Couple to open Wisconsin’s first group home for LGBTQ youth

Brad Schlaikowski and his husband Nick have spent the last two years raising money to open an eight-bedroom group home in Milwaukee specifically for LGBTQ teens. It’s called Courage House, and expected to open its doors in November. It will be Wisconsin’s first group home and drop-in center specifically for LGBTQ youth.

via NBC News

“We have 500 kids on the street in Milwaukee, 40 percent identify as LGBT,” Brad said.

He added that many of those LGBTQ youth are “perpetually on the street because their parents rejected them.”

The Schlaikowskis have four children of their own: three boys, who are Brad’s biological sons from a previous marriage, and a baby girl they adopted together.

Prior to starting Courage House, the couple fostered two LGBTQ teenagers. One, a 17-year-old girl, was thrown out of her parents’ house after she came out as a lesbian, according to Brad. He said she was turned away from a homeless shelter for the same reason.

The home will offer children’s therapy and counseling, and will partner with a local staffing firm that will provide employment training and job placement for the teen residents.