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Success Stories

Community Advocates serves 65,000 vulnerable Milwaukee residents a year. Learn how these individuals achieved success.

We're grateful to be recognized in the "Diamonds and Discoveries" section of the Milwaukee Community Journal on December 7. Community Advocates CEO Andi Elliott discussed her career journey from student intern at UWM School of Social Work to CEO of the organization.

Karen Delvecchio volunteered to lead a redesign of a room at the Milwaukee Women’s Center Emergency Shelter. The shelter is home to a steady stream of adults and kids who have survived domestic violence or homelessness, and each room must withstand a good amount of wear and tear over time.

Community Advocates' property tax foreclosure prevention program helps homeowners in Milwaukee who fell behind on their property tax payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shamara works in the WI Housing Support Services Program at Community Advocates to help tenants find resources for their housing.

Through the groups and while working with her counselor from the Milwaukee Women's Center's POWER program, April learned new ways to cope with stress and to stay clean and sober. "I use a lot of coping skills and they help a lot with my triggers to marijuana and getting through things," April says. "I know that life isn’t an easy ride and to have my mind set on what I want to do with my life."

Lynn was admitted into the Milwaukee Women’s Center’s emergency shelter after enduring verbal, emotional, economic, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of her spouse of 15 years. The last incident caused her so much pain that she decided to leave for good, even though her spouse had control of their finances and did not allow Lynn to have any money.

“I’m not a conventional artist,” Willis explained. “People like my work because it’s different from what has been shown all the time, I guess. I have to be different. I have no other choice.”

Isabelle was at her wits’ end. She and her husband had just called it quits. On top of that, he left her with an outstanding We Energies bill in his name. She agreed to take over the balance, but had no success putting the bill in her name. “I was in a hole and only saw the dark,” she said.

Jim Liedtke, who is enrolled in our Project Bridge program and also serves on our board of directors, says Community Advocates' work is truly life-altering. “Community Advocates itself, its mission, is changing the fabric of society,” Liedtke said. “It’s changing the way people think. It’s amazing.”