journey house packers stadium milwaukee

New "Packers Field" opens at Milwaukee's Mitchell Park

Packers Field opens in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- The Green Bay Packers joined the Journey House in Milwaukee on Thursday, June 6th to celebrate the grand opening of the new ‘Packers Field’ at Mitchell Park. It's a recently completed facility that will serve as the home for Journey House’s Youth Football and Cheerleading Program and League. The field’s playing surface, a FieldTurf surface formerly used at the Packers’ Ray Nitschke Field, was donated by the Packers for the new facility. The Journey House League consists of more than 300 youth (ages 6-14), comprising 30 community teams, including 16 teams from the Milwaukee Public School District. While the program focuses mainly on the skill sets of football, character development and education are also emphasized. In addition to Journey House’s league, Marquette University High School lacrosse teams and freshmen and junior varsity football teams will play home games on the field as well. The turf was removed from Ray Nitschke Field in 2009, and had been in storage while Journey House raised the necessary funds for the facility’s renovation. To help raise those funds, Journey House applied for and received an NFL Grassroots Grant, which provides funding to nonprofits and schools within specific NFL markets. The NFL Grassroots Program, which offers the grants, provides non-profit, neighborhood-based organizations with financial and technical assistance to improve the quality, safety and accessibility of local football fields. The NFL Grassroots Program provides grants of up to $200,000 for capital improvement projects.

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Packers erect ‘field of dreams’ for Journey House

Journey House celebrated the official opening of the Journey House Packers Field at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park on Thursday with a ceremony attended by an all-star lineup including Gov. Scott Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy Romo West and Green Bay Packers President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy.

The field, which Murphy deemed “the field of dreams” during his keynote speech at the celebration, is a synthetic turf football field that the Packers donated to Journey House to support the Journey House Youth Football and Cheerleading Program and League.

The turf formerly filled the Packers’ Ray Nitschke Practice Field in Green Bay. Sporting a prominent Green Bay Packers logo, it now exists as the only field in the country with a NFL logo outside a NFL stadium.

“On behalf of the Packers, we are all so honored to be here today for this dedication of Packers Field,” Murphy said during his keynote address. “This is a great story, and this field that you’re looking at took quite a journey to get here.”

The field will provide a quality space for the nonprofit organization’s football and cheerleading league to practice and play games. The league is composed of seven organizations and more than 300 participants ranging from age six to age 14.

The completion of the field is part of the broader Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative to enhance the area’s quality of life. Along with adding a green space for youth to develop their athletic skills and teamwork, Packers Field will foster job creation with daily operations and routine maintenance requirements.

“It’s great when you see a community come together and rally behind a project like this,” Murphy said.

Journey House promotes neighborhood revitalization, education, workforce development and safer communities through its programming initiatives.

For more information about the Milwaukee nonprofit, visit www.journeyhouse.org .

Mitchell Park is located along South 22nd Street and West Pierce Street on the city’s south side.

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Journey House celebrated the official opening of the Journey House Packers Field at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park on Thursday with a ceremony attended by an all-star lineup including Gov. Scott Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy Romo West and Green Bay Packers President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy.   The field, which Murphy deemed “the field of dreams” during his keynote speech at the celebration, is a synthetic turf football field that the Packers donated to Journey House to support the Journey House Youth Football and Cheerleading Program and League. The turf formerly filled the Packers’ Ray Nitschke Practice Field in Green Bay. Sporting a prominent Green Bay Packers logo, it now exists as the only field in the country with a NFL logo outside a NFL stadium. “On behalf of the Packers, we are all so honored to be here today for this dedication of Packers Field,” Murphy said during his keynote address. “This is a great story, and this field that you’re looking at took quite a journey to get here.” The field will provide a quality space for the nonprofit organization’s football and cheerleading league to practice and play games. The league is composed of seven organizations and more than 300 participants ranging from age six to age 14. The completion of the field is part of the broader Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative to enhance the area’s quality of life. Along with adding a green space for youth to develop their athletic skills and teamwork, Packers Field will foster job creation with daily operations and routine maintenance requirements. “It’s great when you see a community come together and rally behind a project like this,” Murphy said. Journey House promotes neighborhood revitalization, education, workforce development and safer communities through its programming initiatives. For more information about the Milwaukee nonprofit, visit www.journeyhouse.org . Mitchell Park is located along South 22nd Street and West Pierce Street on the city’s south side.

