BUILD Sherman Park

ABOUT

Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood, long associated with the systemic inequities its residents experience, is poised for rebirth. BUILD Sherman Park will advance a community-driven process to implement The Blueprint For Peace, Milwaukee’s public health approach to violence prevention. BUILD Sherman Park focuses on empowering Sherman Park’s residents, fostering safe, strong neighborhoods, as well as strengthening capacity, coordination, and collaboration for health and safety. Our vision is that as residents increase access to and utilization of the neighborhood’s natural and built environment, community and health resources, community and government leadership, and healing activities, individual and community resilience will increase. The result will be a reduction of violence and health inequities.

Health Equity

In addition to community violence, Sherman Park copes with high incarceration rates, under-performing schools, inadequate transit, and housing insecurity. Through a community-led microgrant process, BUILD Sherman Park will invest financial resources to improve the neighborhood’s social and build environment, while also investing financial resources into Sherman Park’s human capital to realize the shared vision of a healthy, safe, and prosperous Sherman Park community.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

BUILD Sherman Park fundamentally changes how Sherman Park’s key stakeholders – residents, health systems, government and community-based organizations – collaborate to address the structural elements which create poor health outcomes and fuel violence. BUILD Sherman Park will provide all communities with a roadmap for how a collaborative public health approach can prevent community violence and promote neighborhood well-being in high-need urban areas.

Upstream

BUILD Sherman Park will impact health equity by targeting the area’s social determinants of health related to violence prevention; increasing access to services and resources; increasing capacity of the built environment to generate positive impacts to health and well-being; and by building resident leadership capacity. In the long-term, these protective factors will improve health and economic well-being, prevent violence, and restore Sherman Park’s status as a premier Milwaukee neighborhood.

Integrated

BUILD Sherman Park unites representatives from each partner organization with Sherman Park’s residents and community stakeholders. Together, through Collective Impact, they’ll devise community-building and violence prevention strategies and tactics, measure and monitor progress, and align community resources to maximize impact.

Local

Through Resident Advisory and Steering Committees, Sherman Park residents will provide executive governance and leadership within each stage of BUILD Sherman Park. Residents will have access to community improvement micro grants, and to capacity-building trainings so they can further develop the leadership and advocacy skills needed to realize the shared vision of a healthy, safe, and prosperous Sherman Park community.

Data-Driven

Our overarching strategy guide, the Blueprint for Peace, is the culmination of a year-long process of data collection, community engagement, and analysis. It reflects the shared experiences, aspirations, and vision of 1,500 community residents and stakeholders from Milwaukee’s public health, government, business, and social service sectors. Using the Cardiff Model, BUILD Sherman Park will map emergency room and physical violence data to guide resident advocacy and 414LIFE team of violence interrupters.