2026-10-21 - Public Health & Environment Committee

00:02Good morning. Good morning. Good

00:03morning. I am Councilwoman Felicia

00:05Porter representing the 10th District

00:07and chairperson of the Public Health and

00:08Environment Committee. As a reminder,

00:10please mute or turn off all of your cell

00:13phones, please.

00:14Also joining us today, we have a few

00:16committee members, Councilman Mark

00:18Conway in the Fourth District.

00:20>> Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:20>> We also have Councilman Mark Conwright

00:23I'm sorry, Mark Parker from the First

00:24District.

00:25>> Madam Chair.

00:26>> And just for records records purposes,

00:30Councilwoman Ramos of the 14th District

00:32has an excused absence. We have several

00:34representatives from the mayor's office

00:36and city council president's office, and

00:38also our youth commission here today.

00:40So, I'm super excited. Thank you all so

00:42much for being here.

00:44And then we also have

00:46we are also staffed by our committee

00:47staff person, Marguerite Curran.

00:50Today we are Today we are discussing

00:54Resolution 26-0064,

00:57an informational hearing about youth

01:00peer violence. For the purpose of

01:01requiring representatives of the

01:03Baltimore City Health Department, the

01:04mayor's office of Neighborhood and

01:05Safety and Engagement, the mayor's

01:07office of Children and Family Success,

01:09and the mayor's office of African

01:11American Male Engagement, and inviting

01:13representatives from Baltimore City

01:14Public Schools, the Baltimore City

01:16School Police, and the University of

01:18Maryland Baltimore Center Baltimore

01:20Center for Violence Prevention, and the

01:22Dean of Community Engaged Research at

01:24the Johns Hopkins University to appear

01:26before the council to discuss the scope

01:28of youth peer violence in Baltimore

01:30City, how institutions, including

01:32emergency departments in the city, are

01:34currently addressing the problem, the

01:36challenges service providers and parents

01:38face in addressing youth peer violence,

01:40and further steps the city and its

01:42institutions could take to address the

01:44problem.

01:45I am the primary bill sponsor.

01:48>> [gasps]

01:48>> Every child deserves to get home safe.

01:51Today's committee hearing is holding an

01:53informa- Today's committee is holding an

01:54informational hearing on this resolution

01:57regarding peer violence.

01:59I've heard from families in my district

02:00and across the city about this various

02:03issue. Parents tell me about the fights

02:05that start online and end at a bus stop,

02:07about children who are afraid to walk

02:09home from school, about young people who

02:11are jumped, recorded, and humiliated,

02:13and who carry that injury, physical and

02:16emotional, with no one checking on them

02:18afterward.

02:20Behind every one of those cases is a

02:21young person and a family trying to

02:23figure out where to turn. As a public

02:25health scientist myself, I want to start

02:27with one simple question. Who is

02:29responsible for this child after the

02:32harm happens? When we talk about

02:34violence in Baltimore, the conversation

02:36usually turns to guns, gangs, and adult

02:38offenders. Youth peer violence is a very

02:41distinct problem, and it happens between

02:43young people who know each other, who

02:44share classrooms, who live on the same

02:47blocks.

02:48It includes fights, group assaults,

02:50bullying, harassment that spills from

02:52social media onto our streets. And it

02:55also is the least visible. A child

02:57treated in the emergency room or

02:59disciplined at school or both records

03:02records of rarely connection.

03:05No single system sees a whole picture.

03:08Few young people get that follow-up, and

03:11that matters. Research shows that young

03:14people treated at the ages of 10 between

03:16the ages of 10 to 15 for fights fights

03:19that almost never involve a gun are

03:21often the ones who return years later

03:24with firearm involvement. In public

03:26health, we call that a window.

03:29Early, quiet, easy to miss. It is also

03:32the moment when prevention works best.

03:35So, today, I want us to be clear on four

03:37findings. First, the scope. How big the

03:40problem is in Baltimore, what does the

03:41data tell us who is being harmed, where

03:44and when?

03:45Second, what is being done right now in

03:48our schools, our violence prevention

03:49programs, and our hospitals? The

03:52emergency department is often the first

03:54and only point of contact after a young

03:56person is hurt. What happens with that

03:58follow-up? What happens when that child

04:00walks out of that ER? And third, the

04:02challenges. I want to hear honestly from

04:05providers about the gaps, whether it is

04:06staffing, funding, data sharing, or

04:09coordination between agencies.

04:11And parents face challenges, too.

04:14Many do not know what resources exist,

04:16and many feel they have nowhere to go.

04:19Fourth, what comes next?

04:21This morning, we had the student

04:22government association from James

04:24McHenry middle elementary and middle

04:27school,

04:28and they asked me a very clear question.

04:31What can the city and its institutions

04:33do to prevent these conflicts before

04:35they even turn violent, and how we can

04:37support young people after they've been

04:40harmed so the cycle doesn't continue?

04:43Our young people deserve to feel safe

04:45within their schools, on their blocks,

04:47and and the on the way between the two.

04:49Their parents deserve a system that

04:51responds when they ask for help. This

04:53hearing is a starting point, and I

04:55expect us to leave with a shared

04:57understanding of the problem, a clear

04:59sense of who is responsible for each

05:01next step.

05:03Again, I come back to my opening

05:05statement. Every child deserves to get

05:08home safe. So, let's get to work.

