Listening to Milwaukee's Neighborhoods
Every neighborhood already knows something about its own water. The question is whether anyone's asked.
In 2022, Sweet Water partnered with the City of Milwaukee to sit down with residents in three Milwaukee neighborhoods that stormwater outreach has historically overlooked. What came out of those conversations is a simple, repeatable framework other organizations can use to do the same kind of listening in their own communities and it's free for anyone to download and adapt.
What We Did
Stormwater is just what it sounds like: the water left behind by rain, snow, and other storms. As it flows through neighborhoods toward our rivers, ponds, and lakes, it picks up trash, pet waste, chemicals, and other pollutants along the way. That pollution has real effects close to home. Lakes become greener and murkier, parks and community gathering spaces become less welcoming, and disease can spread more easily.
This project set out to make sure that neighborhoods historically left out of stormwater outreach, communities that are often the ones most affected by these problems, got a real seat at the table, with more inclusive and relevant educational content built around what residents actually told us.
Working with the City of Milwaukee and a group of neighborhood partners, we held four events between April and May 2022.
April 6: A Blue Green focus group with partner organizations. Five individuals and three facilitators took part. Representatives from Wisconsin Green Muslims, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Groundwork MKE, Milwaukee Water Commons, and Clean Wisconsin shared how they each approach community outreach.
April 23: A community clean up with North Westside Community Development Corporation in the Lincoln Creek area, with 30 participants. This is where we met community members and put Sweet Water's future events on their radar.
May 15: A "Clean Water, Clean Community" listening session at Solomon Community Temple, with 15 participants and 2 facilitators.
May 20: A listening session with Northside Rising in the Amani neighborhood, with 20 participants and 3 facilitators.
At the two listening sessions, residents heard a short presentation on stormwater pollution, then worked through an interactive activity naming the pollutants, barriers, and assets in their own neighborhood. They then marked which they saw as most prevalent.
What We Heard
Residents didn't hold back. Across all three neighborhoods, the same themes kept surfacing.
Pollutants residents named:
Plastic garbage
Lead
Dog waste
Cigarette butts
Discarded bottles
Plastics
What we learned about motivation and barriers:
Residents are highly motivated to be active agents of change. Northside residents in particular want more access to information on stormwater pollution and want to be more politically active, especially around conservation. The barrier isn't motivation, it's information. Residents don't know where to find environmental resources in the Milwaukee area, and the sheer number of different groups doing good work, while a good problem to have, adds to the confusion about where to turn for reliable, institutional knowledge.
Food wrappers
Face masks
Pesticides
Yard waste, including leaves, grass clippings
Degrading or insufficient infrastructure
Project Recommendations
Based on what residents told us, our recommendation is an easily accessible, comprehensive online destination where residents can find resources, information, and tools to actively address stormwater pollution, including:
Monthly flyers or newsletters
A website with links to articles, agencies, and where to find items like rain barrels
Regular community clean ups
Enhancing and expanding Sweet Water's Adopt Your Drain program
We believe these steps give residents the information they're already asking for, and help address stormwater pollution at a larger scale.
Partners in this Work
Thank you to our partners and the many active community members who contributed to this work!
Clean Wisconsin
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
Groundwork MKE
Wisconsin Green Muslims
Solomon Community Temple
Northside Rising
Valerie Ricks
Kathrine Goray
North Westside Community Development Corporation
Nearby Nature
AmeriCorps
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Masters of Sustainable Peacebuilding program
City of Milwaukee
Huge THANK YOU to Our Funders
