Rodney Bourrage created Operation DREAM in 2006 after 20 years of teaching and other community work. (Photo by Jabril Faraj) Editor’s note: This article is one of an occasional series profiling the 15 finalists for the Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation (MANDIs). Rodney Bourrage is a finalist for the Northern Trust Navigator Award, which recognizes individuals for leadership and collaboration. Davon Carter, 14, has never known his father — he left when Davon was a year old. He and his younger brothers were raised by their mother. Then, when Davon was 12, that all changed. “She basically couldn’t take care of us no more,” he said, “She didn’t have a lot of money and we were very bad.” Davon’s brothers went to their grandparents’ house; Davon went into foster care. “When I first came to foster care, I always had an angry look on my face, and I never liked to talk,” he said. Davon then went to live with Melissa Carter, who adopted him in November 2014. By that time Davon was participating in Operation DREAM. “Just being in this program with all boys, keeping them active, getting out and doing stuff in the community, he loved it.” Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! Rodney Bourrage founded the mentoring program for at-risk boys in 2006. Bourrage, who had taught and worked in the community for 20 years, saw a need for role models, particularly males, in the central city. The organization serves more than 300 boys, ages 4 to 18; 97 percent are African-American. Melissa Carter (right) said Rodney Bourrage and Operation DREAM have helped to provide her son Davon with stability and positive role models. (Photo by Jabril Faraj) “When I was young, there were people there for me. There was the teacher, the preacher, the neighbor, the older siblings, the older neighbors, my parents’ friends — everybody was there,” said Bourrage, who grew up in the 53206 ZIP code during the 1960s. “Now … you have shady characters.” Even though he had support, Bourrage had his own challenges. He wasn’t a great student; he “didn’t do a whole lot of studying or learn how to study.” Bourrage said his father told him from a young age that he would play football at Michigan or Ohio State, so he immersed himself in sports. “I was a good student, you know, as far as conduct, but wasn’t the best academically and didn’t know how to excel. My father had a third-grade education and my mother, she had graduated from high school and had some technical college,” he said. “Academics wasn’t something that was really big as far as enhancement, enrichment.” Bourrage, who graduated from Washington High School, eventually did learn how to study. After flunking out of UWM and UW-Eau Claire, working in a Milwaukee factory for four years and starting a family, Bourrage returned to UWM and graduated in 1987. Later, he completed a graduate degree in cultural education, also from UWM. But none of that diminished his love for sports. “It was kind of like an outlet from … poverty and being poor, growing up poor,” he said. “You always had positive activities, you always had people that were there for you.” In 1989, Bourrage began coaching baseball at Beckum Stapleton Little League, near North 8th and West Brown streets. Shortly after, he started coaching soccer and basketball, as well. The basketball team included boys from the central city and from the Jewish Day School. Bourrage said it was difficult, even then, because he knew about the barriers the young black boys would face. “I knew a lot of the Jewish kids … would end up being very productive people in life — doctors, business owners, lawyers,” said Bourrage. “And, a lot of these boys playing ball with them, on the same team, a lot of them wouldn’t be around — they would be dead or in jail.” “I can name 10 black boys that are dead from gun violence,” he said. “Our boys are dying in the streets.” For Bourrage, the urgency could not have been more pronounced. But he was only scraping the tip of the iceberg. “They were still dying. I knew I had to do more.” So, 10 years ago, he created Operation DREAM. The organization began with Saturday programming at the Boys and Girls Club and field trips, including trips to ballgames, Discovery World, horseback riding, college visits. “Member Support Coaches,” mentors who work with 12 to 15 boys, help to manage the boys’ lives “as a parent would,” making daily phone calls, weekly home visits and taking the boys to do fun activities. Larry Willis, the first of five coaches, has been involved in community work for more than 20 years, putting young men in his neighborhood through military drills, working with St. Charles Youth and Family Services and the Social Development Commission.