OUR HISTORY

Jeannetta Robinson House is named in the honor of Ms. Jeannetta Simpson Robinson, who passed away in 2008. Jeannetta and her mother, the late Ms. Claretta Simpson (affectionately known as “Mother Freedom”), founded Career Youth Development (CYD) as the premier social services organization in Milwaukee that assisted thousands of children and indigent families escape the plagues of drugs, poverty, homelessness and mental illness for over forty years. Many of Milwaukee’s leaders in the public sector today received in their youth education, nurturing, inspiration and leadership training from Jeannetta. The motto of CYD was “love in action”.

The mission of the Jeannetta Robinson House is to provide a safe, secure and nurturing temporary home for men and women experiencing substance use disorders, often with co-occurring trauma. The goal of Jeannetta Robinson House is to rehabilitate clients so they can reclaim their lives; and rejoin their families as they transition back into society as empowered, recovering, productive members of society.

Jeannetta Robinson House opened its doors in 2016. It is located in the building of a former convent that housed a Catholic congregation of nuns who established hospitals, schools, shelters, and soup kitchens in Milwaukee in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The pioneering spirit of those nuns lives on in each member of our staff as we strive daily to provide skilled, compassionate care to the clients who seek our services. Clients are served without regard to their income or ability to pay, and all are welcomed with open arms regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or developmental or other disability.