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Journey House’s youth athletics programs return after two-year hiatus caused by COVID

June 22, 2022 by Edgar Mendez 2 Comments

After two years without baseball, football and other summer athletic programs at Journey House due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the youth leagues are up and running this year or will be soon. 

Michele Bria, the longtime CEO at Journey House , a South Side nonprofit located in the Clarke Square neighborhood, said the organization expects to engage several hundred youths this summer in what leaders describe as “outdoor classrooms.”

“These programs are about education first and foremost,” said Bria, adding that participants are expected to have a library card, write a book report and be responsible in school. “How you behave in school is just as important as how you behave on the field.”

About 180 youths participate in the center’s Felix Mantilla Little League, which plays its games at Baran Park , 2600 S. Chase Ave.

Martin Weddle, director of youth programs at Journey House, located at 2110 W. Scott St., said football programming will begin on July 11 with a free two-week clinic.

During that clinic, which will be held at the nearby Journey House Packers Stadium at Mitchell Park, youths will gain fundamental-skills training, conditioning, life skills among other benefits.

“The only thing participants need is 32 ounces of water and athletic apparel,” Weddle said.

Registration is open for the program, which serves third through eighth graders and is part of the Wisconsin All-American Youth Football League, or AAYFL. The first official practice is scheduled for Aug. 1.

Weddle said youth athletic programs at Journey House focus on six core components, each highlighted during a weekly theme. One is education and athletics while another is character and life skills.

In terms of building character and life skills, Weddle said it includes creating a culture of accountability and teaching children how to address challenges such as anxiety and trauma.

“If you’re stressed out and enduring trauma it’s hard for you to go to the field and perform,” he said. “We have adopted this culture of peace and stress management and teach breathing practices that help.”

One of the people helping youths master such techniques is LouRawls Burnett, a SKY meditation, yoga instructor and basketball coach at Journey House. Burnett said SKY is a breathing technique that helps bring the body to meditation.

“Breathing can affect our decisions, our thoughts and our actions,” said Burnett, who first came to Journey House to participate in programs when he was 12 years old.

In addition to the football and baseball leagues, Journey House also plans to host a soccer and lacrosse clinic this summer, youth pompom camp in July and a dance camp in August. It is also recruiting youths to participate in a weekly Meditation, Agility, Speed and Strength, or MASS, camp.

With the exception of a basketball program that ran during the school year in partnership with Longfellow School, which is adjoined to Journey House, all formal athletic programs were shut down in 2020 and 2021. This necessitated a big recruitment push this year to get youths reengaged.

“I’ve traveled to over 25 area schools, distributed 3,500 flyers and held 18 parent orientation meetings,” Weddle said.

The ultimate goal of the athletic programs is to support the organization’s mission to end generational poverty, Bria said. Sports accomplishes this by helping youths learn strong values and building their character.

“Then whatever career pathway you choose, you’re passionate about and committed and more likely to be successful,” she said. “Athletics is a great way to move towards high performance.”

How to participate

You can register for all summer programs at Journey House here .

About Edgar Mendez

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Edgar is a senior staff reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in Journalism and Sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in Communication. As an accomplished journalist, Edgar’s awards include a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow award, several press club awards and a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism.

June 22, 2022 at 10:50 am

What a wonderful organization in our community!

June 22, 2022 at 6:26 pm

As a child of Clarke Square and a proud graduate of Longfellow School, the Harvard of Mineral Street, afternoon and morning kindergarten (Class of 1946), I couldn’t agree more with Lisa’s comment. Journey House is a model for many things. One of them is to use sports not only to bring joy and give skills to kids, but also as part of an overall strategy to build healthy and peaceful communities.

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Journey House Youth Sports Return

Athletic programs put on hold during COVID-19 pandemic return for the summer.

