MHYH :: Who We Are

My Home, Your Home Inc. is a grassroots faith-guided nonprofit in Milwaukee’s inner city that for nearly 15 years has created hope and promoted personal independence. Over the years, we have responded with flexibility and excellence to community needs. We have more than 85 employees.

Our programs:

Treatment Foster Care
provides safe and nurturing homes for foster children with special needs. We serve the child welfare system’s most severely abused and neglected children. Because of the trauma these children have suffered, they have a high level of medical, emotional or behavioral needs. Children in Treatment Foster Care range in age from newborn to as old as 19. We recruit, license and train foster families to cope with the opportunities and challenges presented by the children, who have mental and physical handicaps. We currently have more than 50 homes available.

Wraparound Care
is a court-ordered program serving about 70 at-risk children and their families. Most youths enter the Wraparound program because of a Juvenile Court finding of delinquency. Others have been adjudicated to be a Child in Need of Protective Services (CHIPS), or a Juvenile in Need of Protective Services (JIPS). These children are coping with parents’ incarceration, abandonment by parents, having caretakers with substance-abuse problems, or having to live outside their parents’ home. Not surprisingly, many of these children have behavior problems or mental illness. Our care coordinators are accessible 24/7 to respond to the immediate needs of these children.

Lissy’s Place
is the only transitional housing program in this area for homeless women and women aging out of foster care. Capacity is 17 women. Participants, who are between the ages of 18 and 29, can stay at Lissy’s Place for up to two years. The goal of the program is to assist participants to increase skills and resources so they can move to independence.
At Lissy’s Place, participants must get a job or enroll in a job-training program within 60 days of moving in. Once employed, participants must pay $75 a month in rent and put $75 a month in a savings account. We provide case management, life-skills training, counseling on educational opportunities and employment, and even bus tickets to work, school or doctor.

Amad’s Place
is a stabilization center for up to eight young men, ages 12-17, who have been disrupted from their placements. We determine the needs of the youths, provide structure and stability, and prepare them for their next placement.

Family Supportive Services
provides a wide range of in-home services to those in need, including supervised visitations, mentoring, parent assistance, basic home management, life-skills training and housing assistance. We currently serve 65 families.

Access to Recovery
is an alcohol and other drug abuse (AODA) service. Our Recovery Support Coordinators organize a team with clients to assess their needs, create strategies and goals for success, identify barriers to avoid relapse and develop a comprehensive care plan. We are serving 300 people.

Training and Education
is a support program for staff, families, children and employees of other organizations.

Outpatient Mental Health and AODA Treatment Clinic
counselors assist clients in the development and implementation of treatment goals, coping skills, information, referrals to community-based providers, systems advocacy and other services essential to maintaining recovery. We currently have about 50 clients.

My Home, Your Home’s administration building is at 6200 W. Center St. in Milwaukee. There is also an auxiliary office on West Fond du Lac Ave.

Key personnel
Irma and Aubrey Walker — Irma and Aubrey Walker founded My Home, Your Home in 1989 as a way of improving the foster-care system. The Walkers had experienced the system first-hand when they opened their home to children needing immediate help. The organization’s first program, to keep siblings together while in foster care, was launched in 1993.

Mrs. Walker, agency president, is the former chief operations officer for the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee. She is also the founder of Parents of Color, a support group at Milwaukee Lutheran High School, founder of the YWCA Little Sisters Club, and founder of the African- American Alliance for the Children of Wisconsin, a group of minority social services agencies whose primary focus is to ensure that the needs of minority youth are being met.

Constance (Connie) Palmer-Jones, Executive Director — Before being named Executive Director, Ms. Palmer-Jones was My Home Your Home’s associate director and human resource manager, and earlier was the agency’s program/activity director. She has also served on the My Home Your Home board.

She has also held positions as program director at the Lapham Park COA in Milwaukee, the Children and Family Resource Center in Racine, and the Institute for Child and Family Development in Milwaukee.

Ms. Palmer-Jones holds a degree in human services, with a concentration in criminal justice, and is working on a master’s degree in management.

Ms. Palmer-Jones is on the board of directors of Capitol West Academy, a Milwaukee charter school.

Brenda Hoskins, Social Services Manager — Brenda J. Hoskins holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Her previous positions have included social worker/coordinator at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia; assessment worker supervisor at the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging in Philadelphia; chief social service officer at My Home Your Home; in-home therapist at Discovery & Recovery, Inc., of Greenfield; and medical social worker at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Our partnerships
My Home Your Home is a member of the Foster Family Treatment Association, the Alliance for Children and Families, the Wisconsin Association of Family & Children's Agencies, the Milwaukee Continuum of Care and Milwaukee Brighter Futures.

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