The New State Resource Fair Recap
A day of community engagement and support, public health awareness & fun! Rewatch the livestream here.
This month The New State partnered with a number of local public schools, organizations, and healthcare professionals, to put on a Public Health Resource Fair & School Supply Giveaway — a day centered focused on community education and support. The event was an indoor and outdoor festival that invited the Milwaukee community to participate in a day of community engagement that was both fun and informative.
The event began with a panel discussion, hosted by Demonte Dismuke (SaintA), and featuring notable figures across the Milwaukee arts and justice communities. The panel featured David Crowley (Milwaukee County Executive), Kenneth Ginlack (Director of Outpatient Programs with MKE County BHD), Shannon Ross (The Community - Executive Director), Dominee Meek (Juvenile Justice Reform), Baby Shade (Artist), Ja Lotto (Artist), Tearman Spencer (Milwaukee City Attorney), Ray Nitti (Urban Underground Alum & The Corridor Development).
The panel discussion was followed by the distribution of school supplies for students preparing to start the upcoming school year, and the day culminated with musical performances by a number of local up-and-coming musical artists. We reached out to The New State to hear their thoughts on the event, and you can read what they had to say and view photos from the event below.
"I feel this event was a great success. Everything that we wanted to accomplish with this event — we did; school supply giveaway, partnership with public schools, partnerships with other local organizations, partnering with healthcare professionals and establishments, having an honest discussion internalizing where Milwaukee is as far as public health, creating a platform for artists to showcase talents and practice on a professional stage, supporting local vendors, provided information for resources available in Milwaukee and how to access it, captured the performances for the artists to have professional content to use, and hosted the panel discussion that will live online for others to watch and think about our city's Public Health and how they can get involved to better Milwaukee as a whole.
One hour was certainly not enough time to develop strategies and plans, however this proved that when people come together and think about our surroundings we all can see similar issues from many different perspectives. And once we all agree that there are these underlying issues, we can work together on repairing what may be broken within our communities and existing policies. It's really exciting for me to have experienced this, and I'm looking forward to an ongoing conversation through future events and panels".
"I must admit we took a page out of Near West Side Partners 3 day virtual symposium event led by their Executive Director Keith Stanley earlier this year. At that event they really brought the community together to discuss the current state of the neighborhoods, and what the collective thought was necessary to improve the community in which they live. Breakout sessions, and 3 days of interaction produced an action plan/road map that can be a guide for the future on what should be the focus as the community continues to develop and build forward".
"For us, The New State, this event was really a first conversation in hopes of taking similar steps — and that's why it was so important for us to get the individuals we did on the panel. Learning from Milwaukee residents, artists, government officials, community leaders, other organizations on challenges we face as a City, and how to navigate to plan and make change for the better for our future generations. Other than that it was a fun time, and felt really good to give back".
Thank you, The New State.
Watch the panel discussion here.
