Welfare Warriors

10/10/2026

09/06/2026

from Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice

“Welfare Warriors Defend the Poor
(This is the editor’s pick to help us learn about this Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice member group and to support it.)

We are a nonprofit in Milwaukee made up of mothers and other low-income caregivers working against the ongoing wars on the poor. We are requesting funds to continue our important work which we do as volunteers.

Outside of caring for our children and grandchildren, we help educate and support those who have wrong fully been denied support services, are volunteer family court advocates in Children’s Court in cases where kids have been removed or are at risk of being removed for reasons relating to poverty, help those with disabilities and publish a mama’s activist magazine called the Mother Warriors Voice. We send our magazine all around the world and use it to challenge the lies of the billionaire-owned corporate media. We will use any donation given for upkeep of our building, the Mothers Organizing Center, to provide support for victims of poverty and to put out the Mother Warriors Voice.

MOMS Line—The Welfare Warriors MOMS Line, begun in 1990, teaches self-advocacy and organizing skills to low-income moms and other caregivers, especially those targeted for child protective services (CPS) family separation for reasons relating to lower IQ, developmental disabilities, intimate partner violence, poverty, false allegations and homelessness. This is especially important when facing Milwaukee’s racist, poor-bashing, highly privatized CPS system that makes more money when kids are kept under corporate guardianship or in suburban foster care.

Mothers and Youth (MAY) Project— The Welfare Warriors’ Mothers and Youth (MAY) project, begun in 1995, brings together grandmothers, moms and their children to work for social justice while learning and developing new skills. It is an exciting way for families to work together, strengthening the family while building the community.

Mother Warriors Committee—The Welfare Warriors’ Mother Warriors Committee, the organizing branch of the Welfare Warriors, works locally and across the USA to give a voice to mothers, teens and children to stop the wars on the poor and to push for a society that prioritizes families. We use music, public actions, publications, and more to organize for social change.

Court Advocacy—Volunteers from Welfare Warriors offer advice and family court advocacy for those targeted for CPS child removals for reasons relating to lower IQ, developmental disabilities, domestic violence, poverty, false allegations and homelessness. In some cases, we are able to help find short-term housing for homeless mothers trying to get back custody of their children. You can help support this amazing organization here: wnpj.org/member/welfare-warriors” To see their full newsletter, go to Summer-2026-WNPJ-Network-News.pdf

08/27/2026

"On Tuesday, September 1, at 11:30am we will rally outside We Energies headquarters at 231 W Michigan St. in downtown Milwaukee, then pack the Public Service Commission hearing at Marquette University’s Alumni Memorial Union, 1442 W Wisconsin Avenue, to oppose another rate increase from We Energies.

If approved, a typical residential customer would pay about $22 more each month by 2028 — roughly $260 more every year — on top of increases already absorbed in recent years.

Walnut Way is a formal legal intervenor in the WEPCO rate case docket (5-UR-112) before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. As an intervenor, Walnut Way has legal standing to file testimony, cross-examine witnesses, and shape the record on behalf of low-income Milwaukee ratepayers. WEBB is Walnut Way’s statewide coalition partner and the community-inside piece of the Clean Economy Coalition of Wisconsin.

What Walnut Way and The WEBB are fighting for in this case:

• Affordability for low-income customers. Direct testimony on energy burden, arrears, disconnections, and the shortcomings of current low-income and weatherization programs.
• No pass-through of stranded assets. Ratepayers should not carry the cost of closed or underused power plants that were built on the utility’s bet, not the community’s.
• A serious look at utility returns and executive pay. Guaranteed profit margins, board fees, and executive compensation should not be routine costs passed to families struggling to keep the lights on.
• Real demand response and program modernization. Pushing We Energies past what they proposed on demand response and on the LIFT low-income program.
• A clean line between data-center costs and household bills. Data centers and other very large customers pay their own costs; residential customers do not subsidize industrial build out.

The message is direct: the Public Service Commission’s window for public feedback is narrow, and if residents have something to say about this rate case, this is the time to say it. Buses load at Walnut Way’s Innovations & Wellness Commons at 10:30am and leave before 11:00am, the rally begins at We Energies HQ at 11:30am, and testimony continues at Marquette University’s Alumni Memorial Union at 1pm." from Walnut Way

07/27/2026

We are sorry to say that we have canceled our 40th anniversary celebration on August 1st due to our building not being able to be ready in time among other issues. However, we encourage you to join a gathering honoring Lucille Berrien on the same day.

https://milwaukeecourier.com/news/2026/07/22/community-to-celebrate-the-life-and-legacy-of-queen-mother-lucille-berrien-on-saturday-aug-1-at-berrien-park?fbclid=IwdGRjcATPKqBjbGNrBM8qm2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHsbEA6dEVRVFmRM1vY-t2jpBxBZbpgFEbaRusVgcRsz9szKf2uLgPF9Tol2t_aem_RNFkR9zBSrniQ-pJJVn5vg

MILWAUKEE (Monday, 2026) The community is invited to celebrate activist and matriarch Lucille Berrien at a Community Memorial Celebration on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026, at Berrien Park, 3629 N. 16th St., from Noon to 3:00 p.m. Community organizations will share information and resources with area famili...

