We’re sunsetting LiberateMKE

In 2024, we announced that we would be sunsetting LiberateMKE at the end of 2025, to run the LiberateMKE campaign one more time during the upcoming budget cycle. However, conditions change, and new opportunities emerge, so we will not be relaunching LiberateMKE this year.

Therefore, 2024 was the final year of an AART-led LiberateMKE campaign. Click here to learn more.

About LiberateMKE…

Through our LiberateMKE campaign, we started having authentic conversations with residents to find out what a liberated Milwaukee would look like to them. We want to build meaningful relationships to bring about community change.

Over the last five years, the police budget has grown while every other city department has seen little to no growth. We know that instead of police, we could invest in programs that address the root causes of poverty and violence, like jobs, public health, and housing.

We surveyed residents, including students and elders, at meetings and community events throughout the city asking where they would like to see monies allocated. Residents' answers included youth employment and transportation, economic opportunity through job training and financial literacy, and non-police violence prevention projects such as violence interrupter programs.

In 2024, we built on the success in 2023 to train and develop LiberateMKE leaders who are active in the campaign's development, strategy, and implementation by providing at least 25 hours of training on basic organizing, conducting 1-1, facilitation, and lobbying.