Wanda Smith saw that her community was in need and she decided to take action. This past summer, she hosted three successful block parties in Fitchburg’s King James Way area to bring the community together and to serve the neighborhood’s kids, who were too often struggling to live a productive life amid drugs, gangs and violence. The block parties gave her a chance to talk with area community members who for years had been underserved and neglected and have felt that the City of Fitchburg has failed to invest in their area of the city.
“The two alders that have represented the area have not been active in this community. Going to the neighborhood meetings and trying to get them to come to the planning committees was difficult. Basically, we didn’t exist. We were not on the map,” Smith tells Madison365. “So, I said to myself, ‘I’m doing all their work. I’m trying to build this community. I’m trying to get a park and a community center and I’m bringing all of these people together and doing all these positive things and getting all of these people to partner. I’m doing their job.’”
That’s when it clicked for Smith that she should run for one of the seats for Fitchburg’s District 1 – to give a voice to the many voiceless constituents in that area. Still, running for elected office is a big, life-changing decision.
“It wasn’t an easy decision for me. When you run for office, you get a lot of haters to deal with when you start fighting for change. Change is difficult for people,” Smith says. “But, I was like, ‘Who better to do it than me?’ I already have the rapport with the people and all of the community leaders and the city and the fire department. I felt like I could do a really good job.”
Fitchburg’s District 1 is an incredibly diverse district and Smith says her goal is to bring equity, health, and happiness to all people – homeowners and renters alike. She’s running for seat number 2 in District 1, held currently by Carol Poole.
“In our research, we found that there are 6,500 people that live in District 1 and that 50 percent are white and mostly homeowners. The rest are people of color,” Smith says.
The block parties that she hosted over the summer and into the early fall was a chance to bring people together and to focus on that diversity and that positivity. “We were bringing awareness to an underserved community that I’ve lived in for three years – King James Way Neighborhood,” Smith says. “We needed services in our community. I realized that there wasn’t a park. There wasn’t a community center … and the crime rate was going up. I said, ‘We need to get some intervention because if we don’t get these kids off the street, they will create their own activities.”
There was nothing going on in the neighborhoods and without positive things to do, young people were getting into mischief. Smith started to host the block parties and working to bridge the gaps between the cultures. “In the King James Way Neighborhood, you have blacks, Latinos, whites, Asians. I wanted to bring everybody together,” she says. “We got a lot of community organizers involved and we got it on people’s radars. We started talking about how we can give this city an upgrade. We have to reach people economically, spiritually, psychologically … so let’s build them up by bringing resources.”
The movement kept getting bigger and bigger and more and more people wanted to partner with her. Earlier this year, Wanda was appointed to the City of Fitchburg’s Community Economic Development Authority (CEDA) committee which aims to build safe and equitable communities. It was while working with CEDA that Smith was inspired to advocate for the whole community – not just for the white homeowners.
“After the three block parties, we partnered with the City of Fitchburg to have a pilot afterschool program at the Fire Station #2. We had boy’s groups, we had homework club, we feed the kids. We have a shoestring budget that we hope we can build up. It’s been very positive,” she says. “It’s been going well. We’re trying to keep the kids off the street, trying to keep them involved and to teach them life skills. We want to have it full-time. We want to have jobs skills classes.”
Smith is the founder and president of Peace Network, Inc., an award-winning mental health consulting service. Through this organization, Smith works with her colleagues to equip women, men, and children with the skills necessary to fulfill their potential as individuals in the community.
“Peace Network is a mental health consulting service where we equip men, women and children to live through these emotionally challenging times through one-on-one group workshops and seminars,” Smith says. “I’ve worked as a community organizer for the last 10 years in Madison and have partnered with just about everybody, so everybody knows me.”
“’Peace’ represents being without strife … calmness, the stillness that I demand every day. The ‘network’ is connected to many different organizations,” she adds. “So, bringing these people in to get to that peace that our city will need will be powerful and that’s what the Peace Network is all about.”
