The Baltimore Development Initative

Prior to embarking on my first year teaching, I was an Out of School Time Coordinator for an organization called Elev8 Baltimore. Essentially, I was responsible for coordinating and managing an after school program  for fifth through eighth graders at an East Baltimore school. My time in the position was formative insomuch as it made painfully clear to me that students in Baltimore City were struggling on many fronts and mere good intentions would not be enough help them succeed. It seemed obvious to me then that there needed to be radical changes in the community and the overall responsibilities of schools.

I continued to formulate the lessons I learned but I held little optimism for any real change in Baltimore until I read about Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) and Geoffrey Canada's work to once again establish Harlem as a thriving community through education. I found myself compelled by Canada's success and wondered why no-one ever tried this type of reform in Baltimore. Baltimore, as a city of neighborhoods, seems the ideal location to create a community based school -- the small communities are homogenous in nature and certainly in need of revitalization. Indeed, Elev8 and the East Baltimore Development, Inc. that operates it were born as a response to the steady decline of housing, schools, businesses, and human capital in the area north of the JHU Medical Campus. Though the impact these initiatives may have on East Baltimore are largely unclear, they speak to the possibility of significant reform.

At present time, EBDI and Elev8 provide supplemental services to four schools in the community -- out-of school time opportunities, school-based health services,  support and outreach for the families they serve. Further, EBDI works to provide infrastructure, workforce development, and housing and employment counseling among other services. In East Baltimore then, it would seem that significant, though slightly disjointed, changes are being made. However, to truly work these initiatives need complete and utter cohesion. There cannot be any gaps in the model or any uncertainty about the end goal because that is the point at which reform faces death as Geoffrey Canada can attest to. Speaking of Canada, the initiative also requires a clear leader. Currently, there is no official leader of spear-header of the project -- it is run by a board. While democratic,  I believe that the lack of an official leader weakens the promise of the initiative. 

Baltimore needs EBDI to succeed and, despite its shortcomings, I think it will prove a worthy initiative.  It is my hope that change in East Baltimore will begat change in West Baltimore and so on.