05:11I'm going to turn it over to public

05:13testimony. In this committee, we flipped

05:16it so that public testimony is at the

05:18beginning because again,

05:21scholars, remember I said to use that

05:23muscle. So, people come to testify

05:26in these chambers about the issues that

05:28they're experiencing in communities. So,

05:30I want to make sure that our agencies

05:32and our panelists hear directly from our

05:36panel of of those that are doing public

05:38testimony today. And this morning, I

05:41think we have a few that are testifying.

05:45Do we have that list?

05:46Oh, no one's here to testify. I believe

05:48we do.

05:49>> Unless they want to come forward first.

05:50>> Does anyone want to come forward to

05:52testify? Yes, Mr. Chair of the Baltimore

05:54City Youth Commission.

06:06Thank you so much for being here, Mr.

06:07Chair.

06:09And if you want to hit the side, yep, it

06:12turns on the microphone. If you can

06:14identify yourself and

06:16>> My name is Curtis Johnson Jr. I'm the

06:17chair of the Baltimore City Youth

06:18Commission.

06:20And I'm happy to be here today to have

06:21the opportunity to speak up before you

06:23guys.

06:30It is an honor to have this opportunity

06:32as a young person to speak before you on

06:34this pressing matter of youth peer

06:35violence in our city.

06:37When addressing the topic of youth

06:39violence in our city, it requires you to

06:40have empathy,

06:42compassion, and understanding to truly

06:44get to the root cause of the issue that

06:46is facing the youth and more so our

06:47communities and neighborhoods.

06:50As I stand here before you today,

06:52it's taken me a great deal of courage to

06:54share my experience.

06:57On November 3rd, in broad daylight, I

06:59was assaulted and robbed by two teens

07:01who also appeared to be around the same

07:02age as myself.

07:04Their motive for targeting me was to

07:06steal my North Face coat.

07:08I managed to keep my coat, but my bag

07:11was ultimately stolen.

07:13By chance,

07:15a resident in the neighborhood was able

07:16to find it and return it to me with most

07:18of my belongings still intact.

07:21My experience was unfortunately one of

07:23over 20 other related robberies that

07:25occurred last year around the winter

07:27season.

07:28That encounter left me feeling

07:29frustrated, vulnerable, and even

07:32confused.

07:33But what might surprise you is that I

07:35started to question the entire

07:36encounter.

07:38The conclusion that I got to was that

07:40maybe if there were more spaces better

07:42resources to help foster a better

07:43environment for youth in schools, it

07:46could help prevent these incidents.

07:49Maybe if you prioritize teen mental

07:50health in schools by having dedicated

07:52spaces and the resources allocated for

07:54them,

07:55we could prevent future instances

07:56similar to my own

07:59experience.

08:01I want to emphasize that a solution that

08:03I knew would push the pin for more

08:05harmful stereotypes and narratives about

08:06Baltimore is to treat youth violence

08:09with mass incarceration.

08:11This would propel the school-to-prison

08:12pipeline, and that is not what Charm

08:14City needs to do.

08:16That is why I push for a better and

08:18safer future by supporting Councilman

08:19Porter's legislation to better

08:21strategize how we can secure the future

08:23of our young people and our charm and

08:25keep the charm in our city.

08:27>> Mhm.

08:27>> Thank you for our Thank you for my time.

08:29For your time, sorry.

08:30>> Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I really

08:31appreciate and and thank you for your

08:33current, sir, for for coming. I know the

08:35work that you're doing on the Youth

08:36Commission. Um if you all have not uh

08:40engaged with the Youth Commission,

08:43you're missing out. These are some

08:45phenomenal phenomenal young people that

08:47are attempting to to do something in our

08:49city to take the baton after we leave.

08:52So, I'll also bring up the next

08:54commissioner. Ma'am?

08:58And if you want to hit the side of the

08:59button and state your name, that would

09:00be great.

09:02>> Good morning, city council members. My

09:04name is Bella Grace Lucianne Aniagba.

09:06Thank you for allowing me to come before

09:08you today. So, as I stated, my name is

09:10Bella Grace Aniagba. I'm 16 years old.

09:13I'm in 11th grade, and I'm a youth

09:15commissioner for the 8th District of

09:17Baltimore City. And I come before you

09:19today with both a personal perspective

09:21on bullying and as a youth advocate.

09:24Thank you, Councilwoman Porter, for this

09:25invitation, and I appreciate this

09:27opportunity to have my voice and

09:29perspective included in this in this

09:30discussion of addressing bullying. As

09:33someone who has personally experienced

09:35bullying, I understand how it can deeply

09:37affect a young person's confidence,

09:39emotional well-being, and sense of

09:40safety. No child should have to go to

09:42school and spend their time in their

09:44community feeling afraid, excluded, or

09:47mistreated. These experiences can have

09:50lasting effects, and many children

09:51struggle in silence because they are

09:53afraid to speak up. As you know, there

09:56are a variety of reasons why kids are

09:57bullied, ranging from physical

09:59deformities to how they dress or act,

10:01how they look, socioeconomic status, or

10:04for simply just being different. For me,

10:07I was bullied because I was smart. I was

10:09what you might call an overachiever or

10:11teacher's pet. And because of this,

10:13certain underperforming kids in my class

10:16didn't like me.

