Committee voted to approve last months meeting minutes
Police Updates
Having difficulty with the computer so not able to get the stats for the area. Asked if the bike officers have been seen in the neighborhood?
Committee discussed needle clean up and proper procedures. Put them in jars and take them to the local fire station.
Healing City
In 2019 there was school shooting at Frederick Douglass High School–City Council held a hearing focused on youth voices and youth violence. Young people wanted City to focus on prevention rather than policing.
Healing City began as a way to directly addressed trauma from a legislative perspective. It hadn’t been an area that the city’s laws/legislation had addressed (alleviating trauma) before.
Legislation is called the Elijah Cummings Healting City Act. Baltimore is the first city to legislate trauma informed care. Trauma Informed Task Force consists of 36 people from a range of walks of life.
Legislation creates task force to create a city-wide strategy
Legislation calls for every city agency and employee to become trauma informed and trauma responsive
All agencies must review their policies and procedures to become trauma informed and equitable (working with the task force)
Started the city wide trainings with libraries.
Found during the listening sessions before the legislation that there a lot of people in Baltimore doing healing work, but they were siloed, and there was a desire for collective work. Healing City is bringing together all the people who are working on healing and trauma in Baltimore. Build community in big and small ways through various events. Working access to trauma informed care training.
Do work through working groups that are open to anyone who wants to join
Tyrone–how are you measuring success?
For libraries–better feelings of morale in patrons using the space and a reduction in incident reports and reviewing policies that are more punitive than necessary (such as automatically banning folks from libraries who are intoxicated). Also looking at a reduction in violence.
What areas are they looking at for community trainings: (Tyrone offered the UMB Community Engagement Center as space) a lot of emphasis has gone into the city government training. Community training is in development at this moment.
JR: asked about strategy around trauma response teams for community members who had witnessed and been impacted by violence. What is the plan for addressing neighborhood trauma? Don’t have a strategy at this point–that’s one of things that they are currently working on. City has to do a better job at cleaning up scenes of violence. Want to develop something that really works and that the City can pay for. JR discussed the lack of recreational opportunities available for young people.
Scott: is there a way for community based sports programs to include trauma informed care? Good question, really important is something that they are working on with churches and barber shops, there are a couple organizations in the city that are currently doing this.
How do we get more involved in the work? Is there a way to plug into the working groups? To join: https://healingcitybaltimore.com/join/ most groups every other week
Linda: where are the trainers coming from? Working with Sage Wellness and the Baltimore City Health Department and the library system to identify folks in the community who are very good at what they do (such as Roberta’s House)
What are the strategies for addressing drug use and addiction in the community, especially around loose needles and other drug paraphernalia? Cohen–City went too hard on the War on Drugs. City trying to pivot to a public health approach–he doesn’t have a great answer, wants to make a connection to the Baltimore City Health Department where there are programs with needle collections and needle exchanges
Kevin: Poe Homes and Townes and the Terraces now has a safety officer. Resident coordinator has been hired and will start the first Monday in September to bring trauma informed care to Poe Homes
Project Updates
UMB CEC is offering a mental health first aid training September 29th and 30th. Elizabeth will share a registration link
UMMC Erin Walton (Erinwalton@umm.edu): Violence Prevention program provides case managers, social workers and therapists, and a community trauma responder. The community trauma responder can be deployed to the community after a traumatic community event. If anyone is interested in hosting a mental health first aid training UMMC has trainers who can come out and provide the training as well as the materials at no cost. Also like to integrate Stop the Bleed training. How are secondary victims defined? Anyone who has witnessed it or been exposed to it
Bike Rodeo: tentatively scheduled for April 2nd 2-4pm
