Milwaukee nonprofit organization City Forward Collective was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development for the recruitment, training and mentoring of 140 new teachers in the city.
The DWD’s Wisconsin Fast Forward grant will be used to expand the Emerging Educators program piloted by Milwaukee Public Schools. Through the program, paraprofessionals currently working in urban schools serving low-income students will complete degrees and teacher certification at either Alverno College or Viterbo University.
City Forward Collective, which launched in 2019 out of the merger of Milwaukee nonprofits Partners Advancing Values in Education (PAVE) and Schools That Can Milwaukee, provides support and resources for all school types, including district, charter and private.
“The Wisconsin Fast Forward program is investing in our teachers and our students,” said DWD secretary Caleb Frostman. “Wisconsin is facing unprecedented teacher shortages and these grants will help alleviate this issue in low-income and urban school districts where Wisconsin teacher shortages are most concerning.”
DWD also granted $500,000 to the Urban League of Greater Madison in support of a program that will recruit and train 32 newly licensed teachers in the Madison Metropolitan School District and Verona Area School District.
