Your Support Builds Inclusive Community at Local Elementary School

The COVID-19 pandemic put education and youth development in flux for two years. Educators and youth workers scrambled to find ways to reach young people and provide high-quality instruction and experiences in a virtual world. There were no easy answers. All we could do was continue the work the best way we could, hoping someday things would return to normal.

When Project Kindred returned to in-person programs in 2021, families trusted the organization to continue its mission of bringing young people together across lines of difference, while also ensuring their children were safe and protected. One of the families who joined Project Kindred that year was the Mayers. Coincidentally, the two Mayer children (Zoi and Izaiah), also attend Catholic East Elementary, where Kindred co-founder Mario Sinclair teaches during the school year.

After their summer together at Camp Kindred Mario, Zoi, and Izaiah were inspired to bring the “Kindred Way” back to Catholic East to share just how transformative the work at Project Kindred is for Milwaukee.

Mario has used Project Kindred’s inclusive and empowering approach to youth development and equity to create a safer classroom environment where young people can express themselves comfortably and lead with courage.

Mario also takes an active role in staff development and coaching at Catholic East, using the Kindred framework to influence the growth and development of the staff around him. Mario truly believes the real work happens when young people, like Izaiah, take the things they’ve learned at camp and share them with their school community.

Izaiah shared how he loved his summer with Kindred because he was able to make tons of friends and the community was a safe place. Izaiah especially felt Kindred was one of the safest places for him to talk about his emotions and knew that the staff at Kindred had his back. This belief about caring adults in his life transferred to his school relationships with adults, which Izaiah believes are more healthy and positive as a result.

Izaiah appreciated how Kindred staff helped him build his confidence in meeting and appreciating people different from him, and says, "Kindred has given me the confidence to make friends with people I would have never met before. I try new things and seek new experiences because of Kindred. I can’t wait to come back next summer!”

We are still recovering from the pandemic. Things may never return to “normal,” but one thing will never change: Project Kindred will continue to bring together young people from across the city of Milwaukee and provide them with loving, caring adults for a week of joy and friendship.

And just maybe those adults and those young people will take all they have learned, and all the relationships they built, and share it with their families, their schools, and their communities just like Mario, Zoi, and Izaiah have done.