Running with the Running Rebels

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Photo Credit: Tom Jenz

For 40 years, the Running Rebels organization has followed a consistent philosophy to develop young people’s potential and to reduce violence, drug use and gang activity through four guiding principles: 

1. Keeping young people involved in beneficial, safe, and fun recreational and employment activities.
2. Encouraging each youth’s hopes and dreams while supporting young persons to achieve them.
3. Underscoring successful academic achievement as essential for responsible adult citizenship.
4. Employing supportive, caring adults who inspire trust and model the values, skills, and morals that we want at-risk youth to develop.

These goals aim high, but the 60 year old founder and chairman, Victor Barnett, has spent four decades of his life consistently loyal to that philosophy by not only talking the talk, but remarkably, walking the walk. How does he do it? I met him in the offices of the Running Rebels building on West Capitol Drive. He is strong and fit with an optimism that draws you in, and he talks fast, his enthusiasm barely able to keep up.  

For 40 years, Running Rebels has been providing the resources and training for inner city teens to become thriving adults. Tell me about your own background.

I’m from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. When I was little, we kids always had older guys around to help us make better decisions, stay out of trouble. Early on, I decided I wanted to change the world, make the world a better place. In 1971, when I was in the 7th grade, my family relocated to Milwaukee. The four of us were pretty poor, and my stepfather came north to get good paying work.  

Where did your family live in Milwaukee?

We moved near Rufus King High School, 20th and Atkinson by the Atkinson Library. I went to Edison Middle School. Wasn’t long and a few of my friends were incarcerated for breaking the law. In the eighth grade, I decided that I wanted to do something to help boys from ending up in jail.  I made up my mind to start a youth program.

After I graduated from Rufus King High School, and I was about 19, I was working at the YMCA. It was 1980. Gangs were just getting started. I wanted to help. I took in 50 young brothers to keep them away from gang activity. I met with them every day at a nearby park and we played basketball. We called ourselves the Running Rebels after the famous all-Black UNLV basketball team. By the next year, we had 100 members. We only had one court. Some boys played basketball while others were doing exercises in the adjoining field. Others just talked. We bonded. They felt part of this strong brotherhood called the Running Rebels. We had good success keeping them out of gangs. 

Where were you working back then?

I got my degree from UW Madison in 1982. I worked at the VE Carter School on Vliet Street and at Greenfield High School.  

Were you married then?

No, I was married to Running Rebels. Besides my job, I did that youth program on the side. In 1995, after 15 years of doing Running Rebels as a volunteer, I got funding to work with young people in the juvenile justice system. We targeted young people who were in trouble with the law. It grew from there as I got more funding. I started with three full time staff, and today after 40 years, we have 120 full time staff members. Last year, we worked with 3,000 young people from seven Milwaukee Public Schools. We do preventive work, interventions, and a lot of community engagement. One of the first things was to get involved with Juneteenth Day. We participated in that parade for over 20 years. The goal was to get young Blacks introduced to their culture. Now Running Rebels has two locations, 1300 W. Fond du Lac in Lindsay Heights and on 225 W. Capitol Drive.  

Let’s discuss the culture of what’s happening in the central city and segregated Milwaukee. So many of the activist Black men I’ve interviewed are worried about the lack of fathers in the community. Something like 90% of families do not have a regular father figure or role model. The mother is left to raising the children. A difficult task, considering the influence of criminals and gang leaders in some neighborhoods.  

Fatherless homes is a tremendous problem. I grew up with a single mom so I knew how much she had to do to raise me and my sister, and she did a good job, worked a lot of hours, struggled. She died in 2010 of cancer. The part of me that learned to be a man came from Big Brothers, from mentors, from other men. If boys don’t get that kind of help, then they don’t have that guidance.  Another effect is the lack of hope. A lot of young people don’t think they will make it. I remember one boy told me, “I need to get my driver license cause I won’t be alive much longer.” At Running Rebels, we try to provide that light at the end of the tunnel. The two biggest problems that we see are lack of fathers and hopelessness.

Many school boys rarely encounter a Black man role model. Most MPS teachers are women, and a lot of central city women are heads of families. Men volunteers who speak at the schools tell me that the boys will gather around them just to be near an attentive man.      

There are so many missing fathers that if a caring male was around, he could message so much. I want these boys to call me a big brother because I don’t replace a father. Boys want that male influence but too often they don’t get that.

Too many boys turn to crime, car stealing, drug dealing.

Growing up, I had a paper route. I remember how proud I was to help Mom pay the bills. A lot of these so-called juvenile criminals are just trying to help their families. But that behavior is negative in the long run. The lack of love they don’t get, they find it in the gangs. Gangs will show you love, protection, those things the father would normally provide.  

Tell me how your staff works with young people.  

For the first 20 years, we worked only with males, but now we include females, too. Half the young people we work with in the seven MPS schools are female. We try to find youngsters that grew up in the central city because they face the difficult challenges. A lot of our staff grew up in Milwaukee, attended MPS schools. They know the challenges. I look at the game of basketball as an analogy of life and how we work. A mentoring tool. We have to assist each other, rebound, pass the ball, bond together to win games. We try to have a common goal in working with young people. We also work with those interested in music. The idea is to find a passion with these teens. We don’t dash their hopes. We want them to have goals.

One avenue I am exploring is how school kids can get interested in the trades, carpentry, electric, machine shop, plumbing—not everyone will be a rapper or an NBA star. And the trades offer good salaries.  

At Running Rebels, we try to create many opportunities in different fields, carpentry, computers, coding, video, hair stylists, culinary. First we find out what they are good at, what they like, and we pair them up with successful business people. We call it the Pipeline of Promise. I know a young man who likes to tinker with his mom’s car. We introduced him to the owner of an auto mechanic shop. Unfortunately, the trades are going away. Many older tradesmen we talk to tell us they wish they had someone to learn the business so that eventually the young guy would take over.  

How does the Pipeline to Promise work in practice?

Sometimes, we connect a young man to a business owner where the trainee shadows the veteran once a week. Sometimes, we get funding and the program allows the trainee to get paid, even up to 20 hours a week. Result is that he can eventually obtain the certification to get a job in the business world. But we also have young people who are entrepreneurs at heart. Examples are three men around 30 who got with us when they were teens. One man has a graphic design firm, another a thriving recording studio, a third is a successful videographer. Another guy formed his own landscaping company when nobody in his family had stayed out of jail. Our mission is to put hope back in lives.  

Running Rebels has a budget of over $5 million, the majority coming from government programs, but 20% comes in donations from private foundations and individuals. Over 80 percent of the budget goes directly into the youth programs.  

Victor, how about you?  Do you have a family?

Been married 15 years. My wife Dawn Barnett is now my partner, and she takes a leadership role in our work with girls. I have two daughters and a son. My son is 17, and he is very active in Running Rebels and mentoring younger kids. We call it the full circle. You go through our program, go out into life, and come back and help the next generation. One of my daughters is a senior at UWM, and the other works here. 

I know you have a lot of success stories. Is there one that stands out?

One of our success stories is Kevon Looney who plays for the Golden State Warriors. He achieved his dreams, graduate of Milwaukee Hamilton, scholarship to UCLA, 3 point student, then first round NBA draft pick. Two years ago, he did a great thing. He brought the whole Warriors basketball team to Hamilton High School for a pep rally. He still acts as a tutor for Running Rebels.