Following the completion of a 10-week bike repair program and the announcement of a summer internship initiative, Milwaukee’s Mobile Bike Hub has placed its interns on the ground to fix bikes in south side neighborhoods and learn critical workforce skills.
The Mobile Bike Hub, a project driven forward by the Layton Boulevard West Neighbors, selected area high school students Diana Gutierrez and Gabriel Manzanet for the internship program, which runs through the end of August.
The hub is working out of four different sites this summer, spending three weeks at each site with free bike repair services for residents in Silver City, Burnham Park and Layton Park neighborhoods.
Both Gutierrez and Manzanet devote four days and about 16 hours total each week to working for the hub and receive stipends thanks to funding from State Farm Insurance. While much of their attention is directed toward flat tires, seats and handlebars that need adjusting, and cables and pads that need replacing, they also have to juggle tasks like checking people in, babysitting area children that show up to the site, and teaching people about bike repairs.
“We thought (the internship) would be a great way for them to get involved in community work,” said Jorian Giorno, Mobile Bike Hub coordinator. “It’s very much an interface from the start of the day to the finish of the day…There’s a constant need to use your interpersonal skills and also multitask.”
Four of the interns’ weekly hours are spent in an office setting at LBWN’s Sacred Heart Center where they’re exposed to professional office work that includes data entry and graphic design.
The program is a good “baptism” for youth on the cusp of entering the working world, Giorno said.
Gutierrez, who will be a senior at Escuele Verde this school year, was drawn to the bike repair internship program so that she could learn how to fix bikes, including her own, she said.
After three and a half weeks on the job, she has found that she is able to help people who might not otherwise be able to get their bikes repaired and prepped for riding.
“I feel that not a lot of people have the resources to go get their bikes fixed at a shop, and it’s pretty expensive,” Gutierrez said.
“I like the fact of how we are giving back to people that actually need it,” she said.
So far this summer, the Mobile Bike Hub has fixed close to 150 bikes, exceeding the original goal it set to work on 100 bikes throughout the season. Giorno projects the hub will repair at least 250 bikes by the end of August as it continues to be a positive force on Milwaukee’s south side.
“We have a really young population here…That can both be a great thing or a really dangerous thing depending on what types of influences and options kids have as outlets for their time and their energy,”Giorno said. “So this is a really positive thing that has an impact way broader than getting people to come to the sites.”
“There’s a lot of downtime in the summer and idle hands, and so hopefully we’re contributing to getting kids active and doing positive things,” he said.
Additional support for the Mobile Bike Hub is provided by the Charles D. Jacobus Family Foundation.