Smith has earned a degree in psychology, along with multiple honors and certifications. She has more than a decade of experience in human services including mental health counseling, Alzheimer and Dementia patient care, and domestic abuse intervention advocacy. “I understand the mental health of everything and I do a lot of research,” she says. “One of the things that I majored in was psychotherapy. If I can help change the minds of people in what they think from that negative perception to being positive … The world will change.”
Smith resides with her husband and child right in the King James neighborhood, not far from Frances Huntley-Cooper, who made history on April 2, 1991, when she became Wisconsin’s first and only African-American mayor elected to office. Huntley-Cooper served as mayor of Fitchburg from 1991-1993.
“It was so great to meet with her and chat with her. She gave me a lot of great advice,” Smith says of a recent sit-down meeting with Huntley-Cooper. “She gave me a lot of good feedback and I’ve taken it to heart.”
Speaking of Fitchburg mayors, Smith is happy that her campaign has been endorsed by the current one – Mayor Steve Arnold. Smith has been piling up endorsements and has gotten her name out there more and more as she goes house to house knocking on as many doors as she can. She says that she has gotten a lot of great feedback from people in District 1.
“I’ve been out knocking on doors and I will continue to knock on more doors. I am meeting a lot of people. I’m excited. I’m mostly excited about change – because I want to see all of Fitchburg served,” she says. “It’s sad to me that it’s one of the wealthiest cities and 40 percent of the people are living in poverty. We’re building high infrastructure across McKee Road. High risers and big businesses and right down the street you have a community that is underserved.
“I see money going everywhere but to the neighborhoods that really need them,” Smith adds. “That’s one of the reasons I decided to make the sacrifice to run for alder. I’m putting myself on the line because that’s the only way that people are going to get the services they need.
Smith says that it’s important for the future of the city that the youth are on the right track.
“The youth are our future. If we build them up, we will have a better community,” she says. “We have a lot of talented young kids, they just don’t have the opportunities. This is a community where we can get it done. I just want to make sure that we have equality for everybody.”
Smith says that the ultimate goal is for the city to turn over Fire Station No. 2 to become a community center. “They will be moving out in June, but there is a lot of competition for that building,” Smith says. “We want grassroots leaders to run that building. I want to have a diverse group of leaders that live in that community that can serve that community. That’s the only way. Because they know the struggles there.”
Smith calls herself the “People’s Candidate” and wants to be a voice for traditionally neglected people in her district, but she also stresses that her job is to work for everybody.
“I want to be for all of the people. I care about the seniors. I’ve worked in nursing homes with all white people and I treated them just like grandma and grandpa,” she says. “I’ve worked with disabled kids and mentally challenged. Those communities feel like they have been underserved, too, and they are right.
“Plato said it best: ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.’ That’s how I live my life,” she adds. “I don’t care where you come from or how much money you have, because you are still fighting a battle and life will hit you just like it hit me and hit everybody else.”
Smith is also a minister, serving as an Ordained Evangelist of Miracle of Life Outreach Ministries in Madison. She takes very seriously those words of Plato and lives her life around that motto. “I don’t look down on people. I don’t want to focus on people. I want to focus on issues that they have. I think too often we look at colors and we determine that, ‘Oh, we can’t do that.’ Instead of looking at issues that we can solve.”
Because everybody’s issues regardless of race, for the most part, are the same.
“That’s right. Now, we just have to get the Common Council to see that. That’s where my eyes will be valuable because they don’t see that,” she says. “They don’t see it because they don’t live in those neighborhoods. Their perception is different. And that’s why it’s so important to have diversity.”
Smith says that embracing systemic solutions are the key and that the old adage of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” applies to what is going on in Fitchburg right now.
“I’ve lived here [in the Madison area] for 25 years and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen the injustices and the racial disparity issues and I’m like, do I continue to just see this or do I try and make a difference? Because it’s going to take people like me and others to get in there and to sit at the table and help change policy and procedures,” she says. “That’s the only way it’s going to change. If we don’t, nothing will ever change.
“We have great potential here in Fitchburg. There’s so much we can get accomplished. But everybody needs to have a voice and feel like they are part of it,” she adds. “I will be that voice. I’m running because I want to make a difference. I want to make sure everybody has a voice. I want to give people hope.”
