Milwaukee City Wire

Safe & Sound Interim Executive Director Bridget Whitaker sees the former two-story church the organization acquired as the perfect place to call home for the nonprofit.

"Being able to move to this new building gives us complete access to our residence, to the young people that we serve," Whitaker told TMJ4.com this week.

While the organization has now been fighting for more than 25 years to improve public safety by providing the youth development and community-organizing services that it does, Whitaker and company are hoping the new space at 4422 W. Leon Terrace will make it easier for them to connect with the community.

"In this space, we have more of an open area where we can do some community meetings, youth police dialogue sessions," Whitaker told TMJ4.

Safe & Sound has already secured a $25,000 donation from the Milwaukee Bucks, the TMJ4 report said. The money is earmarked to help the nonprofit reach its goal of renovating the church with office spaces, desks, conference rooms and more.

"All teams across the country are doing different renovation projects as a legacy project, which is a gift from the NBA to work within their community," Quinn Otero, Corporate Social Responsibility manager for the Bucks, told TMJ4. "We have such a long-standing partnership with Safe & Sound, so to us it was a no-brainer to partner with them."

Whitaker is thankful for the relationship.

"That donation allows us to be able to get closer to our goal of just serving and helping to create a safer Milwaukee," she said.

Plans call for the renovation project to be completed sometime this summer.