10:17When this was brought to the attention

10:19of my school of my then charter school,

10:21the school administration did very

10:23little to prevent the bullying. What was

10:25even more frustrating was my parents

10:28being kept in the dark by school

10:29officials about what punishments my

10:31bullies would face or details in terms

10:34of consequences for their actions. My

10:36journey with bullying ultimately

10:38resulted in being part of the catalyst

10:41for my parents withdrawing me from

10:42public school and homeschooling me.

10:45Not everyone has the benefit to be able

10:47to be homeschooled, so I believe this

10:49legislation is important because every

10:51young person deserves to feel safe,

10:54supported, and respected. We need clear

10:56policies to prevent bullying, hold

10:59individuals accountable for their

11:00actions, and ensure that young people

11:02who experience bullying receive the

11:04support they need. We must also teach

11:07young people the importance of kindness,

11:09empathy, and treating others with

11:11respect. It is equally important that

11:13children feel comfortable reporting

11:15bullying and trust that their concerns

11:17will be taken seriously. Schools,

11:19families, and communities must work

11:21together to create safer environments

11:23where young people know their voices

11:25matter.

11:26As this legislation is considered, I

11:27feel it is important to make sure that

11:29this legislation not only punishes

11:32bullying after it happens, but also

11:34creates conditions to prevent it from

11:36occurring in the first place. I'm hoping

11:39that this legislation addresses the

11:40following.

11:42One, it clearly defines what constitutes

11:44bullying and distinguishes it from

11:46disagreements and simple conflicts

11:48between peers. Two, it offers adequate

11:51mental health support since the effects

11:53of bullying can leave long-lasting

11:55impacts outside of the classroom. And

11:57three, it includes a variety of

11:59reporting options, including anonymous

12:01reporting, clear investigation

12:03timelines, and protection against

12:05retaliation. Because young people are

12:07more likely to speak up when they

12:09believe they will be heard, protected,

12:11and their concerns taken seriously. I

12:14believe that student trust is one of the

12:16most important pieces of this

12:17legislation. Students often know

12:19bullying is happening before adults do.

12:21Therefore, it's imperative that students

12:23trust the reporting process, believe

12:25adults will respond appropriately, and

12:28feel safe after reporting. As a youth

12:30commissioner, I recommend that this

12:32legislation include actions towards

12:34creating student advisory councils,

12:36participation in policy development, and

12:39regular student surveys. Because

12:41policies about young people should

12:43include the voices of young people.

12:46With that being said, I believe young

12:48people deserve a voice in shaping

12:49policies that directly affect them. If

12:52youth input is truly a priority, I

12:54respectfully recommend scheduling future

12:56hearings on bullying after school hours.

12:59So this legislation that so that this

13:02legislation that aims to protect those

13:04who have been bullied can attend in

13:06person and have their voices heard.

13:08Bullying should never be dismissed as

13:10simply a part of growing up. Through

13:12this legislation, we have an opportunity

13:14to create safer, more supportive spaces

13:17where young people can learn, grow, and

13:20thrive without the fear of being

13:22bullied. Thank you for your time in

13:24taking this important step towards

13:25protecting Baltimore's youth.

13:27>> You're 16.

13:29>> Yes, ma'am.

13:29>> My god. My god.

13:32Yeah. My god. Um amazing testimony.

13:35Amazing testimony. Um as you as well,

13:38Mr. Chair. Um that is an official

13:40committee request if we can have

13:45quarterly follow-up meetings

13:49related to this piece of legislation.

13:54And the follow-up meetings can be

13:56meetings with our youth commission.

13:58Doesn't have to be anything I see my

14:00agency folks looking at me crazy.

14:02Doesn't have to be

14:04um official uh official committee

14:06hearings, but if there can be some sort

14:07of um

14:08youth town halls that we can work

14:10through

14:11on a quarterly basis with their young

14:13people working with our youth advisory

14:15councils

14:18across city government.

14:20Thank you.

14:22All right. Amazing. Anybody else?

14:25Before we close public testimony?

14:27All right. Hearing and seeing none, I'm

14:29going to turn it over to our amazing

14:30panelists today.

14:32I want to uh recognize Natasha Coats um

14:37from University of Maryland Medical

14:38System. Even though she is not going to

14:40be a panelist today, I just want to

14:42recognize that she is indeed in the room

14:45um representing University of Maryland

14:46Medical System.

14:49Next, I'm going to turn it over to Dr.

14:51Vanya Jones from Johns Hopkins

14:53University. Ma'am.

15:03>> Chair Porter,

15:05members of the Public Health and

15:06Environment Committee,

15:08thank you for giving me an opportunity

15:09today to talk about youth violence.

15:12I'm Dr. Vanya Jones. I'm an Associate

15:14Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg

15:16School of Public Health.

15:17The views expressed here are my own and

15:20do not necessarily reflect the policies

15:22or positions of the Johns Hopkins

15:24University. I must say that clearly.

15:29This is a topic of significance and

15:31great importance to me.

15:33As a researcher, I've collaborated with

15:34community organizations like Big

15:36Brothers Big Sisters and with city

15:37schools

15:39on preventing youth violence,

15:41particularly youth who are in middle

15:43school.

15:44For this group, youth violence is a

15:46major threat to health even when it's

15:48not fatal.

15:49It can change the entire trajectory of a

15:51young person's life.

