Another Year of Accomplishment

The 2006-07 Annual Report is available as a downloadable PDF document. The following letter from Executive Director Al Castro is taken from the current report.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Each year seems to bring about both exciting opportunities and challenges, and our 2006-2007 fiscal year was no exception. We are pleased to report that in October 2006 we were awarded a federal grant that promotes responsible fatherhood. Using our Today’s Dads program as a model, we have expanded our work with fathers.

Today’s Dads is a family strengthening program designed to assist parents in achieving two goals which include increasing parental involvement and increasing employment. To accomplish these goals, we have collaborated with New Concept Self Development Center, St. Charles Youth & Family Services, the Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin and Jericho Resources. These partners will provide Today’s Dads services in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties.

Another new opportunity we are pleased to share is our partnership in the Wisconsin Alliance for Healthy Marriage (WAHM). Under the leadership of Parents Plus of Wisconsin, we are partnering to offer individual and group based relationship building/healthy marriage information, pre-employment skills training, financial literacy information and of course positive parenting and child development information. We are happy to offer this extension of our services to the Milwaukee community.

As an agency that is committed to being fiscally responsible, we look for innovative ways to promote our agency and the programs we offer our community. As such, we have been fortunate to receive funding for social marketing and the privilege to collaborate with two organizations who help us do just that. Jericho Resources is one of our partners in the Today’s Dads project and their role is to provide social marketing to promote responsible fatherhood. You may have heard the radio spots or seen the billboards for participant recruitment that they created (see page 7, Annual Report). We also work with Johnson Direct who is the creative force behind our Families United to Prevent Teen Pregnancy campaign. In our quest to promote abstinence until marriage, they have done an excellent job creating a website, radio ads and a cinema ad (see page 7, Annual Report). They will be instrumental in assisting us in 2008 when we begin our centennial campaign. We are very delighted to work with two organizations who consistently provide high quality work, understand our mission, and believe in our agency.

As we near 2008, our 100th anniversary year, we look forward to continued involvement with the community, our partner organizations, our donors and the families we serve. None of our programs would be possible if not for these entities. Of course, our staff and Board of Directors are at the heart of what we do, and I would like to express my deepest gratitude. We give special thanks to the support and guidance we receive from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, and especially the spiritual support provided by the Misericordia Sisters.

Sincerely,

Al Castro
Executive Director

Rosalie Manor . . . since 1908, working hand in hand with Milwaukee’s families.