One year ago the Sherman Park violence was a crisis for family, friends and the faith community. When that weekend turned to mayhem, Pastor Alexis Twito and her team of chaplains were on a mission.
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"I looked at my group of chaplains and I said OK, I need one of you over there, one of you over here, another over here," Twito said, "so that we can kind of surround the space, try to be a prayerful peaceful presence."
She's a chaplain with the Salvation Army that partners with Milwaukee police for moments like the weekend of Aug. 13, to pray to listen to help.
"My hope was, boy I sure hope we can come together," Twito said. "I hope we can work out a plan to react to this to take seriously the hurt and the pain we are hearing but also come to working solutions."
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So Twito and other chaplains hit the streets to listen to people's concerns.
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Twito grew up in Milwaukee and lives in Sherman Park. The one criticism she got during the Sherman Park unrest was: Why does the faith community only show up during a crisis? She vowed to change that.
"Where are you every day," was the question she often heard? "Yes, this is a crisis, but we live in crisis every day," she said neighbors told her.
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But as the days passed, Twito said police, community groups and other pastors kept an open dialogue and it worked.
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"When we brought in a new class of chaplains at the beginning of this year in January over half of them came as a result of what happened at the unrest in August," she said.
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The unrest turned into an unexpected result for a chaplaincy program that now feels stronger and better to serve Milwaukee.
