FAQs

The Milwaukee Mosaic Partnerships Program engages approximately 200 individuals – 100 white, 100 individuals of color – in a nine-month journey to build trust, friendship and communication across the current divides.

Yes. The first Mosaic project was started in Rochester, N.Y., in 2002 to address race relation challenges in the city. Since that first project, Rochester has engaged in 3 phases and included 300 community leaders. The second community to adopt the program was Greensboro, N.C.

In Milwaukee, over 400  individuals – leaders within the community or their organization - accepted the invitation to participate in the first and second year of the Program.

The first year the Mosaic Advisory Committee, itself a diverse group, nominated over 250 individuals, who were invited to participate. 228 individuals responded and filled out an online survey, which helped provide information for them to be matched. The second year, many of the 218 participants were referred by people who had been through the Program in the 1 ^st year.

Rafael Acevedo, Cassandra Alston, Mayor Tom Barrett, Tina Chang, Gwen Dansby, Cristy Garcia-Thomas, Jeff Gauvin, Ralph Hollmon, Doug Holton, Doug Jansson, Rhonda Kelsey, Jeanette Mitchell, Janan Najeeb, Joan Prince, Kip Ritchie, Mark Sabljak, Paula Simon.

There are currently 21 funding partners, representing a wide array of private individuals, organizations and corporations. Many of the funders are already involved in many causes in the Milwaukee area. No public money is being spent to support this program. 

The goal, over the course of many years, is to build a cadre of community leaders who have bridged some of the racial divide in our area and are comfortable opening their networks to a wider group. 

There have been many well-intentioned projects in the past, all of which have contributed to some degree to our community. No one project will ever be the final answer, but Mosaic is meant to complement current efforts at community issue resolution by improving the level of communication at the leadership level of our area.

Mosaic’s goals are not to address specific issues, but to hopefully elevate the level of communication and trust among community leaders in order to more effectively address the issues in other forums.

The total amount of funding is close to $1 million dollars, of which the majority of funds are to be spent in the first year to train local staff and coaches in order to replicate the program for many years to come.

Mosaic is not a racial relations or diversity program. It is not a mentor program. Individuals participating are considered peer equals.

Partners meet with each other approximately ten times over a nine-month period. In addition, participant discussion groups (Cluster Group Gatherings) meet seven times during the same nine-moth period. Finally, all participants meet three times; at the Orientation, Mid-Year Event and Final Celebration.

After the nine-month program is complete, the best results should come from the experiences of partner pairs. Additionally, some cluster groups and partners have continued to meet to provide support around adopted programs and community initiatives.

This is a very unique program in that it concentrates on individuals, not institutions or organizations. Indeed, the Mosaic Partnerships is a two-by-two approach to addressing community programs.

A program of this type, pairing individuals of equal stature, has not been tried before in Milwaukee to this extent. We think this is the right approach at the right time for right now.

After the first three-year pilot program, presuming success measurements are achieved, it is likely that the funding organizations and individuals will want to continue the program for many years.

The program model is to partner community leaders, in order to create a mass of people who share a common set of values and assumptions and to maximize effective use of natural opinion leaders from the community and its groups. Because the community trusts these leaders, they influence others to accept or reject new ideas or changes.

Because this program is led, staffed, and coached by Milwaukee area leaders, the program is 100% local and the dividends – the partner experiences – will all remain in Milwaukee.  

The program will be constantly monitoring partner and Program progress, but will also include a three-year longitudinal study tracking partner pairs over the years.