Employ Milwaukee expands its reach, opens new resource center on city’s south side

Employ Milwaukee is expanding its reach. On Monday, May 23, 2022, there was a ribbon cutting for Employ Milwaukee’s new satellite location on the city’s south side.

“Well, Employ Milwaukee does provide a lot of resources and I feel it’s going to help us as clients learn more,” said Elizabeth Deja, a local mother.

For people like Deja, the new center could be a game-changer for all moms seeking opportunities in the workforce.

“It helped me with housing resources, mental health resources and everything down those lines,” she said.

The new location on 57th and Oklahoma puts Employ Milwaukee, a workforce development board, in partnership with Bellies and Babees, a local pregnancy care center.

“The people we really need to get into our programs, the people who need us the most were not the people coming into our doors,” said Chytania Brown, CEO of Employ Milwaukee.

“Having Employ Milwaukee here now will give us the extra boost, will give us more resume building skills, access to jobs and on-the-spot interviews,” added Melinda Wilcox, co-director of Bellies and Babees.

The new partnership comes as the nation sees an unemployment rate of about 3.6 percent. Wisconsin sits lower than that with 2.8 percent. Milwaukee County has a higher unemployment rate than both, at 4.3 percent.

Employ Milwaukee said this is a reason to keep working across the community.

“There’s always a story behind the numbers and when you go a little deeper, we still have those pockets of high unemployment for certain zip codes,” Brown said.

This site marks Employ Milwaukee’s third community- based extension of its workforce services and they plan to create more