The Unity Awards celebrate people and organizations who are working to make Milwaukee a better place for all.

Some of Milwaukee’s most transformative work happens without headlines or applause. Each year, these awards honor leaders who foster connection, create opportunity and strengthen our community. 

Join us on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, at Jan Serr Studio to celebrate the awards with special guest and 2023 Unity honoree Deanna Singh, who will interview this year’s cohort and lead an audience Q&A. Don’t miss this chance to connect with Milwaukee’s changemakers and be part of the celebration.

Our 2026 Unity Award Winners:

Kurt Owens

Owens was considering leaving his Old North Milwaukee neighborhood but instead doubled down and founded Bridge Builders Inc. and Uflourish Church to help remake, block by block, the Northwest Side. In addition to community-building efforts, Bridge Builders has brought and renovated eight former nuisance houses, replacing drug dealers and other troublemakers with neighbors in good standing.

Jack Bolog

The 26-year-old has led the implementation of a new way of thinking about food security at People’s Table, a nonprofit that serves more than 6,000 families on the South Side. One of the Bolog’s key initiatives as director of operations is known as food collectives, in which networks of member-households who benefit from People’s Table work together to partner with and source food from other organizations, pooling resources and strengthening connectivity within neighborhoods.

Element Everest-Blanks

Everest-Blanks uses her various platforms – founder, DJ and program director at Radio Milwaukee’s HYFIN station; Amplifier in Residence at Marcus Performing Arts Center; advocate for independent music venues and many other roles – to elevate Milwaukee’s diverse communities in music and culture spaces that historically have often excluded people of color. 

Ken Ginlack

Ginlack overcame his own troubled past of crime and substance abuse to lead Serenity Inns, growing in just a few years from a single recovery home into a comprehensive continuum of care for men battling substance abuse and mental health challenges. Serenity Inns opened a new 14-bed, $3 million facility on the North Side in 2024. 

Katie Cummings

Cummings had a vision for a professional theater organization to amplify the voices of people with disabilities – and she founded Pink Umbrella Theater Company in 2018 to do just that. It’s one of only six theater companies in the country to focus on hiring paid performers with disabilities, putting on three original plays a year and leading workshops for hundreds of area students. Cummings has also worked with other performing arts companies to ensure their performances are sensory-friendly.

Levi Stein

As executive director of Friendship Circle of Wisconsin, the rabbi creates opportunities for adults with disabilities through the Friendship Circle Cafe and Bakery in Fox Point. But since the pandemic, Stein has also directed the organization into mental health issues, creating the “Wish You Knew” podcast for and by teens, and leading dozens of SafeTALK suicide-prevention trainings – an effort catalyzed by the 2024 death of his friend Ald. Jonathan Brostoff.

We look forward to this year’s event on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 at Jan Serr Studio (2155 N. Prospect Ave.). We’d love to see you there! Buy your tickets today.