MCW’s Dr. Staci Young helping advance efforts launched in 2019 to address health equity, economic well-being in Milwaukee neighborhoods
A historic building on N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near three of Milwaukee’s iconic neighborhoods, Harambee, Halyard Park and Brewers Hill, will soon be home to a unique effort designed to address the health equity and economic well-being of residents in surrounding neighborhoods.
The ThriveOn Collaboration, composed of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), and Royal Capital, continues to move forward with construction to renovate the former Gimbels-Schuster’s Department Store building located at 2153 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The building itself is known as ThriveOn King.
ThriveOn Collaboration is committed to improving racial, health, economic and social disparities throughout Milwaukee by addressing five priority areas that include housing, early childhood education, health and wellness, social cohesion, and economic opportunity.
The ThriveOn King location will serve as ThriveOn Collaboration’s initial hub of activity, providing office space for Medical College of Wisconsin researchers and program directors as well as the headquarters of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.
The first floor is dedicated to serving community and will feature gathering spaces, healthy food options and a range of resources aligned with resident priorities. JobsWork MKE, a local nonprofit that helps community residents achieve sustainable employment while strengthening neighborhood economies, will be relocating to ThriveOn King as a tenant partner. Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin will also open a 3,500-square-foot facility in the building. Malaika Early Learning Center will operate a second site from the location.
“For the residents who live in proximity to that highly used corridor of King Drive, there’s a sense of anticipation and excitement knowing that this big building that’s been covered up for years is being renovated and uncovered to be home to something that’s new in the community,” said Staci Young, PhD., who was recently appointed by MCW as Director for Community Engagement, Senior Associate Dean for Community Engagement, and the inaugural
Raising Awareness of ThriveOn Since 2019
Dr. Young is also professor of Family and Community Medicine and Director of the Center for Healthy Communities and Research at MCW. Her work at MCW has focused on examining the structural causes of health disparities and their effects on historically marginalized populations. Her most recent work focuses on healthcare delivery among free and charitable clinics, the effects of racism and residential segregation on cancer survivorship, and exposure to violence and housing access for women in street-based sex work.
While the opening of ThriveOn King is slated for the first half of 2024, outreach to the community has been taking place since 2019 when the ThriveOn Collaboration was first announced. Community engagement teams from the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation have been collaborating to engage local residents and identify neighborhood priorities that address health equity and economic well-being.
The ThriveOn Collaboration will continue to implement processes to ensure that residents in the Halyard Park, Brewers Hill and Harambee neighborhoods will be at the center of developing services and programming that are tailored to meet their immediate needs.
Focus on the Arts, Small Business
Efforts to implement feedback from the community include a focus on the arts and identifying Milwaukee artists open to having their work displayed within the ThriveOn King building. Resident engagement has informed a range of investments and collaborations, including a loan program to support small businesses, ongoing grant cycles to support the work of neighborhood-serving nonprofits, and most importantly, identifying priorities for the building’s first floor.
“Now is an opportunity to be inclusive and innovative,” Young said. “This is a multiprong approach to addressing and engaging in different needs within the community.”
Residential housing is also being planned for the ThriveOn King building; a component expected to make it an even stronger anchor in the community.
“There has been and continues to be a very intentional effort to engage the community,” Young said. “We want this to be a welcoming environment, we want people to feel they’re a part of the ThriveOn Collaboration.”
Now is an opportunity to be inclusive and innovative. This is a multiprong approach to addressing and engaging in different needs within the community.
-Staci Young