53206 Cast

This week, Meg and Alex give a week 2 recap of what happened at the garden and the two talk through some highlights including the exciting opportunity to resolve conflict in the community. 

When doing any kind of advocacy work, it is easy to assume that everything will work in your favor or anyone with a similar set of values will see your vision and support the actions you take to make your vision a reality. However, that rarely happens. This week, Meg and Alex talk about unexpected adversity and how to think about instances when people you assume are on your side push back on what you are doing. 

It's garden season. This week, Meg and Alex recap week 1 at We Got This and talk about the muscle known as responsibility and how kids at We Got This get to grow that muscle throughout the summer. 

Correcting societal inequities is point of social justice work. One of the major inequities found in the inner city is the lack of financial capacity found here. This week, Meg and Alex talk about one pathway to building financial capacity in the neighborhood. 

The economic opportunities for the poor are few and far between. This week, Meg and Alex talk about one of those opportunities and talk about some of the factors that lead up to someone choosing to take advantage of that opportunity. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the power that perspective has when trying to understand what we see in the world around us. 

Solving complex problems requires a nuianced understanding of the problem. This week Meg and Alex talk about the psycology of the dumper and give a quick We Got This update. 

Sometimes in life, the opportunity to do good in the world stems from aggrivation around a circumstance. This week, Meg and Alex talk about how to spot opportunities to be the change hidden within circumstances you may not love. 

This week, Meg and Alex discuss differing viewpoints on solving the cities litter problem. 

This week, Meg and Alex give an update on what has been going on in the neighborhood. Specifically, the two talk about house fires and another recent instance of someone losing their home to a house fire. 

In life, things either get better or they get worse, but they rarely stay the same. This week, Meg and Alex talk about some of the new things happening at We Got This for the 2025 growing season. 

Dumping has been in the news a lot lately here in Milwaukee. This week, Meg and Alex talk about what someones option are when their property is dumped on and give some insights on the current response system that exists. 

What does it say about a neighborhood when it's treated like a garbage dump? This week, Meg and Alex discuss this and share on the topic of dumping, which is a common practice in inner city neighborhoods. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the mechanics and give a little history lesson around the purchase of their latest property. The two share about housing inequities and the injustice that exists in their neighborhood around housing values as well as what can happen when an out of state landlord buys a property they cannot manage. 

This week Meg and Alex talk about the transferring of problems in the tenant/landlord relationship and fixing broken furnaces. 

For those of us that are socially justice minded, it can be challenging sometimes to take that inclination and turn it into action. This week, Meg and Alex give some tips for going from calling to action. 

The news can be unsettling, unnerving, or even aggrivating. This week, Meg and Alex talk about a different way to think about calls to serving a community, state, or even a nation with the hope of funneling discomfort toward action. 

This week, Meg and Alex share an excerpt from the book Bad Neighborhoods. If you like the 53206 Cast, Bad Neighborhoods is similar in concept, but is more of a deep dive into the issues facing areas of concentrated poverty. The audio version of the book can be found on the Bad Neighborhoods podcast feed or by using this link: https://open.spotify.com/show/2U5tj17PnVr8uV52pDsDjB

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the added responsibility put onto residents in areas of concentrated poverty to keep the standard of living within their community at a baseline level.  Interested in checking out the book Bad Neighborhoods? Bad Neighborhood can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts or by clicking the link here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2U5tj17PnVr8uV52pDsDjB

In this episode of The 53206 Cast, Meg and Alex reflect on the complexities of making a positive impact in the community. They share their thoughts on a recent early morning hit-and-run accident that hit close to home, and how it underscores the nuiances within collective and individual responsibility. They also highlight an event at the We Got This Community Garden, where kids chose gifts for their parents or guardians—an effort to reward kids for their hard work in the summer. Join Meg and Alex as they explore how the path to transforming the world often weaves together moments of joy and difficulty.

  Memory updated The 53206 Cast: A Conversation with Andre Lee Ellis In this episode of The 53206 Cast, we're excited to welcome Andre Lee Ellis, founder of We Got This and the visionary leader of The Cage, a transformative initiative making a profound impact in the heart of Milwaukee. Andre shares his powerful journey of mentoring youth, building community, and addressing systemic inequities. Through his leadership of The Cage, he has created a space for empowerment, growth, and hope, offering life-changing opportunities to those most affected by societal challenges. Join us as we explore the vital work happening within 53206, the importance of local activism, and how we can all contribute to creating a more just and equitable world. Tune in for this inspiring conversation and learn more about the incredible stories and initiatives shaping 53206's future.

