\u201chousing first\u201d model<\/a>\u00a0of trying to find people shelter.<\/p>\nWhat Johnson does day-to-day is visit tent encampments or other known gathering spots to check on people living there, and attempt to connect them with beds in homeless shelters, said Roosevelt Jenkins, director of the public service ambassadors.\u00a0He often knows people’s social workers or other service providers and tries to make connections and keep people from slipping out of touch. That may mean finding resources for someone with addiction or mental illness. Johnson is known for giving out his business card to everyone and answering calls at all hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian has a great rapport,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cI’d say 80 to 90% of the people that he’ll see that are unsheltered he already knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
A longtime love of downtown Milwaukee<\/h2>\n
Johnson grew up in Milwaukee, raised by his mother and grandmother on the city\u2019s north side. He attended Cass Street School before graduating from Rufus King High School in 2006, and remembers his education as a challenging time in his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m not ashamed to say I was one of the young men that couldn’t read,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cPeople looked down on me a lot, my English grammar wasn’t right all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating from high school, Johnson said, he was struggling, with little direction beyond a desire to do better for himself. He began traveling downtown \u2014 walking because he did not have a car or bike or bus fare \u2014 and knocking on the door of any business he could find, resume in hand, in search of a job.<\/p>\n
Johnson said he went downtown for jobs, despite all the challenges, because it struck him as the most exciting part of the city, and somewhere he could learn every day.<\/p>\n
After a month of futility, Johnson finally saw his luck change when he bumped into Carol Robinson, whom he invariably refers to as Miss Carol, who was working as a downtown ambassador.<\/p>\n
Johnson saw her handing out pamphlets to city visitors. More than that, he remembers her attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a great smile, no matter what she would do every day, she got a smile on the face,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He approached Robinson, who helped him apply for the job. He’s been on the job ever since.<\/p>\n
Working as a public service ambassador forced Johnson to become better in his reading and speaking, a challenge he accepted with excitement and something he takes pride in as inspiration for young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come from 53206. In that area you find a lot of young people feel like they can’t make it,” Johnson said. \u201cI wanted to be that one to reach out, to show them the difference \u2014 that I was once like that, I couldn’t do certain things, but I didn’t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n