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Wilma Fonseca Takes the ReinsSouth side-born Fonseca isn’t new to nonprofits or to the Latino Community Center she now leads From age 14 to 18, Wilma Fonseca spent each of her summers working as a youth advisor at the United Community Center. Now, after spending 15 years working in the non-profit sector in Milwaukee, Fonseca is in charge of running a non-profit organization on her own. On Feb. 22, she became executive director of the Latino Community Center (she had years earlier been assistant director of the LCC). In charge of overseeing 72 full- and part-time staff located at five locations, Fonseca faces the greatest professional challenge of her career: steering a budding non-profit organization during a severe economic recession while serving a growing young urban population in dire need of the services it provides. What makes the Latino Community Center unique? Our approach. Our focus area is academic achievement. But one of our big approaches and successes is really about changing negative behavior among youth. If you can turn it into positive behavior, that's when you start to see academic achievement. Tell me about some of the LCC's successes? One success is the Violence Free Zone program, which we help run at South Division, Bay View, Madison and Bradley Tech high schools. By working with hard-core kids and building relationships with them through the program, the truancy rate at South Division High has been reduced by 32 percent. When you start doing things like that, that's what makes a difference. Please describe the youth that the LCC serves. We focus on kids from 14 to 18 years. That's a critical time. They're dealing with so many outside forces in society, things in their homes, the economy, having to choose who to hang out with, and the violence within the neighborhood. That's where we come in. We focus on identifying who they are as individuals, and then we help them make good choices under the peer pressure they're under. We also try to give them different outlets to express their talents, such as art, music and culture. Why did you choose to spend your summers working as a teen instead of just hanging out like most others? I come from family that instilled the value of work. I was 14 when I started working at the UCC as a youth worker. I attribute that to my father, who was very involved with the UCC and worked with Cesar Pabón. It was a fun place to be. What kid doesn't want an extra job for summer in a fun environment where they can pick up new skills and discover opportunities? What's changed the most for young people and for the south side neighborhood from when you were growing up? I think it's just a lot harder for young people today. They deal with a lot more barriers than when we were younger, a lot more violence and drugs out in the street, and being bombarded with so much media. As for the neighborhood, it's really far more diverse than 20 years ago. You have a larger African American population, and a large Asian population too. What's the single most important lesson you've learned in life? You have to give back to the community. You have a responsibility to make a difference if you have the opportunity. I've chosen to give back through youth, because they are our future. |
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