Club Kids in Danger Saved, Inc., a Milwaukee-based nonprofit organization, is in need of a 10,000-square-foot commercial space where it can run after-school programs and offer recreational opportunities for inner city students.
The nonprofit is also in search of a residential space in the 53208 area where it can establish a satellite office to house its “Bag of Hope” Program, which equips underserved youth with necessities like soap, socks, shoes and toothpaste.
With these needs, the nonprofit, which launched in 2000 to provide Milwaukee kids a safe alternative to the streets, is reaching out to area businesses and philanthropists in hopes of securing donated spaces for its operations.
Club Kids in Danger Saved is currently headquartered at 4422 W. North Ave. in Milwaukee. Facing basement leakage and legal issues surrounding the current facility’s plumbing, however, the nonprofit will likely be evicted by early next year, according to Marcus Duke, executive director and the nonprofit’s sole employee.
The legal issues related to plumbing are no fault of the nonprofit organization but of the facility’s owner, Nick Buttitta Properties, Inc., Duke said.
The new 10,000-square-foot space that the organization is seeking will provide space for its tutoring and mentoring services, arts and crafts programming, and theater programming. It will also allow Club Kids in Danger Saved to host several events throughout the year in house, instead of having to rent outside venues for at least $1,000 per event.
The new facility would also dramatically expand the nonprofit’s capacity from serving 100 students per week to a projected 100 kids per day with after-school programming.
Duke hopes to open the new headquarters in Milwaukee sometime in 2014 under the name “Club Kids Student Center and Theater.”
“It would greatly enhance our ability to help thousands of kids a month stay safe from the city streets by giving them creative alternatives,” Duke said.
And it would ensure the organization could be self-sufficient moving forward, he said.
Once Club Kids in Danger Saved finds buildings to move into, it will partner with committed contractors as well as plumbing and electric unions to renovate and update the spaces.
Apart from donated buildings, the nonprofit is also open to financial support from area businesses and philanthropists to help purchase or lease needed spaces, according to Duke.
“Any path that we can get to (these buildings), we’ll take,” Duke said.
Since it opened, the nonprofit has relied on consistent financial and in-kind support from companies and organizations like the Brew City Bruisers; Hupy and Abraham, S.C.; BloodCenter of Wisconsin; Jake’s Deli; Palermo’s Pizza; Walgreens; C.J. Vitner Company; the Milwaukee Brewers; the Milwaukee Bucks; and the Urban Ecology Center.
For more information about Club Kids in Danger Saved or to assist with its search for new spaces, visit www.clubkids414.org.