15:53National statistics according to the CDC

15:55in 2024 data on the leading causes of

15:58death that includes this age group of 10

16:00to 14

16:01includes suicide as second leading cause

16:03of death and homicide as the fourth, but

16:05the problem is that doesn't tell the

16:07whole story. It's just the tip of the

16:08iceberg.

16:10We often overlook this age group when

16:12considering violence and the reality is

16:14that many youth in this age group are

16:16not coming in contact with guns.

16:19They're getting in fights.

16:22To better understand what violence looks

16:23like for this group, I have worked with

16:25Dr. Letitia Ryan, who is the chief

16:28division chief of the Johns Hopkins

16:30Pediatric Emergency Department to review

16:32medical charts from January 2019 to

16:352020.

16:37We identified 154 young people. Most of

16:40them were non-Hispanic African-American

16:43youth who were [snorts] treated from

16:45injuries from fights with another child.

16:48Nearly half were 14 or 15 years old,

16:51which means most of them were younger.

16:5560% of those injuries were to the head,

16:57neck, or face. So, serious parts of the

17:00body that get injured and cause severe

17:02injuries.

17:04They were caused by punches, kicks, or

17:05falls to the floor or into a wall.

17:0819 cases a knife was used. One case a

17:11pellet gun was used, and in another a

17:14firearm was used to hit someone.

17:17There were no gunshots.

17:22In a study published in 2021, Dr. Ryan

17:25and my colleagues and I examined the

17:26fights from 188 youth in this age group

17:29that were serious enough to require

17:31medical treatment from the emergency

17:32department. We found that approximately

17:3460% of these fights occurred at school,

17:36which is not surprising given that

17:38school is where most people young people

17:39spend their time. It is the job of being

17:42a young person to go to school.

17:44The remainder took place in the

17:46community or at home highlighting the

17:48need to better address violence

17:49prevention beyond school settings. Most

17:51of these incidents involved two people.

17:54So, around 54% were two people

17:57who knew each other.

17:59And about 40% involved multiple

18:02individuals or group fights,

18:04which can increase the escalation to

18:06more serious violence and underscore the

18:07importance of social dynamics in

18:09violence prevention.

18:11The study also revealed in differences

18:13of how preventable these injuries were

18:15perceived to be by youth and their

18:16parents. When we talk about this age

18:19group, we cannot forget parents. They're

18:21fundamentally important. Nearly 70% of

18:24parents believe that injuries were

18:25preventable. In contrast, only 39% of

18:29the young people believe that these

18:30injuries were preventable. That gap

18:32matters.

18:33It suggests that parents recognize that

18:35these injuries are not inevitable, but

18:37instead a result from circumstances that

18:39can and should be addressed. We've

18:41already heard how those circumstances

18:43can and should be addressed and told to

18:45parents.

18:46These findings underscore the urgent

18:48need for youth appropriate intervention.

18:52Through these reviews, I have two points

18:53that I'd like to share with you. First,

18:55physical fighting is not kids just being

18:56kids. Among middle school age teens,

18:59fights can cause serious harm, both

19:01physical and emotional. They can cause

19:03traumatic brain injury, concussion,

19:04broken bones, depression, and yes,

19:07bullying.

19:08The idea that if someone hits you, hit

19:10them back can lead to even more harm.

19:13The goal must be to find a way to

19:14prevent the hit in the first place.

19:16Second,

19:17danger does not end when a young person

19:19is treated for fights.

19:21The risk of retaliation is real.

19:24And that can escalate to even more

19:25serious violence, including firearm

19:27violence. In fact, conservative

19:29estimates suggest that one in five youth

19:31in this age group will return to the ED

19:34within 5 years with a more serious

19:36violent injury.

19:38That's a warning sign. When I work with

19:40groups, this is where I pause and I say,

19:42"If you ever want a crystal ball about

19:44how the future is going to go,

19:46have a young person who go to the

19:47emergency department as a result of peer

19:49violence, know that they're probably

19:51going to go back to the emergency

19:52department with more serious violence

19:53later."

19:54We have a moment. This is a moment that

19:57we know.

19:59I emphasize this point because

20:02as we speak of the importance of

20:03violence prevention, we must point out

20:06that it's not inevitable. Across the

20:07city, many people are committed to

20:09violence prevention and are are not

20:11always sure of what to do.

20:13Violence prevention in this age group um

20:16requires interventions that doesn't

20:18treat them like little adults.

20:20Adapting violence programs for grown-ups

20:23to a 10-year-old is not appropriate. We

20:26must consider their developmental age.

20:28They are at an age where they are

20:29learning how to solve conflict. They are

20:31at an age where learning is what they're

20:32doing. Again, going to school is their

20:35job. Those interventions must also

20:37include their caregivers. Caregivers are

20:39primary educators for a child, and we

20:42can't negate their importance.

20:44The parent and the caregiver need to

20:46address a young person's safety, but

20:48they also need to underscore that the

20:50caregiver has fears about their child's

20:52safety, and they have to have abilities

20:54to support their child.

20:59We're here because this is a real

21:00opportunity to implement a citywide

21:02approach, an approach that addresses the

21:03moment that a young person is treated

21:05for a fight in the department regardless

21:08of what provider sees them.