07/22/2026

Since the “ceasefire” last October, media attention has moved away from the genocide in Gaza, but it continues unabated: as of June 17 more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, at least 265 of whom were children, and more than 3,000 injured according to Medical Aid for Palestinians. Women, including pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and children are still specifically targeted in what is a “reproductive genocide” that threatens the very existence of Palestinians in the region. This is intolerable. We must continue to do what we can to save lives especially from starvation, malnutrition and lack of medical supplies. And to denounce the r**e, sexual assault and other torture of Palestinian prisoners, at least 351 of whom are children, and the brutal attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, backed by their government and its funder the US, which are stealing ever more Palestinian land.

The Middle East Children’s Alliance founded in 1988 focuses on aiding and uplifting the children of Gaza but also of the West Bank and the diaspora in the region. They provide direct aid including food, clean safe drinking water, medicine and medical supplies, clothes, books, toys, school supplies, water purification units in schools and preschools throughout Gaza, financial support for community projects, counseling centers, libraries, accessible parks and playgrounds, sports teams, arts and more. Since 1988 they’ve delivered $54 million in food and medical aid.

All children are our children! Palestinian children like children everywhere have the right to life, to the love of their mothers and families, to food security, a safe and secure place to live, to study and play, free of the daily trauma of apartheid, occupation and genocide by bombing, shooting and starvation.

Please help MECA save lives, children’s lives. You can learn more about MECA, including videos of their work on the ground at their website https://www.mecaforpeace.org/.

It is the tax dollars of those of us living in the US to the tune of $16.3 billion in direct U.S. military assistance to Israel across FY2024 and FY2025 that sustains this genocide. Remember your donation to MECA is tax deductible. https://www.mecaforpeace.org/donate/
from Global Women's Strike Philadelphia

07/20/2026

WWDD?
"What would Don do?" is a mantra I’ll live by for the rest of my life 🫶🏾🙏🏾🥰😍 Thank you for always supporting the Welfare Warriors, from our very beginning in 1986. Thank you, Don Timmerman, for being an amazing mentor.
Thank you for feeding, housing & supporting moms & children.
Thank you for all your works...we can’t even count them all.
You inspire me to love the poor even in the most stressful moments. I will continue defending the poor, unpaid like you, until it’s my time to go to rest like you.😢 ---Amada Morales

07/17/2026

Lianys Torres Rivera The Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba invites you to a special community event featuring Cuba’s ambassador, Lianys Torres Rivera. Tuesday, July 21 6:00–8:00 …

07/09/2026

I lost faith in the system in ‘93 when Bill Clinton was president. He was raised by a single mother. This man privatized welfare. We went downhill from there. When I say downhill, I mean downhill. The point is, the irony. For 500 years, we still don’t agree that 50% of our taxes are going towards war. And not to the veterans. But guess what? Every administration keeps that same 50% going towards war.

For many years I have been a volunteer advocate for those with mental health issues. And now there is no public mental health hospital in Milwaukee. The doctors and nurses have confessed to me that they send people who need a hospital stay onto the streets because the privatized hospitals can pick & choose who they want to admit. This is what privatization does to the community. So when crime, su***de, and homicide go up and more people end up under the viaducts, you have the county and state politicians to blame. They’re making the second class citizens into third class citizens. People who can’t represent themselves because they are mentally incapable go without getting proper medical attention.

The closest public mental hospital is in Oshkosh about 1.5 hrs away. They intentionally banish the sick people to the end of the earth like they did lepers.

Here I am following in my mom’s footsteps once again, taking almost the same course but a different route to find refuge. I was raised in a very humble, Christian faith which emphasized helping the poor. I just want Jesus to come back and reset everything as soon as possible

One of the children in my family was recently asking me to buy them fast food and other things and I said “Do me a favor before I get you any of that, type in Google ‘Gaza Children...Palestine family caves settlement.’” This child was amazed, heart broken. The second day they continued their research without my prodding.

We have to show the generations that the world is bigger than the instant, temporary luxuries. We can’t be good if our reality is fixated on consumerism and not on truly understanding the pain, anguish, persecution of others

I pray all of this devilish stuff going on in the world be replaced with the power of goodness. We all have to do better.

Amada Morales, Welfare Warriors board member

07/02/2026

Introducing board member Jo Anne! Jo Anne helps with many CPS cases so families can be reunited and she was one of the opening speakers at the Our Right to Care Conference in Philadelphia. She cares for her grandchildren and is a fierce advocate for mamas!

06/26/2026

We are a nonprofit in Milwaukee made up of mothers and other … Welfare Warriors needs your support for Help us continue our advocacy for low-income caregivers.