Tyrone Dumas and Linda Mellowes, former Greater Milwaukee Foundation board member, are both longtime community volunteers with a passion for education, children and the city of Milwaukee. They share many of the same friends and each has a parent who grew up in the small Arkansas town of Fordyce. But the two didn't meet - and become friends - until they were introduced to each other through the Mosaic Partnerships Program which began in 2005.
 
The Mosaic Partnerships Program offers a unique way to help communities like Milwaukee that often struggle with race relations. The program pairs community leaders of different races, ethnicities and professions and guides them through a nine-month process of relationship, understanding, and trust building.
 
"Unless you get enough community leaders beginning to have conversations regarding race relations, as well as building a rolodex so they begin to have trusted relationships across race, you can't really change race relations in a city like Milwaukee," said Doug Jansson, president of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, which introduced Mosaic to Milwaukee.
 
Mosaic is not a diversity program, nor is it a traditional approach to addressing race relations.  "The goal is to challenge assumptions, change mindsets and create a cultural shift by sharing personal and professional networks," said Mosaic program coordinator Genyne Edwards. 
 
Twenty-one foundations and donors - including Assurant Health, Helen Bader, Lynde and Harry Bradley, Catholic Community,  Fleck, Greater Milwaukee, Manpower, Martin Family, Faye McBeath, Jane Bradley Pettit, and We Energies - are supporting a three-year pilot to recruit at least 700 community leaders to participate. Mosaic is well on the way to reaching that goal with the third class of partners, which has included board members and staff from various foundations.
 
As a Mosaic participant, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett not only sees the need for the program, but the important collaborative role the funding partners play in bringing it to Milwaukee.
 
"As Mayor, I frequently point to the need for partnerships to make our city safer and stronger. I have been particularly impressed by, and am grateful for, the collaborative nature of a diverse group of foundations and donors that make this important program possible," said Mayor Barrett.
 
The Mosaic Partnerships Program is creating new alliances and increasing social capital among Milwaukee's diverse residents, essential elements to successfully tackling race relation issues.