SEPO

08/28/2026

SEPO Amazon Wishlist — Support the Everyday Work of Community Care

SEPO has created an Amazon Wishlist with the items we routinely need to keep SEPO Center running and to support families with dignity.

If you’re able, choosing even one item from the list or sharing it across your own networks, helps us continue showing up in these everyday, practical ways. Community care is built through consistent, tangible acts. Your support keeps SEPO's doors open, our shelves stocked, and our commitment to community care strong.

Wishlist link: https://a.co/0cDzkRXu

A special thank you to SEPO Board Member Alicia Johnson for setting this up and curating the list with so much care. Her work behind the scenes makes this kind of community support possible.

Thanks to everyone who stands with SEPO and the families we walk alongside.

08/24/2026

We always end our youth programs at SEPO with a little suspense. After putting in the work to learn, lead, build community together, we make sure our students experience something new, something joyful, something they may have never had access to before.

This year, we were honored (very, truly honored) by the generosity of Eric & Molly Norton Smiltneek (Dr. Eric's Skate Club), who opened their home and backyard for us to conclude and celebrate the end of the leadership lab. Their kindness gave our youth a final day they will never forget.

For most, this was their very first time on a boat, their very first time in the middle of this lake that defines our city. Usually, the closest they get to Lake Winnebago is standing on the small beach at Menominee Park, watching boats pass by. Being ON the water was truly a gift.

Students spent the afternoon enjoying laughter and relaxation together. And for the first time, our youth had the chance to go out onto Lake Winnebago, tubing behind the boat, feeling the wind, the water, and the joy of trying something completely new. I thought their smiles were going to break when Dr. Eric let them drive the boat. One by one, students took the wheel (nervous at first, then grinning, then beaming). It was more than just fun: it was leadership in motion. Trust, responsibility, confidence, and courage all bundled together into one unforgettable experience.

We closed the day, and the Balaeli Leadership Lab, with gratitude.
Gratitude for our youth, who showed up with courage and curiosity.
Gratitude for our mentors, who led by example and kindness.
Gratitude for the Smiltneek family, whose generosity made this final day possible.
Gratitude for the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, whose support continues to stand with the youth of Oshkosh.

This is what community looks like.
This is what shared leadership feels like.
This is Balaeli Leadership Lab

08/24/2026

This summer looked a little different for SEPO. In June and July, we stepped away from Oshkosh so that we could show up fully for our Zambia youth, strengthening programs, supporting families, and continuing the work that connects our communities across continents. Even though our time in Zambia was amazing, we missed our Oshkosh families deeply.

Coming back in August felt like a reunion. And it was made extra special because SEPO launched our first cohort of the Balaeli Leadership Lab. Balaeli means mentor in Lozi and at SEPO we believe that everyone is a mentor to someone. The Balaeli Leadership Lab provided an opportunity to sharpen our mentoring and leadership skills (with a lot of laughing, learning, eating, dancing, and building real skills rooted in community).

As always, the spots filled instantly. Youth and parents rushed to secure a place, and each day we had more young people walk in hoping to join. Turning away youth is the hardest part of this work. Their hunger to learn, grow, and belong is powerful and SEPO will continue to find ways to expand access so more youth can participate in future cohorts. We are deeply grateful for the continued trust and support from this community and from the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, whose summer resources made this program possible.

Balaeli Leadership Lab is designed to equip young people with practical, everyday skills they can use in school, at home, and in the community. Over the course of the lab, youth explored:
• Identity, strengths, and values
• Community commitments and UBUNTU
• A Luta Continua: leading through struggle, not around it
• Leadership styles
• School realities: exploring challenges, understanding school policies, and knowing their rights
• Advocacy tools: tailored advocacy toolkit based on their leadership styles and school challenges
• Real-life scenarios and roleplays to practice speaking up and supporting others

This year, one phrase guided our entire lab: A LUTA CONTINUA (the struggle continues). We spent time unpacking what that means for young people navigating school, identity, racism, belonging, and leadership. The youth talked honestly about the challenges they face and what it means to keep moving, keep supporting each other, and keep leading even when things are hard.

And because learning at SEPO is never boring, we did all of this while sharing meals, dancing, laughing, and having honest conversations about what it means to grow up in Oshkosh today. One of the most powerful moments was introducing Mumu (the SEPO Rhino). We talked about how rhinos often “charge” not out of anger, but out of confusion. Their eyesight is limited, so they rely on sound, smell, and the support of their herd to understand what’s happening around them. Just like the rhino, we sometimes react before we fully see the whole picture. Mumu reminded us to slow down, listen, check our understanding, and use all our strengths, not just the ones that come easiest. The rhino became a metaphor for leadership itself: not perfection, but awareness, courage, community, and using all our senses together.

At several times during the lab, we gathered in a circle and created a web (sometimes sharing our strengths, other times sharing our challenges). That web reminds all of us that the youth (and all of us) are stronger together, and that while the struggle continues, so does their leadership (and so should ours).

Thank you to our mentors, our youth, our families, and our partners.

Special thanks to the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation (and OACF’s Douglas & Christina Hyde Fund) for supporting this summer experience and to Eric (Dr. Eric's Skate Club) & Molly Norton Smiltneek for conspiring with us to give the Balaeli Leadership Lab students an unforgettable final day (more on this later!).

This is what community leadership looks like.
This is Balaeli Leadership Lab.

08/12/2026

Friends,

SEPO is back in Oshkosh. ❤️🧀❤️

We stepped away from Oshkosh briefly this summer to focus and strengthen SEPO’s Zambia programming. 🌍And now we’ve returned energized and grateful.

