Concordia 27 | A Community Resource Hub

Concordia 27 is a resident and stakeholder-led collaboration bringing the best of Near West Side services together to provide access to nutritious food, trauma-informed care, job training, entrepreneurial space, and housing. 

Interior rendering of community room

Located at 801-831 North 27th Street in Milwaukee, this community-serving resource hub will include: 

• A new, central headquarters for Near West Side Partners that will enhance safety, housing, and entrepreneurial programming for Near West Side residents
• A commercial kitchen for Milwaukee Center for Independence that will expand Wisconsin’s second-largest school-based meals program to support 18,600 daily meals for 11,300 low-income children, provide access to nutritious and affordable meals-to-go, as well as culinary workforce training for youth, adults with intellectual disabilities and those previously incarcerated. The kitchen will also serve as an incubator space for emerging local culinary businesses.
• Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee's (SWIM) headquarters to expand resilience and trauma-informed care, and well-being education, including yoga, massage, reiki, and water therapy, as well as workplace trauma training for Milwaukee employees.
• Co-working, retail space for BIPOC businesses, and cafe led by Fruitition MKE supporting emerging Black business and workforce development by providing space for professional creatives, emerging neighborhood businesses, and employment opportunities.
• Shared Community Space for job fairs, workforce training, cooking demonstrations, health and wellness education and programming, and health navigation support.
• High-quality, affordable housing units available to residents experiencing housing insecurity.

Fruition MKE owners, Rachaad and Tiffany

Concordia 27 will bring these essential services and resources together to address historic disparities present in Milwaukee’s Near West Side, where 46% of families and 42% of all children live in poverty, and 12.6% of residents are unemployed. 

Concordia 27 is a culmination of years of community engagement and planning, outreach, data collection, and surveying of residents, businesses, and stakeholders. Residents have been deeply engaged in the development of this solution, and community feedback and data analysis have influenced the services that will be deployed on the site. The impetus for Concordia 27 began in 2015 at a design charrette, where participants identified a community center as 1 of 6 priorities. A workgroup of committed NWSP stakeholders & residents is actively engaged in ensuring the success of Concordia 27.