Courage House, home to LGBTQ+ teens in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's first home for homeless LGBT owned by a Kind Couple
Founded in 2015, Courage MKE is an organization that provides housing and other important resources to homeless LGBTQ+ teens in Wisconsin. It is owned by Brad and Nick Schlaikowski, a gay couple dedicated to making the lives of LGBTQ+ youth better in any way they can. In the middle of the year, they decided to step up and opened Courage House, a place where homeless LGBTQ+ teens can temporarily call home when they need to.
The house assists residents with counseling, healthcare, life skills, and family reunification.
Courage House, a licensed group home on Milwaukee’s south side, is Wisconsin’s first home for displaced LGBTQ+ youth. It assists residents with counseling, healthcare, life skills, and family reunification. They also make sure all children experience the same home and family environment that anyone would. They were able to set up The Courage House with the cooperation of community volunteers and partners, including Kohl's, Lowe's, Kohler, and Sherwin Williams.
They first welcomed 5 residents after it was renovated.
The house consists of three bedrooms and one bathroom. The couple spent 18 months renovating the home while working their jobs and raising their children, three from Brad’s previous marriage and Ivy, whom the couple adopted in 2016 after fostering her for some time. In less than a month, they welcomed its first resident, then 5.
The couple was inspired to open the house because of their foster child.
According to the couple, they were inspired to open the home when they fostered a teen named Annette. She was kicked out of her home by her parents when she came out to them as a lesbian. Brad and Nick realized that they could not imagine that there are other kids out there, without a home, with nowhere to sleep in the night. They wanted them to know that there’s a door they can knock on and get a hot meal and a shower and a soft pillow to sleep on.
Hopefully, the Schlaikowskis' kind actions will inspire more people to get involved!
In addition to giving the basic needs to LGBTQ+ teens in need, The Courage House has also become a way to spark conversation and initiate a dialog about LGBTQ+ issues as well as how to get involved. Nick stated, "We’re strengthening the community by doing our best to send awesome, powerful adults into the world that otherwise probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to do that. We’re just kind of like, pushing it forward and hopefully creating powerful leaders that are going to take over and make the world better." Brad added, "Bringing these children into our house taught them that everyone needs to be, and deserves to be, loved." Hopefully, the Schlaikowskis' kind actions will inspire more people to get involved!
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