21:11That moment matters. It's just not It's

21:13not just a medical visit. It's the

21:14chance to intervene, to connect, and to

21:16change the trajectory of a young

21:17person's life. We must intentionally

21:19bring in schools, caregivers, community

21:22associations, and programs that support

21:24youth development. Together, we can

21:26create a system that does more than just

21:28respond to violence. We can build

21:30conditions that help a young person

21:32thrive. We can help them learn how to

21:35handle conflict without harm,

21:37how to manage frustration without

21:40aggression,

21:41and how to grow up in an environment

21:43that's rooted in safety, provide

21:45support, and has a level of peace.

21:49I think I'm going to pause on there.

21:51>> Yeah.

21:53>> That's the goal.

21:54Clearly stated the goal is prevent the

21:56fight that requires the emergency

21:57department treatment in the first place.

22:00We can prevent it before it starts, not

22:02just treat injuries, but build thriving

22:04youth and stronger communities.

22:06I also want to pause to thank you for

22:08this hearing,

22:10more importantly for your leadership and

22:12your commitment to a healthy Baltimore.

22:14>> Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Jones.

22:16I appreciate you.

22:19All right. Now, we're going to turn to

22:21Dr. Nadine Finigan-Carr.

22:25>> Yes, ma'am.

22:38>> Sorry, I'm a little taller than Dr.

22:40Jones.

22:42>> Thank you.

22:43>> It's okay.

22:44Good morning, Chair Porter, Council

22:46members, and colleagues. Uh I am Dr.

22:49Nadine Finigan-Carr, Executive Director

22:51of the University of Maryland Baltimore

22:52Center for Violence Prevention.

22:54The Center for Violence Prevention is a

22:56relatively new initiative. It's a

22:58community formed informed initiative at

23:00the University of Maryland Baltimore in

23:02collaboration with the R Adams Cowley

23:04Shock Trauma Center at the University of

23:06Medical Maryland Medical Center with uh

23:10Natasha Coats, the first of its kind to

23:12collaborate in such a way. Our aim is to

23:15build resilient communities for all

23:18through the prevention and intervention

23:19of all forms of violence and trauma. We

23:22do this in an interdisciplinary

23:24collaborative fashion, where we conduct

23:26community-informed participatory

23:28research, provide creative and impactful

23:30education, and inform and advocate for

23:33policies that strengthen our communities

23:35to prevent violence and trauma.

23:37I appreciate the opportunity to discuss

23:39how we and other academic anchor

23:41institutions can contribute to a

23:43coordinated citywide response to youth

23:47peer violence.

23:48First, I want to acknowledge uh the

23:50young people, families, educators,

23:53service providers, and community leaders

23:55who confront front this impacts of

23:57violence every single day.

23:59Youth peer violence is often discussed

24:02through the lens of public safety, but

24:04it is equally a public health issue, an

24:07educational issue, and a community

24:10well-being issue.

24:12The effects extend far beyond those

24:14directly involved, impacting classrooms,

24:17families, neighborhoods, and the future

24:19of our city as our young people have

24:20shown us today.

24:22At the same time, it is important to

24:24recognize that Baltimore has made

24:25meaningful progress over the years. The

24:28challenge before us is ensuring that

24:30this progress is sustained and that all

24:33young people benefit from it. As we

24:36consider next steps, I encourage us to

24:38move beyond individual programs and

24:41organizations and focus on building

24:44long-term infrastructure for

24:46collaboration.

24:48Baltimore is uniquely positioned to do

24:50this. We are home to an extraordinary

24:52concentration of academic anchor

24:55institutions with expertise in violence

24:57prevention, public health, youth

24:59development, behavioral health,

25:01education, criminal justice, and

25:02community engagement, just to name a

25:04few. Institutions such as the University

25:07of Maryland Baltimore, Johns Hopkins

25:09University, Morgan State University,

25:11University of Baltimore, and Coppin

25:13State University possess research,

25:15evaluation, training, and implementation

25:17capacity that can support the city's

25:20prevention efforts. The question is not

25:22whether Baltimore has sufficient

25:24expertise. The question is whether we

25:26are fully leveraging that expertise and

25:30aligning it in service of a common

25:32agenda.

25:33Our center has begun convening and

25:35building a coalition among Baltimore's

25:37academic anchor institutions with

25:40centers focused on violence prevention,

25:41public health, youth development, and

25:43crime reduction.

25:45Our goal is not to create another

25:47initiative,

25:49but to strengthen and align the

25:51important work we already are doing that

25:55is taking place across the city.

25:57By formalizing and expanding these

25:59partnerships, we can create a stronger

26:02structure for coordination, shared

26:04learning, evaluation, and resource

26:06development. This emerging coalition has

26:10the potential to help establish common

26:12measures of success,

26:14identify gaps in services and supports,

26:17promote the use of evidence-informed

26:19practices, and pursue collaborative

26:22funding opportunities. Let me repeat

26:24that. Collaborative funding

26:27opportunities. We are trying to play

26:29nice in the sandbox across city lines.

26:33Most importantly,

26:35it can serve as a sustained learning

26:37network that connects researchers,

26:39practitioners, policymakers, community

26:42leaders, and young people around a

26:44shared vision for preventing youth

26:46violence and improving outcomes for

26:48Baltimore's youth.

26:50As academic anchor institutions, we

26:52recognize that we have a responsibility

26:54not only to generate knowledge, but also

26:57to use our collective expertise,

27:00resources, and relationships in

27:02partnership with communities to advance

27:04solutions that are sustainable,

27:06equitable, and responsive to Baltimore's

27:08needs.

