To provide Milwaukee's at-risk youth education, life skills and job training opportunities that allow them to earn wages while improving the community and the environment.
MCSC has played a central role in Milwaukee’s efforts to improve the economic self-sufficiency of disadvantaged youth by working to meet the needs of the community through visible and measurable community service. Our young men and women (corps members) are part of a very unique program where they have the opportunity to learn the education behind making their community a better place to live and also learn the skills necessary to help them implement their ideas in the real world.
We provide education and life skills through of our programs. Our youth experience half-day classroom and half-day project work. MCSC offers a multi-faceted education program with fieldwork experience that helps create a well-rounded, fully employable individual.
Our housing renovation and construction projects offer on-the-job training in rough and finish carpentry, roofing/siding/drywalling/weatherization and renewable technologies. Our environmental and community improvement projects offer the training and skills to empower youth in future workplace employment.
The Milwaukee Community Service Corps has its roots in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s. We are one of only ten urban youth corps in the nation providing at-risk youth the opportunity to learn new skills, earn a wage, acquire a driver’s license, serve their community, obtain a high school equivalency diploma, and prepare themselves for post-corps college or trade apprenticeships.
Today, we are a member of the Corps Network. Although we are descendents of the CCC, we are not a government-run or government-funded program. The Corps relies on many sources of funding:
Most individual and corporate donations go toward our educational programs, which tend to be underfunded by other sources.