Milwaukee native Andre Lee Ellis is the founder of We Got This. The organization helps improve the lives of young black men through gardening on a city-provided lot at the corner of Ninth and Ring streets, and by mentoring to help instill pride in their community and themselves. By the end of this summer, We Got This expects up to 350 black youth to take part in the program. Off the Cuff sat down with Lee Ellis to learn more.
What inspired you to begin this organization?
In June of 2014, a mother frantically knocked at my door and the police were going to arrest her 11-year-old son for breaking into cars and stealing things out of houses and stuff like that. So she knocked on my door because she didn’t want that to happen and I thought it was ridiculous too. It was a lot of that going on and I wanted to combat it. I asked where his father was, she said his father’s not in his life. And I said, “Oh, we got this,” out of frustration. I came downstairs and I said, “Let me go over to the police station and talk to the officers.” I went over there and I made up a Christian lie, a good godly lie. I said, “You caught him at a time that I’m starting my new program.” I hadn’t started it. “So he’s my first person that’s going to work with me in the garden, I’m going to teach him how to grow his own food, how to clean the neighborhood. Can we try that before we give him a record?” And they said “Yes but before we do we’ve got to get a clearance from the captain. What’s the name of your organization?” And I didn’t know what else to say, so I said We Got This.
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We Got This is a garden project that hires young black boys between the ages of 12 to 16 on Saturdays during the summer months while school is out, June through August. The boys work four hours a day and they’re given a stipend of $20 just to help them along the way. It’s not a jobs program, because that puts us in another category politically and tax wise. We teach them how to grow their own food and we clean the streets. But more than that their pride and confidence level is raised because a lot of them don’t know their fathers, so they haven’t had any interaction with a black man necessarily, just mostly women.
From there, how did the program grow?
When I started with Jermaine I paid him $20 myself. When I saw him later that day, he was dressed up nice and clean. I almost didn’t know who he was! He had a fresh haircut. I said “Jermaine, what are you doing?” He said, “I finally got to go skating, Mr. Andre. I used $5 to get there and back on the bus, another $5 to pay to get in and rent my skates, $5 for my haircut and I’m going to spend the other $5 on a hot dog and a soda.” I’ll tell you this, I don’t know if Jermaine turned out perfect, but we haven’t heard anything else about him breaking into garages. And you know what else I found out? That Jermaine’s last report card was a two-point-something. And you’re looking at a little boy who was always a point-zero.
He showed up the next Saturday with five more boys that wanted to get paid. I didn’t have the money. So I took a picture and put a post on Facebook and I asked five black men if they would come and help me pay these eager black boys that wanted to do something honest to make a living. And by 12 p.m., seven men showed up. Then next week, 10 boys showed up at my house; then 15. Then it jumped to 34; then it jumped to 54. Let me tell you what happened by the third week. We had black men, black women, white men, white women. Every Saturday, no matter how many boys showed up, we’d take a picture, we’d put a post on Facebook, and by 12 p.m. we had just as many people to come pay. We’re going into our third year, and every Saturday whether we have 100 boys or what and we’ve never had a Saturday where we didn’t have the money by noon to pay them.
How do you help the kids gain hope and foster positivity?
One way I get to help a young black boy know how important and valuable he is to life is not by telling him how bad he is, but telling him how great he can become. I tell black boys to negotiate your value, not your fear. Cause that will make you put a gun up. You don’t want to go to jail or die. You’re valuable, in a good way. Isn’t that cool to learn?
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Who are other adult role models who have worked with the kids and how have they impacted them?
Khalil Colman, is a great role model working here. He has his own business for working with the kids. He’s young, he’s 29 years old, but he has great words of wisdom and a heart for the young people. Another person I’d really like to mention is Muhibb Dyer. He’s a known spoken word artist but he also has a program called “I will not die young.”
Also Trevis Hardman, who is 23 years old. Honestly I don’t know what I’d do without Trevis. When I first moved over here, in the first week, I looked out the window and Trevis and another gentleman were cleaning the streets. So I came out of the house with two $10 bills and said, ‘I just want to give you guys this for cleaning up our neighborhood.’ This was way before We Got This started. I just really appreciated the responsibility and the accountability this young man takes. Trevis has his own lawn service now and recently he’s been bringing bike repair to the garden. He recently collaborated with a couple of entities here that are donating bikes to him and he’s going to bring them here where he teaches the young boys how to fix their bikes and ride them, and how to hotrod them and how to make them look good and fun. His thing is that, ‘If I can put more kids on their own bicycles that are theirs, they’ll be less likely to ride in a stolen car.’
Why is instilling positivity, responsibility and community in youth important everywhere, but specifically in Milwaukee?
Well, if someone didn’t instill it in you, where would you be today? Without that, how could you be a happy human being? Children did nothing. Two people got together and had sex and out of that a child was born. How dare we not nurture and care for that child. If a race of people has been kept down for so long that their pride level and everything is low, and they’re walking around looking at the ground and not feeling good, how can they go on? So you have to instill what I’m talking about. It’s only right.
For more information about the organization as well as its annual Black Tuxedo Event, contact Lee Ellis at 414-779-2476 or visit wegotthismke.com.
