Twilight Centers provide activities and extended hours to ensure the city’s youths have safe, fun places to go in the evenings throughout the school year. Students at a Twilight Center in Milwaukee prepare self-serve desserts. (Photo provided by Milwaukee Recreation)
By Dakota Barnes-Rush
This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit
milwaukeenns.org.
Robert Perry understands firsthand the impact of positive experiences on a young person’s personal growth and development.
Perry is a supervisor for Twilight Centers, a program of Milwaukee Recreation that provides activities and extended hours to ensure that the city’s youths have safe, fun places to go in the evenings throughout the school year. The free drop-in centers are offered at select school locations in the city.
Perry recalled the importance of mentors in his life who shared his background, which he believes was instrumental in shaping him into the person he is today
“I had a lot of mentors who are men that look like me that gave me a lot of jewels and gems at a very young age,’’ said Perry, who is African American. “It’s important for somebody like me who is from the 53206, 10th and Chambers, all day, to be there to have those conversations and then to give opportunities.”
Perry is referring to the 53206 ZIP code, an area on Milwaukee’s North Side, bordered by North Avenue and West Capitol Drive, and North 7th to 27th streets, that has faced long-standing challenges related to poverty, joblessness and mass incarceration of Black men.
‘An invaluable opportunity’
Lauren Lopez, a Twilight and late-night leagues manager, also stressed the importance of being a positive role model for inner city kids in Milwaukee.
“My prayer has been to be the kind of person and leader that I wish I had needed when I was younger,’’ said Lopez. “Programs like the Twilight Centers and other Milwaukee Recreation initiatives provide an invaluable opportunity not just for the kids, but for the whole community.”
Youths who visit Twilight Centers get to enjoy board games, esports, open gym, field trips, college and career conversations, among other things.
“It means creating fun, safe, and accessible spaces for these families,’’ said Lopez.
The challenges of mentorship
Lopez finds her work with young people both touching and difficult. She said that the biggest challenge is being “just one component of happiness for a kid” when you don’t know their full circumstances.
“You’re just talking them at face value and hoping that whatever it is that they might be going through, that you can either ask the right questions to tap into what their needs might be, or you might just build a relationship where they can put whatever they are going through to the side and just come here and have joy,’’ Lopez said.
Lopez hopes that young people in the program will pay it forward as mentors in the future.
“It’s hard to realize that because you know at that moment, you’re just hoping that they can take whatever positivity that they brought, that they had at Twilight and that they can bring that back to wherever they are,” she said.
Expanding horizons
When introducing students to new places, Perry talks about wanting them to experience different parts of the country and travel, as part of implementing a new change to the Twilight program.
“We would travel, right? I got to experience that, the business, and it helped me understand what I like and my personality,’’ said Perry. “So, if we could take kids yearly on a trip … we would do that, like tomorrow.”
The program has provided a safe haven for students like Daijohn Hughes, who also is a Twilight worker.
“Even though I’m still working, it still gives me somewhere where I know that I’m safe and that I could be me instead of going straight home after school,” Hughes said.
He said he tries to tap into students’ interests and incorporate those interests into the program.
“I like to engage them with things they enjoy, ” said Hughes. “For example, if I see them on board and know they like playing a game, I’ll ask if they want to play the game or basketball and try to get them involved. If they’re playing fives, I’ll get them next, or something like that.”
For more information
To learn more about the Twilight Centers, visit milwaukeerecreation.net/rec.