Community School Updates
Southwest Baltimore Charter School: had good Resource Fair event, United Way and other partners came out, had a book bag giveaway. There have been challenges finding uniforms due to supply chain issues. Have been having great after school programming. (Need for khaki pants and blue polo shorts–especially smaller sizes and adult small, medium, large)
Charles Carroll Barrister: held popsicles with the principal event before the school opened. Having a lot of bussing issues because bus drivers are taking off and many of the students are bussed. Back to school night is September 14th–looking for vendors for tables, have reached out to United Way. Biggest need is for a Read-a-thon competition against Stueart Hill–have some asks for prizes for the top two readers. Also a monetary prize for the school with the top two readers. Looking for items for the kids and monetary donations for the schools.
Steuart Hill: started in person learning on Monday without major hiccups. Have been getting a lot of requests for uniforms as well, especially in the small sizes. Planning a face lift for the front of the building–do need volunteers (the week after Labor Day). Have a lot of upcoming partners coming into the school–will be a satellite location for BCCC for GED and ESL classes. Jane asked whether painting the school is the District’s responsibility? It can be a long wait to get it done, so because they have some donations and some volunteers ready to go they are going to move forward.
Youth Internship Update
Moving along–secure funding to cover at least four interns, still waiting on a larger grant that could give us money for staffing and materials, but we have enough to start with. Working on fleshing out what the day to day schedule looks like and will develop a recruiting plan and start recruiting over the next month.
Mental Health Update
Had decided at last meeting wanted to figure out if there was something the Committee could do to advance mental health access in the communities. Elizabeth will email the community health needs assessments to the Committee. Abigail has been talking to various stakeholders about what is needed. Elizabeth shared about the Healing City initiative which had presented to the Public Safety Committee. Dotie asked if there was anything that could be done directly to support folks and reach out to community members who may want to talk.
Two tracks that the SWP could take–playing a convening role and bringing institutions together that provide these services to get them deeper into the communities and then communicating more robustly with community members.