Recruitment is currently underway for participants in the Journey House Packers Football program. Photo provided by Journey House.

After two years without baseball, football and other  summer athletic programs at Journey House  due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the youth leagues are up and running this year or will be soon.

Michele Bria , the longtime CEO at  Journey House , a South Side nonprofit located in the Clarke Square neighborhood, said the organization expects to engage several hundred youths this summer in what leaders describe as “outdoor classrooms.”

About 180 youths participate in the center’s Felix Mantilla Little League, which plays its games at  Baran Park , 2600 S. Chase Ave.

Martin Weddle , director of youth programs at Journey House, located at 2110 W. Scott St., said football programming will begin on July 11 with a free two-week clinic.

During that clinic, which will be held at the nearby Journey House Packers Stadium at Mitchell Park , youths will gain fundamental-skills training, conditioning, life skills among other benefits.

“The only thing participants need is 32 ounces of water and athletic apparel,” Weddle said.

Registration is open for the program, which serves third through eighth graders and is part of the  Wisconsin All-American Youth Football League,  or AAYFL. The first official practice is scheduled for Aug. 1.

[inarticlea ad=”UM-In-Article-2″]Weddle said youth athletic programs at Journey House focus on six core components, each highlighted during a weekly theme. One is education and athletics while another is character and life skills.

In terms of building character and life skills, Weddle said it includes creating a culture of accountability and teaching children how to address challenges such as anxiety and trauma.

“If you’re stressed out and enduring trauma it’s hard for you to go to the field and perform,” he said. “We have adopted this culture of peace and stress management and teach breathing practices that help.”

One of the people helping youths master such techniques is LouRawls Burnett , a SKY meditation, yoga instructor and basketball coach at Journey House. Burnett said SKY is a breathing technique that helps bring the body to meditation.

“Breathing can affect our decisions, our thoughts and our actions,” said Burnett, who first came to Journey House to participate in programs when he was 12 years old.

In addition to the football and baseball leagues, Journey House also plans to host a soccer and lacrosse clinic this summer, youth pompom camp in July and a dance camp in August. It is also recruiting youths to participate in a weekly Meditation, Agility, Speed and Strength, or MASS, camp.

[inarticlea ad=”UM-In-Article-3″]With the exception of a basketball program that ran during the school year in partnership with Longfellow School, which is adjoined to Journey House, all formal athletic programs were shut down in 2020 and 2021. This necessitated a big recruitment push this year to get youths reengaged.

“I’ve traveled to over 25 area schools, distributed 3,500 flyers and held 18 parent orientation meetings,” Weddle said.

The ultimate goal of the athletic programs is to support the organization’s mission to end generational poverty, Bria said. Sports accomplishes this by helping youths learn strong values and building their character.

“Then whatever career pathway you choose, you’re passionate about and committed and more likely to be successful,” she said. “Athletics is a great way to move towards high performance.”

How to participate

You can register for all summer programs at Journey House  here .

Journey House’s youth athletics programs return after two-year hiatus caused by COVID was originally published by the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

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Quarterback from Journey House’s Packers team recruited for college football

Posted by NNS | Mar 6, 2016 |

Not even a separated shoulder was going to stop 9-year-old quarterback Anthony Barron from playing his first game at Lambeau Field as part of the Journey House Packers football team. The same resilience he showed that day at the Green Bay Packers’ stadium likely will serve him well as he pursues a football career at Colorado State University-Pueblo.

Barron is the first player from Journey House, 2110 W. Scott St., to sign a letter of intent to play football at the collegiate level.

Charles Brown, youth program director and football coach at Journey House, recruited Barron, now 17, for the first football team in 2005. Since then, the team has grown from 26 to approximately 130 participants in three age groups: 6-8 year olds (Pee-Wee), 9-11 and 12-14 (Majors).

In 2008, Barron and the other team members played on Lambeau Field for their first pre-season half-time scrimmage.

“That was probably something I’ll never forget,” Barron said. “Not so many kids get to do that.”

He played at Lambeau Field two more times with the Journey House Packers.