27:09Equally important is the need for a

27:11citywide approach, a genuine citywide

27:15approach, not one in name only.

27:17Earlier this year, our center, in

27:19partnership with the Baltimore City

27:21Health Department, implemented the Youth

27:23Violence Prevention RISE project with

27:26funding support from the National

27:27Association of County and City Health

27:29Organizations. From January through

27:32July, the project focused on

27:33strengthening Baltimore's capacity to

27:35prevent youth violence through

27:37cross-sector collaboration, community

27:39engagement, and public health

27:41approaches. The initiative brought

27:43together stakeholders from education,

27:45health, community-based organizations,

27:47and youth-serving systems, many of whom

27:49are represented here today, to identify

27:52emerging challenges, elevate youth and

27:54community voices, and develop strategies

27:57that promote safety, resilience, and

27:59opportunity for our young people. More

28:02than two dozen individuals participated,

28:04including 10 youth. We had youth

28:07participation at every single session.

28:11One of the project's key lessons was

28:13that we need to spend more time actually

28:16listening to and learning from

28:17Baltimore's youth, and so I appreciate

28:19the recommendations made by the

28:21commission in order to attain

28:23sustainable reductions in youth

28:25violence. The next lesson was that we

28:27need meaningful investments in

28:30prevention before violence occurs. The

28:33RISE project reinforced that Baltimore's

28:36greatest strength lies not in any single

28:39program or agency, but in our collective

28:43ability to work together on behalf of

28:46the city's youth.

28:47Young people move through multiple

28:49systems every single day. When those

28:52systems operate independently,

28:54opportunities are missed.

28:57When they work together, protective

28:59factors are strengthened and young

29:01people are more likely to thrive.

29:04Any comprehensive strategy must include

29:06early prevention, as Dr. Jones

29:08mentioned, trauma-informed services,

29:10positive youth development

29:12opportunities, as our youth have

29:13mentioned, mentoring, educational

29:16support, workforce development, and

29:18family engagement. It must also

29:20recognize that young people themselves

29:23are critical partners in this work.

29:26Effective violence prevention is not

29:28done to youth. It is done with youth.

29:32Finally, I want to emphasize that the

29:35community's expertise must remain

29:37central to any solution.

29:40We, as universities, can provide

29:42evidence, evaluation, training, and

29:44technical support, but our communities

29:46possess the lived experience and wisdom

29:49necessary to ensure that strategies are

29:51relevant, trusted, and effective. Our

29:54role is to partner, listen, and support.

29:58We stand ready to work with all partners

30:01represented here today to advance that

30:04mission. Thank you.

30:05>> Thank you. Was there a report issued

30:07from this collaborative?

30:09>> From the Nature Collaborative, yes. I

30:11can have that sent to you.

30:12>> Yeah, has it been Yeah, if you that's an

30:14official committee request, if we can

30:15share that um report with all committee

30:18members, that would be great.

30:19>> Yes, ma'am.

30:20>> Thank you.

30:21All right.

30:23Next, we're going to go to agency

30:24reports, health department.

30:29>> [clears throat]

30:30>> Good morning, Madam Chair, members of

30:32the committee. Julia Roache, Legislative

30:34Affairs Director from the Baltimore City

30:36Health Department. Um

30:39I'll be honest, we didn't expect to go

30:40first.

30:42So

30:43>> [laughter]

30:44>> We do have

30:46an agency PowerPoint that's going to be

30:49given in a couple minutes, but we have

30:51some brief remarks. We're happy to give

30:53those first. I just wanted to let you

30:55know that there's a more substantive

30:57presentation coming.

30:58>> No worries.

30:59>> And I'm accompanied by

31:02Aisha Burgess, who is our director of

31:04the office of youth and trauma services.

31:07She participated in that project that

31:09you just heard a little bit about.

31:12And she's going to give you a brief

31:14overview of

31:16our ongoing work in this space.

31:21>> Good morning, Madam Chair and members of

31:23the committee. Again, my name is Aisha

31:25Burgess. I'm the director of the office

31:27of youth and trauma services at the

31:29Baltimore City Health Department.

31:31Youth violence is a serious public

31:33health concern and Mayor Scott has taken

31:36a whole city approach to addressing

31:38violence. You will soon hear today a

31:41presentation from our partners at MONSEY

31:44sharing some statistics around homicides

31:47and non-fatal shootings.

31:49But we like to take an opportunity right

31:51now to share some school-based data to

31:53help round out the picture.

31:56According to the 2024 Maryland Youth

31:59Risk Behavior Survey, nearly 65%

32:02of middle school students reported

32:05having been in a fight on school

32:07property, physical fight.

32:10About 17% of high school students

32:13reported fighting on school property and

32:1510% reported being threatened or injured

32:19with a weapon on school property during

32:21the preceding year.

32:23So obviously this level of violence is

32:25very concerning.

32:27The Baltimore City Health Department

32:28Office of Youth Violence Prevention

32:30implements a school-based violence

32:32prevention program

32:34with four Baltimore City public middle

32:37schools

32:38using federal earmark dollars to do so.

32:42Those schools include Vanguard

32:43Collegiate,

32:45Booker T. Washington Middle School,

32:48Cherry Hill Elementary Middle, and

32:50Katherine Johnson Global Academy.

32:54This federal earmark was awarded in 2024

32:58through September 2026 and recently we

33:00were received approval to extend those

33:05dollars through September 2027.

