In Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood, vacant lots are turning into parks, community sheds are giving away free clothes, and rent-to-own homes are being leased to committed neighbors.
The homegrown leaders of Metcalfe Park have dedicated their lives to improving the community. Nothing can stop them from achieving their goal – not even their own home burning down.
“Nobody’s going to put me out of my neighborhood especially not no temporary person who’s using my community for drug location,” Danell Cross said.
Leading the charge is a mother-daughter duo.
“In the beginning, it was really hard to separate the mother-daughter from work, right,” Melody McCurtis said.
Melody is Danell’s daughter. They are the Deputy and Executive Directors of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges. It’s the neighborhood organization helping revitalize the community.
Add an army of volunteers and not many neighborhoods have ever seen such a commitment to improvement.
“Like everybody really takes care of each other. When I say take care of each other, I mean really take care of each other,” Kevin Autman said.