Photo via Holton Youth and Family Center website
Riverwest looked much different in 1986 than it does today. That’s the year Mario Costantini, chair of the Holton Youth and Family Center board of directors and his wife, Cathy Costantini, moved to the neighborhood.
“At that time, this (Riverwest) was a really bad neighborhood,” Costantini says. “There were two gangs that were in the neighborhood and everybody was fleeing Riverwest. It was not called Riverwest at the time. People referred to it as the ghetto.”
Businesses were leaving the area, and police officers admitted that it was difficult to be at every corner to monitor crime. However, rather than leaving, Costantini wanted to get to the root of the problem and help improve the community. He began to reach out to organizations in Milwaukee, asking them if they’d come to help in Riverwest. “Everybody said, ‘Gee, we know there's nothing there, we know that there's a big void there for those services, but we can't do it.’ And so I decided that perhaps what would work is if we opened an independent youth center, but with the help of other agencies,” he says.
The Beginning of the Holton Youth and Family Center
He called organizations again, proposing his idea, and asked if they’d be a part of the founding board members. The majority of people said yes. “Most of the crime that was committed was by either gangs or younger, you know, teenagers, so we decided to open up the whole youth center, the group of us in 1988, and then we opened in ‘89,” Costantini recalls.
The board was able to convince the police chief at that time, Philip Arreola, to join. Costantini says Arreola truly understood the importance of prevention rather than dealing with the aftermath of problems.
Costantini remembers a groundbreaking fact that Arreola said at their first board meeting in 1989. “He (Arreola) said, ‘Every time we have a shooting in this neighborhood or any place in the city, it's costing Milwaukee taxpayers an average of 400,000 dollars per shooting,’” Costantini says. “So we were all like, ‘Really? 400,000 dollars?’ and he said, ‘Yes, live or die.’”
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That’s when Costantini realized the true cost of detectives, police officers, judges, jail time, hospitals and more. “That was kind of a eureka moment for many of us on the board,” he explains. “Like, wow, you know, prevention makes so much more sense than the alternative.”
The Holton Youth and Family Center (510 E Burleigh St.) began as a drop-in center where youth could come to play sports and work on their homework with a community that cared about their success and wellbeing, rather than spending time out on the streets. The norm was to be a part of a gang for acceptance and protection. The HYFC served as a place working to change that, and began to do so by engaging in thorough community outreach.
“One of the things we did is hired guys who had been in the gangs before, and they were very experienced in that world,” Costantini says. “And so at the table, we had those two different worlds of the police department and ex gang members.”
The HYFC regularly held meetings to ask the neighborhood what they needed. While there were many things that the center could not possibly do all at once, they knew they wanted to focus on working with kids, narrowing in on the root of issues in the community like drug-use, teen pregnancy, incarceration, etc. Then, they worked on getting the word out. “We had people who were from the community, from the neighborhood, who were able to go door to door and knock on doors and say, ‘We're having these programs and you can bring your children there and we will feed them and they can come after school and we'll help them with their homework,’ and, you know, all those kinds of things.”
Over the past 30 years, Costantini has watched as the HYFC’s efforts have had a significant impact on Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods. He said that at any given day, there would be up to 150 kids inside. The center went on to offer more structured programs like karate and dance classes and more youth development programs. “We were very successful during 30 years in getting rid of the gangs, reducing youth violence, keeping kids in school, reducing teen pregnancy, increasing residential and commercial development and helping to restore the Riverwest neighborhood,” Costantini says.
Now, Costantini says that the needs of the area are evolving, so HYFC is evolving with it. “We believe that there is presently a desperate need to identify and treat children with mental health and trauma issues (PTSD) in our neighborhood and in our city,” he explains. “Treating these children effectively has a positive impact on the child, the child’s family, the teachers and the city for years to come.”
New Management to Better Serve the Community
The HYFC board interviewed possible prospects to take over managing the building in order to adapt to the community’s needs. They decided on turning management over to Christian Family Solutions, a not-for-profit organization focused on “healing and helping people in need through the ministry of Jesus Christ” and creator of the STRONG Program.
Costantini said that as he reached out to schools that CFS has worked with in the past, he heard only positive things about the organization. “Accordingly, we have turned over the operations of our youth center for the next five years to the wonderful people from the STRONG program,” Costantini says. “The Holton Youth Center will now become the new Strong Center.”
STRONG, Milwaukee’s only in-person day treatment program for children ages 5-14, stands for Successfully Treating and Reaching Our Next Generation. The program was previously located at St. Marcus North Campus, a school in Milwaukee. St. Marcus helped the program connect with Costantini. “It is a beautiful, spacious building,” Dr. Ashley Schoof, director of STRONG and southeast Wisconsin clinical director for Christian Family Solutions, says of HYFC. “We will have much more room to do specific types of programming, such as play therapy and art therapy. The groups that are currently using the center on weekends and evenings can still use the space. We are able to partner with other groups that would like to use the space. This will really make the center a positive part of the community. The building will remain a hub for positive activity for kids and families – just as a community center should be.”
Costantini admits that he is not an expert in mental health and wants the HYFC to have the resources that are, another reason why the STRONG Program moving into the building is important to him. “Now, we’re just landlords, really,” Costantini says. “Now, we're turning everything over to them. You know, the keys over to them. And we want them to make a decision as to what programs will be in the building, what the building would look like and anything else they want to do.”
Schoof says that with the larger space, they will be able to treat more children, which is an ever-present need in the community. “The mental health issues we see in children are not going away. If anything, they are increasing in number and acuity,” Schoof says. “We’ll be ready to intervene, so more children have a real chance to stay in school, build positive relationships and contribute to their communities with a sense of purpose. The work that we do in this building will have ripple effects into homes and schools and the community as a whole for years to come.”
Currently, CFS is moving into the building and renovating the space. According to a press release, there will be an open house event in January where more information will be revealed. Questions can be directed to CFS at 800-438-1772.
“The Holton Youth and Family Center is a familiar landmark in the community. Kids and families will feel comfortable coming here,” Schoof says. “The center will continue to be a resource for building stronger kids, stronger families and a stronger community.”