While being motivated by fear can by helpful sometimes, when we make everyday decisions about how we interact with the world, fear is one of the least useful tools we have. This week, Meg and Alex discuss how fear has impacted their neighborhood and offer some alternatives to a fear based approach. 

This week, Meg and Alex sit down with Jamie DeJesus. Jamie is a leader in the community helping facilitate the re-entry process for justice involved individuals through career training. You can find out more around the work Jamie does at www.iesinstitute.org.

Legacies are something we leave whether or not we do so intentionally or not. For a lot of us, we want to leave the world better than we wound it. This week on the podcast, Meg and Alex talk about legacies and give some thoughts on building the legacy you want to leave. 

This week Meg and Alex discuss the philosophy that everything is an opportunity to make the world the way you want it to be. 

Meg is out of town this week and we couldn't get a podcast in before she left so it seemed like a good opportunity to share a chapter of the book Bad Neighborhoods.

This week, Meg and Alex sit down with long time community activist Ajamou Butler. 

For over 10 years we have been trick or treating in the same neighborhood outside of ours. Each year, we leave the inner city along with 300 or so of our neighbors and drive roughly 3 miles to an affluent neighborhood just outside of the city. This week we discuss the changing climate of the city as it pertains to inclusiveness and the changes we have seen over the last decade. 

This week Meg an Alex share the first chapter of the book, Bad Neighborhoods, which is available to listen to for free on the Bad Neighborhoods podcast feed. 

This week Meg and Alex talk about a pretty cool opportuntiy Meg received from a well known flower farm and speak about the shifts in cultural awareness around how we view areas of concentrated poverty. 

This week Meg and Alex talk about what's been going on in the neighborhood and share a couple of stories of opportunities to be empathetic. 

It's easy to miss opportunities in life to help someone else on their journey. This week Meg and Alex talk about that dynamic and give an update on the book, Bad Neighborhoods. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the interconnectedness of life and it's implications on how we interact with tragedy. 

Each of us has the capacity to make a contribution to the world. This week Meg and Alex share some thoughts on how to figure out what your contibution could be. 

This week Meg and Alex talk through three things that help a school or an organization get the best out of the kids from their neighborhood. 

August 24th was the last Saturday at We Got This for the summer. Meg and Alex talk about the We Got This season finale and share some of the highlights from the summer. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about diversity and the choice to intentionally add to the diversity of a space. The two also give a We Got This update and talk about the organizations two biggest limiting factors. 

This week Meg and Alex talk about some of the basics around We Got This and some of the good problems happening in the organization. 

In areas of concentrated poverty, conflict is unavoidable and opportunities to be a positive contributor to the neighborhood are hard to find. This week, Meg and Alex talk about those things and give a mid summer We Got This update. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about a counter intuitive dynamic that exists in the inner city. While bad things happen sometimes, the good far outweighs the bad. 

This week, Meg and Alex give a We Got This update and talk about neighborhood revitalization. 

This week Meg and Alex break down week three at the garden and talk about how that work attempts to give kids something positive and productive to do which, in theory, keeps young people from making bad decisions. 

This week, Meg and Alex recap the first week of the We Got This season. 

Instances of violence are found more commonly in areas of concenrated poverty. This can be hard to understand for those of us unfamiliar with those spaces. This week, Meg and Alex talk about violence and how to position yourself to be a positive participant in change instead of removing or distancing yourself. 

It's Heal The Hood season in Milwaukee. This week Ajamou Butler joins the podcast to talk about the 12th annual Heal The Hood Event on May 25th.

How do you know if you are doing more harm than good or if you are unintentionally participating in something that damages a community. This week Meg and Alex talk about that and give a quick update on We Got This. 

Advancement can come in multiple forms. One way to approach advancement of a space is to commit to raising the floor, the base level or lowest form of a necessity. This week Meg and Alex talk about raising the floor on housing and share a story to better explain what the floor currently looks like. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk through a recent break-in at one of the rental properties. While break-ins are never fun, this one in particular had some interesting components and variables to it that are a great reminder that people are people too. 

This week, Bruce Kruger joins the podcast to discuss affordable housing and the journey that Whitefish Bay, a near northern suburb of Milwaukee is handling its desire to add affordable housing units to its housing stock.