t encounter a lot of people literally turning down a job because it didn’t pay enough,” said Julie Kerksick, a senior policy advocate for Public Policy Institute of Community Advocates.

The event, organized by the MCSAP coalition at Kosciuszko Park, drew parents who lost children to overdose, friends and relatives of overdose victims and survivors, members of the drug treatment community.

“This is a choice that the state is making that the state doesn’t have to make,” said Michael Bare, research and program coordinator at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

Residents of North Side neighborhoods—predominantly comprising African Americans with lower incomes—have far more opportunities to buy tobacco products than residents of more affluent, white neighborhoods, such as the Upper East Side and the suburbs.

"It's dehumanizing," Jeff Roman said. "It doesn't work. We hope that we can lift up some of the research that says these practices don't work."

"Wisconsin’s outlier health coverage system already has large affordability and coverage gaps, and this waiver will create even more," said Mike Bare of Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

“The LGBTQ community smokes at roughly twice the rate of the general public due to a variety of factors including bar culture, coping with discrimination, and industry targeting," said Anneke Mohr of the City of MKE Tobacco-Free Alliance.

“The committee’s vote today is a slap in the face to the very communities these lawmakers were elected to represent and Rep. Gannon’s callous response demonstrates just how little he understands the issues facing our kids and our communities."

Advocates for the elderly, poor and disabled say big spending cuts and other changes proposed on the federal level for the Medicaid program are getting little attention, so they’re speaking out.

Julie Kerksick, with the Public Policy Institute in Milwaukee, said the fight against poverty is ongoing, but said the figure is an encouraging trend.

“It does help to hear people who are having success. In Milwaukee, we just don’t have the same kind of leadership fighting against youth incarceration that you see here,” Roman said.

Survivors of a potentially deadly addiction are delivering some sobering and hopefully live-saving advice to young people about drugs.

With heroin overdoses and marijuana use by youth at an all-time high, MCSAP and Neu-Life Development brought together more than 100 youth to provide them with positive messages and activities to educate and inspire them to stay away from drugs.

"We have traumatized our kids by locking them up in these old outdated and obsolete prisons," said Sharlen Moore, executive director of Urban Underground and a founding member of Youth Justice Milwaukee.

The lack of jobs in many cities, not just Milwaukee, has fueled unrest – including the violence last weekend in the Sherman Park neighborhood. Programs like those at Community Advocates are part of the effort.

Oversimplifying economic policy has become a norm for political candidates. There are a multitude of reasons economic policy succeeds or fails. One success, though, was Community Advocates Working Our Way Out of Poverty program.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced new legislation to expand transitional jobs and the earned income tax credit in an attempt to lower poverty nationwide.

The Drug Enforcement Agency co-hosted the Key Influencers Summit with the CADCA. The summit, with its key partners Safe & Sound and Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, focused on the growing opioid epidemic.

Associate professor of sociology, Patrick Sharkey, pointed directly to Milwaukee's New Hope Project as a means of curbing poverty. Community Advocates Public Policy Institute twice analyzed the project's effects if implemented on a large scale.

Subsidized or transitional job programs are smart investments that can be used as key tools to lower poverty rates and improve the next generation's chances for economic success.

This event was collaboratively hosted by the Milwaukee County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, the City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance, and the 27th Street West Drug-Free Communities Coalition.

Mike Bare, research and program coordinator for the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, said money for state worker benefits might have to compete more with other state interests.

The “devil is in the details” on whether a move to self-insurance would be good for Wisconsin, a UW-Madison School of Business professor says.

If the state were to self-insure, it would pay benefits directly and assume risk that could rise if a lot of people got sick. "That is one of the major risks that we've identified in moving to a self-insured model," said Mike Bare of the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

Bare said there was “healthy skepticism” at whether the state could pay for an increase in claims. “There could be a cost to taxpayers because of the risk assumed by [the state making benefit payments],” he said.

Mike Bare, research and program coordinator at the Community Advocates’ Public Policy Institute in Milwaukee, said the state is moving toward a “government takeover” of state worker health coverage.

Mike Bare, of our Effective ACA Implementation Project, authored this column in the WI State Journal urging the state to consider options for its state employee health plan which preserve competition and save money.

The re-mainstreaming of smoking among youth, whether an e-cigarette or traditional cigarette, is a huge step backward for everyone trying to maintain a healthy place to live for our families and ourselves.

“Transitional jobs” are one of the few public programs that effectively increase employment and promote economic mobility. Transitional jobs are short-term government subsidized jobs.

New Drug-Free Communities project seeks to prevent substance use by youth in Milwaukee’s high-need zip code, 53206.

Coming Together luncheon honored teens who were a part of gun violence prevention efforts in Milwaukee.

The mayor's office, city health department and Community Advocates Public Policy Institute are developing a framework to create a citywide plan, taking inspiration from similar models in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and other cities.

Heart of Canal Street, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino's charity program, selected the Youth Works MKE program as its "charity of choice" and will be donating $100,000 to the program.

The Youth Works MKE program is featured, and PPI's Kari Lerch is quoted about the program's implementation this past year.

The cost of health care in Madison is analyzed and compared to other counties in Wisconsin using information from a report published by PPI.

David Reimer, a senior fellow at PPI, examines the poverty rate from the time of the War on Poverty to current day, and has proposed a series of policies that if implemented would reduce the national poverty rate by at least 50 percent.

David Reimer, a senior fellow at PPI, is interviewed on the Joy Cardin Show about a policy package that would reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent or more.

David Reimer, Julie Kerksick, and Conor Williams of the Public Policy Institute are interviewed about the Working Our Way Out of Poverty Project.

The five policy directions of the Working Our Way Out of Poverty Project, a collaboration between PPI and the Urban Institute, are explained by PPI senior fellow David Reimer.