The relationship between the two Packers teams grew when the Green Bay Packers donated a used field to Journey House for practice. At the time, Packers’ President Mark Murphy said Clarke Square is the only neighborhood to have an NFL field not located at an NFL facility.

The team did not win a game its entire first season nor make its first touchdown until the fifth game of the season, according to Brown. But the football program is not just about winning and losing, he noted.

“The program is (about) education,” Brown said. “What that means to us is academic performance in the classroom and also football skills and techniques.”

Character development and life skills, nutrition and parent engagement are the three pillars that guide the football players to succeed on the field and more importantly, in the classroom.

“If we do all the other previous pillars, the winning will come,” Brown said.

Barron said the biggest life skill he learned from Journey House’s football team “was probably responsibility, and basically keeping up with yourself.” He said the team’s honor code was especially influential. Team members were expected to talk to their coaches if they knew a certain player was not keeping up with his grades or acting out in class.

“While I love football, I love the fact that Journey House is about building productive citizens outside of sports,” said Kenneth Barron Jr., Anthony’s father. “No one saw the work behind it. Football is an extensive sport.”

Barron Jr., who is a former Pee-Wee football coach, said his experience growing up in Sherman Park is why he supported his son’s participation in the football program. “We didn’t have a lot of programs like [Journey House].”

The nonprofit organization aims to give residents the opportunities needed to attend a higher learning institution and become employed.

To play on the football team, each member must have a library card. But, there are requirements for parents as well.

“Mr. Brown is very clear on his expectations for parents — to be there and attend the orientation,” the elder Barron said.

In addition, parents are expected to participate in fundraisers and act appropriately while watching games, meaning no cussing or fighting with referees. These expectations are meant to provide support and stability for the players, said Barron’s father.

Barron played football at Journey House until 8th grade before he moved to Colorado in 2012. He went on to play football at Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado. He chose CSU–Pueblo because he said it has a work ethic he did not see at other Division II schools. The team spends Saturday mornings and evenings in the workout room.

“What made me choose Pueblo … was basically the family feel that I got from visiting at the school and the players,” he said.

“He’s going to college to be a student, not to be a football player … and for him to understand that is huge,” Brown said.

Barron Jr. said his son is excited to return to Journey House and share his experience as one of the original members of the football team. “Milwaukee is our home even though we don’t live there anymore,” he said.

Barron intends to major in psychology and will play safety for CSU–Pueblo. “The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is finding out who I really am,” he said.

Sophia Boyd

Originally published on the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service as  Former Journey House Packers quarterback recruited to play college football

About The Author

NNS covers stories that are important to the people who live, work and serve in city neighborhoods, on topics such as education, public safety, economic development, health and wellness, environment, recreation, employment, youth development and housing.

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Wisconsin's only sturgeon hatchery will host a spawning program and open house May 4 in Wild Rose

Attendees can also tour the original 1908 hatchery and explore the modern operation..

The Department of Natural Resources will host a spring open house May 4 at  Wild Rose Fish Hatchery Education Center  in Wild Rose, the only state hatchery that raises lake sturgeon.

The free event will give attendees a chance to celebrate the annual spring sturgeon spawn and learn more about Wisconsin’s oldest fish species, according to the agency.

The Wild Rose hatchery is a cool- and cold-water facility that raises brown and rainbow trout, coho and chinook salmon, Great Lakes spotted muskellunge, walleye and lake sturgeon. As such, it's one of three state hatcheries that produces both cool- and cold-water fish.

More: Outdoors calendar

To help attendees learn more about game fish and angling, the open house will include games and educational activities, including a learn-to-cast station, fish identification activities and the chance to “swim” upriver like sturgeon on their migratory journey to spawning areas.

Other hands-on activities include printing fish on tote bags, a fly-tying workshop, learning how to build a spinner and making a clay sturgeon.

Attendees can also tour the original 1908 hatchery and explore the modern operation. The Education Center will provide guided tours from DNR staff every 45 minutes, with the last tour departing at 2 p.m.

The event will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 4.

Wild Rose hatchery is located at N5871 State Road 22, Wild Rose.