Thank you to everyone who helped keep SEPO’s work moving from afar. Coordinating housing, support, and other logistics across an 8-hour time difference wasn’t easy, but your flexibility and support made it possible. We’re grateful for landlords and partners who stayed patient and committed throughout.

We’ve already had a great few days back reconnecting with our Oshkosh community. We’re so excited to be back and ready to keep building, problem-solving, and moving SEPO/Oshkosh forward together.

New drop-in hours*:
Mondays 9 – 11am
Tuesdays 1 – 3pm
Wednesdays by appointment
Thursdays 1 – 3pm
Fridays 9 – 11am
Saturdays Closed
Sundays 12 – 2pm

*These are open, drop-in hours – no appointment needed. If you need to link up outside of these hours, reach out ([email protected] or 920.312.3818) and we can make an appointment that works with your schedule.

Stop by – we’ve missed you all. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

08/11/2026

SEPO is deeply grateful to Gretchen Considine and Dr. Eric Smiltneek (Dr. Eric's Skate Club) for organizing and coordinating a generous donation of medical supplies to Mabumbu Village Clinic, Kalangu School Clinic, and the newly Hakainde Hichilema Mini-Hospital in Mabumbu.

For more than a decade, SEPO has proudly supported clinics across Mabumbu and surrounding communities with medical supplies and infrastructure that strengthen local healthcare delivery.

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated staff at each clinic. Your commitment to serving the community continues to inspire our work and our mission.

Together, we keep building healthier, stronger futures.

08/10/2026

This summer we spent some of our time in western Zambia continuing SEPO’s long-standing partnership with Kalangu School. SEPO has supported Kalangu since 2010: paying school fees for more than 500 students each year, assisting with renovations, and, with the help of Emmeline Cook students in Oshkosh, building an additional classroom in 2019.

During our visits this summer, we delivered 20 brand new desks to help improve learning conditions for the students. Desks at Kalangu are built to accommodate 3 – 4 students per desk and are essential to learning. Unfortunately, at Kalangu, many classrooms still have very limited desks available and students often sit on the floor.

A desk is not just furniture.
A desk is a basic tool that every learner deserves.
A desk is something that many of us take for granted.
A desk is a shared space where students learn and problem-solve together.
A desk is a foundation for confidence, focus, and pride.
A desk is dignity in learning.

Kalangu is still in need of at least 30 more desks.

If you would like to help SEPO meet this need, you can donate via our website (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/desks-for-kalangu).

Every desk directly supports a child’s ability to learn with dignity.

Thank you for standing with SEPO and with the students of Kalangu.

06/20/2026

Dr. Sam Coleman has a new publication out (Literacy, Labor, and Liberation) and it speaks directly to the heart of SEPO’s work in our Building Literacy and Academic Confidence with Kids (BLACK) Program.

In it, he names what we see every day in the BLACK Program: that literacy is not just about reading and writing. And it isn’t just for our youngest learners. Literacy is strategy. Literacy is power. Literacy is liberation. It is the foundation for economic mobility and community strength. Dr. Coleman’s analysis is sharp, necessary, and deeply aligned with why SEPO exists.

That alignment is made even more real as THIS is the person who teaches our scholars in the BLACK program.

We are profoundly grateful that Dr. Coleman is the one guiding our young people, pushing them to think critically, grounding them in their own brilliance, and connecting literacy to the world they are inheriting and shaping. His scholarship, his teaching, and his leadership are not separate lanes. They reinforce one another. Our scholars get to learn from someone who not only understands the stakes but is actively shaping the national conversation about them and doing so with a commitment rooted in community, dignity, and liberation.

SEPO celebrates this publication and the leadership behind it. Our community is better because of Dr. Coleman’s work, inside SEPO Center and far beyond it.

A luta continua (the struggle continues)!

Read his op ed here:
https://blackpolicyreview.rso.uchicago.edu/literacy-labor-and-liberation-why-strategy-and-policy-on-literacy-and-workforce-development-must-intersect/?utm_id=97758_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1dennhb6olj7s&fbclid=IwY2xjawSjD99leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETJFd05KV2ZhcjhsYTRKYUxtc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkWhUcHAwpkABBjoZ2TS4WgNZfBWmC1ei80g3YRqMMcvqPN7g_MhjCR8a4rj_aem_rmqC9oeNbBcDtzA_nbo40Q

06/19/2026

06/18/2026

Thank you, Oshkosh Area Community Foundation for supporting this program from the very start. Thanks to your donors and the Mary Schilcher Fund, SEPO is able to continue to build literacy and academic confidence with Oshkosh youth.

At SEPO, we see literacy (and the confidence it instills) as liberation. It isn’t just about reading. It’s about preparing our scholars to navigate systems that weren’t designed with them in mind, to advocate for themselves and others, and to step boldly into their futures, making our community better by their presence.

Thank you Oshkosh Area Community Foundation for partnering with us in this work.

Students were running toward the van hoping for a seat. 🏃🏾‍➡️

That’s what SEPO Executive Director Mushe Subulwa witnessed when picking up students for the Building Literacy & Academic Confidence with Kids (BLACK) program. Others found their own way to the center, hoping there might still be room.

For 93 students, this program has become more than a literacy initiative. Students are advancing in reading, building confidence, forming meaningful connections, and discovering what’s possible when someone believes in them.

One student shared: “Before joining the program, I felt like reading was something other kids could do, not me...Now, I believe in myself too.”

Thanks to support from donors and the 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘥, this life-changing program is helping young people strengthen their skills while finding their voice and their place in the community.

👇🏼 See comment below for link to the full story.

06/06/2026

❤️🧡💚ONE LOVE❤️🧡💚