33:08In addition, we run a youth ambassador

33:11program, which is a youth leadership and

33:13workforce development initiative, where

33:16we train a small cohort of high school

33:18students to conduct outreach to their

33:22peers around violence and mental health

33:24as well as sexual health.

33:29There are some of different additional

33:31information about the programming within

33:33the Office of Youth Violence Prevention

33:35within our agency report,

33:38but we are happy to answer any questions

33:40that you may have. Thank you again,

33:42Madam Chair, for calling this hearing.

33:45>> Thank you so much. Appreciate you.

33:47Next we're going to go to the mayor's

33:49office of neighborhood and safety and

33:50engagement.

33:51Director Marvones.

33:56>> Hey, thank you. And we have a deck um

34:00as well.

34:01So thank [clears throat] you, Chair

34:02Porter, honorable members of the

34:03committee. I'm Director Stephanie

34:05Marvones from the mayor's office of

34:07neighborhood safety and engagement.

34:09We're a public safety agency that

34:11coordinates our city's comprehensive

34:13approach to violence prevention and

34:15intervention. I'm going to talk a little

34:17bit about the intersections between this

34:19issue and also shed some light on the

34:21scope of the problem as well to inform

34:23our discussion.

34:25I think this is the Okay.

34:33And I want to thank um Dr. Jones and Dr.

34:36Finnegan Carr um for grounding us in

34:37this conversation as well and for their

34:40partnership and commitment to

34:41collaboratively addressing these issues.

34:44Um these are not uh things that can be

34:46owned by City Hall and without that

34:48collaboration um we can't expect to have

34:51the impact that we want to have.

34:52Um so let's start by framing this issue

34:55and I want to thank um BPD data-driven

34:57strategies for um their partnership in

34:59providing some of this data.

35:01We're defining youth as the um

35:03resolution does as 24 age 24 and below.

35:07So when you see our references to youth

35:08in this slideshow, please note that. Um

35:11we're looking here at youth violence

35:13incidents. So these are not victim

35:15counts, but these are incident counts

35:17involving a youth homicide or non-fatal

35:20shooting.

35:21What we can see from this data, and of

35:22course 2026 data is year-to-date data,

35:25over the past 5 years our city's seen a

35:27significant decline in the number of

35:29youth violence homicide incidents. Um a

35:32more than 66% decline um as well as

35:35non-fatal shooting incidents. Um

35:38however, we're still partway through the

35:40year. We still have two more months to

35:41go, and so if we look between those 2025

35:44and 2026 year-to-date numbers, um you

35:47could see that we've already had

35:49additional um homicide incidents

35:51involving our youth this year um and are

35:54on pace to um see higher numbers in that

35:57non-fatal shooting category. And so our

35:59work is absolutely cut out for us.

36:03This um bar graph here on the left-hand

36:06side, you can see homicides. On the

36:07right-hand side, non-fatal shootings.

36:09I'll note two homicide and non-fatal

36:11shooting. These are just two of the

36:12metrics that um show us something about

36:15violence, but are not the only ones. Um

36:17what I want to point to here, of course

36:20you see the decline over time. Um we are

36:22looking here at victim counts on this

36:24bar graph, um but one of the things

36:26that's important to note is just how the

36:29um, proportion of youth homicide victims

36:32and youth non-fatal shooting victims

36:34changes over time as a part of the

36:36overall homicide and non-fatal shooting

36:38totals. Um, for example, last year

36:4118.38%

36:43of our homicides involved youth. Um,

36:47this year we're already on track for 28%

36:50of our homicides involving youth. And

36:53so, um, just another data point for us

36:55to look at while we recognize the

36:57progress that's been made over the past

36:595 years.

37:05As we try to approximate youth peer

37:07violence, um, BPD also provided data for

37:09us to look at um,

37:12incidents that involve a youth victim.

37:15So, again, 24 and below for each of

37:17these calendar years. Um, the column

37:19that says young suspect, that's of those

37:22103 um, cases where we had a young

37:25victim in 2026, 21 of them right now are

37:28known to involve a youth suspect. So,

37:31when we're trying to approximate that

37:32peer interaction, um, you can see here

37:36um, how many of those incidents

37:37involving a youth victim also involved a

37:40youth suspect um, and the proportion of

37:43those incidents as well. Um, of course,

37:46this data is based on information we

37:47have where a suspect's been identified,

37:49where an offender has been identified.

37:52Um, so, these are the numbers that we

37:54have officially on the BPD side.

37:59Now, let's talk a little bit about the

38:00tools that we have in our toolkit and

38:02how this work is guided by our

38:03comprehensive violence prevention plan

38:06um, as well. So,

38:09our agency, MONSEY, manages efforts that

38:11focus on intervention and prevention

38:13with those who are at the highest risk

38:14of being involved in violence. This

38:16ranges from programs like our

38:18interagency summer youth engagement

38:20strategy, our school-based violence

38:22intervention program. These are

38:24initiatives specifically targeted to

38:26youth. As an agency, most of our

38:28initiatives are targeted at violence

38:30generally. So, there are many

38:31intersections with youth, but our

38:33programs are not exclusively focused on

38:35youth.

38:36We do have intersections with young

38:38people who are at the high risk

38:39connected to violence dynamics like our

38:42group violence reduction strategy and

38:44our community violence intervention

38:45initiatives, which I'll talk about as

38:47well.

