Awake Blog
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As Awake Begins Our Fifth Year, We Unveil An Updated Mission Statement
It’s hard to believe that it was only four years ago, in August 2019, that Awake Milwaukee was launched. What started as a small group of Catholic lay people gathering in my living room has become a vibrant, rapidly expanding nonprofit organization with a national and even international reach…

“I Will Never Forget This Weekend”: Transformative Experiences at Awake’s First Retreat for Abuse Survivors
I didn’t know what to expect when I stepped into Awake’s recent weekend retreat for abuse survivors. After months of planning and more Zoom meetings than I can count, we were finally bringing together 17 people who had experienced sexual abuse by a Catholic leader…

Two Small Words, One Growing Impact: Why Awake is Updating Our Mission Statement
It has now been almost two years since we officially launched Awake Milwaukee in August 2019 with a simple website and our Open Letter to Survivors (which you can still sign here!).




This Is Not The Time To Give Up
Thank goodness it’s May. April was long and hard on both my body and my soul. I am guessing that many of you feel the same way.

Awake Questions Update: The Archdiocese Explains the Community Advisory Board
In our effort to better understand how local Church leaders are responding to the issue of sexual abuse in our Church, Awake continues to seek answers to questions we submitted to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in December 2019.

Update: The Archdiocese Answers Awake’s Safe Environment Questions
As we explained in a previous blog post, Awake submitted a list of questions to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in December 2019, in an effort to understand how local Church leaders are responding to the abuse crisis.

Update: The Archdiocese of Milwaukee Responds to Awake’s Questions (Part 2)
As we explained in our previous blog post, Awake submitted a list of questions to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in December 2019 and received responses to a shorter list of priority questions in January 2020.

Update: The Archdiocese of Milwaukee Responds to Awake’s Priority Questions
As part of our ongoing effort to understand the abuse crisis at the local level, Awake submitted a list of questions to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in December 2019. (This previous blog post includes our complete list of questions and details about how we developed them.)

Behind the Scenes of Awake’s Open Letter to Survivors
When members of the Awake Leadership Team began meeting in the spring of 2019, we wanted to make sure our first step as an organization clearly conveyed who we are and why we’re undertaking this work. This is how our Open Letter to Survivors was born.