Announcing our 2024 Night with the Stars Gala Award Recipients! We are thrilled to announce our 2024 Night with the Stars award recipients! These honorees embody COA's mission and are a reflection of our organization's values. We look forward to telling their stories and celebrating the work they do in our communities at this [...]

For most families, the holidays are synonymous with food, festivities and gift-giving. Holiday traditions are usually defined by large social gatherings and spending time with family and friends. While we may not be able to come together physically this season, we can still connect as a community to spread goodwill. This year, our generous community [...]

COA Youth & Family Centers is pleased to welcome Charlotte Cannon-Sain as our new Executive Director! Charlotte’s appointment follows the retirement of Tom Schneider, who joined COA in 2001 as Executive Director and led the organization for nearly 20 years. Over the past two decades, Tom has demonstrated vision and innovation in advancing COA’s mission [...]

We’re excited to announce Tom Schneider, Executive Director of COA Youth & Family Centers, won BizTimes Media’s 2020 Nonprofit Executive of the Year Award! The prestigious award was presented by BizTimes Media at their 7th Annual Nonprofit Excellence Awards, held virtually on Friday, November 6, 2020.  Each year, the Nonprofit Executive of the Year Award [...]

On Friday, June 19, COA Youth & Family Centers held a Juneteenth celebration in Moody Park, adjacent to COA’s Goldin Center in Amani. An estimated 100 people joined together for a fun and uplifting day full of community-centered activities including COA staff, children and families, volunteers, residents, and community members of all ages. Juneteenth is [...]

Jocelyn is a 16-year-old junior at Riverside University High School. Raised on Milwaukee’s North Side, Jocelyn began attending COA’s teen program at the Goldin Center in 2017. She came every day after school to receive homework help. When she first began in the teen program, Jocelyn was closed-off, anti-social and distanced herself from her peers. [...]

On Friday, November 8th COA celebrated National STEM Day with our 3rd Annual STEM Expo held at our Goldin Center (2320 W. Burleigh Street). Over 120 youth ages four to 14 from multiple COA sites attended the Expo to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. 18 themed stations lined the gym at the Goldin Center, [...]

"What in our lives has been around for 114 years? And yet here we are…" Last month COA Youth & Family Centers held its 2019 Annual Meeting and Awards Presentation. COA board members, staff and volunteers gathered at the Wisconsin Club to celebrate COA’s incredible impact over the past year, and to honor the remarkable [...]

This story was originally published in COA's 2019 Annual Report. Read the whole report here. Darian is a three-year-old biracial child enrolled at COA’s Riverwest Early Education Center. When Darian joined COA’s Riverwest Early Education Center at age three in January 2019, his teacher Ms. Shawndra quickly noticed his antisocial behavior.  He refused to share [...]

Thanks to generous support from Herb Kohl Philanthropies, COA brought another group of teens to Washington, D.C.! COA’s inaugural D.C. visit was such a positive experience for teens last year that COA staff and youth were eager to make the incredible journey happen again in 2019. This past June, 23 new teens and seven chaperones [...]