Milwaukee County’s goal is to enrich your life by providing essential services that meet your needs and those of your family, neighbors, co-workers and friends.
We enhance the quality of life in Milwaukee County through great public service.
Milwaukee County is home to over 950,000 people living in one of 19 communities, which range in size from the City of Milwaukee, with 595,000 residents, to the Village of River Hills, with roughly 1,600 residents.
Still a manufacturing stronghold, the region features 16 Fortune 1000 companies and thousands of others in the financial services, medical device, hospitality and retailing industries.
Find information about things to do and happenings in Milwaukee County.
The Advance Peace model is a violence interruption model that invests in the development, health, and well-being of people at the center of gun violence in urban communities. Advance Peace engages the small number of individuals at the center of gun violence in one-on-one, personalized fellowships to build new opportunities and break the cycle.
The program’s “7 Daily Touch Points” will provide developmental and healing resources and uplift community voice. This intervention will reduce cyclical and retaliation violence, reduce firearm-related deaths, and reduce violence rates and the cost of firearm homicides.
The centerpiece of Advance Peace is a high-touch and personalized 18-month Peacemaker Fellowship®. The Peacemaker Fellowship® is grounded in evidence-based practice and includes seven intensive daily touchpoints between program staff, volunteers, and Participating Fellows.
•Two Cohorts
•20 Participants per cohort
•Each cohort will run for 18 months
•Age ranges to be served, 14 to 24 years old
•All genders may be served
•The target population is high-risk individuals who are driving gun violence in Milwaukee County.
Advance Peace Brochure
Fabiana Guzmán
Advance Peace Strategy Manager
[email protected]
Regina Whiyee
Deputy Administrator, Children, Youth & Family Services
CYFS is very proud of our Credible Messengers Program. Credible Messengers is a mentoring program for youth in the Youth Justice System and youth in the community who may be at risk. This transformative process through which individuals from similar backgrounds, including men and women who themselves may have been justice-involved, engage youth in structured and intentional relationships and activities, provide a positive platform for youth engagement & community voice; and change agents for racial equity and policy on issues that plague the youth, families and community.
Credible Messenger Brochure
Program Launch Press Release
Credible Messenger Program 2023 Impact Report
The Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Children, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) can walk you through the process.
*In the following videos, CYFS is referred to as DYFS.
At the hearing:
CYFS aims to facilitate positive youth identity development by identifying their strengths, assisting them in exploring a positive future, and supporting them in achieving their goals. Our goal is to enhance the following skills with our youth:
By focusing on mental wellness, healing-focused care, alternatives to out-of-home placements, data-driven programming, and integrative approaches that involve all the tools available to DHHS, youth are developing tools and strategies to help them succeed and return to supportive homes and stronger communities.
Youth justice service workers provide support and advocacy to youth and families during their involvement with CYFS. Service workers assist the youth and family through this process by maintaining consistent contact, monitoring youth progress in programs and services, providing updates to the court, monitoring accountability with court orders, assessing needs with services and supports, and celebrating successes. Service workers are trained to use a developmental approach, Growth Focused Case Management, to youth justice with an aim of facilitating youth growth to positive adulthood. The needs of our young people are addressed through these intentional experiences:
CYFS helps youth and families involved in the justice system as soon as they enter. We can provide services while youth await the judge's decision and court outcome, while they are on supervision with the courts, as well as connect them to resources that they can maintain when they are no longer in our care.
Our community network of providers make it possible for us to offer the array of services identified below.
Placements in temporary shelter, group homes, foster care and residential treatment care as deemed appropriate.
Eligible services available through our system of care:
The Champion's Make Change program exists to provide a dispositional placement alternative to Department of Corrections Division of Juvenile Justice Corrections placement for the circuit courts.
This alternative placement has been intentionally re-designed to provide a comprehensive dialectical behavior therapy informed environment that is built on the foundation of five key components:
Children, Youth and Family Services
10201 W Watertown Plank Rd, Wauwatosa, WI 53226
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(414) 257-7715
(414) 257-7721
Kelly Pethke
Administrator, Children, Youth & Family Services
Email [email protected] for Media Inquiries