38:48Quickly, before I turn this over to some

38:50of my interagency partners, summer youth

38:52engagement, one of the tools in our

38:54toolkit. We focus on young people with

38:57this strategy and young people have

38:59helped inform this strategy from the

39:01beginning. We've done this now for 4

39:03years. It's an interagency

39:06collaborative project here. Our

39:09engagement staff, coordinated by Monti,

39:11documented more than 1,200 positive

39:13interactions with our young people.

39:15We're using those opportunities where we

39:17encounter young people outside in the

39:19late night hours to connect young people

39:22to services. And we have more than 300

39:24documented requests where we've been

39:26able to connect young people to services

39:28ranging from employment to

39:30housing support to other needs of their

39:33families.

39:35We also note here that as of September

39:3730th, 2026, the police department had

39:40made 708 juvenile arrests. So, of

39:42course, eight below 18 year-to-date,

39:45down from 829 made during the same time

39:48period in 2025.

39:53Our group violence reduction strategy

39:55focuses on young people who are

39:58data shows us are at the highest risk

39:59for involvement in gun violence. One of

40:02the metrics I wanted to share here is

40:03just to understand this is a strategy

40:06that's based on data. When we did our

40:07problem analysis, we saw that our gun

40:09violence problem largely was fueled by

40:12people who are not in that youth age

40:14range, but who are slightly older. We

40:15see people in their mid-30s who we need

40:17to connect with intensive life coaching

40:20services, but that doesn't mean that

40:21young people don't connect with the

40:22strategy. And so, what we can share

40:25here, um we've since January 2022 when

40:28this strategy was launched,

40:30421 youth 24 and below have received a

40:33direct communication. Um 292 of those

40:37came with a full offer of connection to

40:39intensive life coaching and wraparound

40:41services.

40:43And we've enrolled 114 young people with

40:45those DVRs services provided by Roca and

40:48Youth Advocate Programs or YAP, um

40:50making up about 27% of our total DVRs

40:54service enrollments.

40:59Safe Streets is another tool in our

41:00toolkit. While not specifically focused

41:02on youth violence, we're hearing

41:04increasingly from our frontline staff um

41:06the need for them to build rapport with

41:09um and intercede in conflicts involving

41:11our young people.

41:12Um and so, Safe Streets is a

41:14community-based program. We have 10

41:15sites across our city. I want to lift up

41:18research from the John Hopkins School of

41:20Public Health that was released this

41:22year that showed a direct connection

41:24between the work of Safe Streets and a

41:26reduction in youth homicides and youth

41:28non-fatal shootings.

41:33One additional tool in Muncie's toolkit,

41:35um and in our city's toolkit, is our

41:37school-based violence intervention

41:38program. Um this is work that um we do

41:42with city schools. Um it's also a

41:44partnership with the health department.

41:46Um we also completed an evaluation of

41:49our first 2 years of this

41:50implementation. Through that, we found

41:53that there was a connection between the

41:55school-based violence intervention work

41:57and the way that our school staff and

42:00students felt safe within their school

42:02environments. Um they feel like this

42:04work is making a positive impact on

42:06students at the schools, that it's

42:07making their school safer, and we want

42:09to continue to do that. We've noted that

42:11our school-based violence intervention

42:13program staff recorded 216 youth

42:15engagements um including restorative

42:18conversations and home visits. They've

42:20recorded 80 mediations across those four

42:22schools. And as we see that dynamics

42:25within our school buildings can turn

42:26into community violence dynamics or vice

42:28versa, this is one additional um

42:31powerful tool we have in our toolkit

42:33that we do in partnership with the

42:35Movement Team, the Peace Team, um and

42:37the organization I Am Mentality as well.

42:41I'm going to turn it over here to um Dr.

42:44Bunley from the Mayor's Office of

42:45African American Male Engagement.

42:49And Dr. Bunley, as you transition,

42:50scholars, Joe, our wonderful city

42:53historian, is ready to take you on a

42:55tour of City Hall. So, I'm just going to

42:57ask you to stand up quietly and move to

42:59the back of the room. Everyone give them

43:01a round of applause for being here.

43:08Thank you so much. I'll see y'all later.

43:15All right, Doc.

43:16>> Yes, good morning.

43:18Madam Chair,

43:20members of the Council,

43:22thank you for giving us an opportunity

43:24to

43:25present on this very, very important

43:28topic. [clears throat]

43:30And I'm feeling a sense of urgency

43:31whenever I our young people they just

43:33left, but you know, as a former teacher

43:35and a principal, when you around

43:37children, they just fire you up.

43:40Right? And so, I want to go back to

43:41where my colleague

43:43uh

43:44presented the idea in her presentation.

43:47And she says, are we collaboratively

43:51and fully leveraging

43:53and aligning our solutions

43:56to this issue of bullying and violence?

44:01And the answer, if we can be honest and

44:02clear right now, is no, we are not.

44:06But I'll say, because I'm optimistic

44:09and we're ready to work. We have workers

44:11here. We're going to get it done.

44:14We have to get it done because our

44:16children

44:18are not some form of animals,

44:21individuals, something to be hurt. Our

44:23children are those individuals who are

44:25to be encouraged.

44:28And so, the non-fatal shooting data,

44:32what it does is it informs us

44:35of the attitude that our children have

44:37towards violence.

44:39Our children are able to be in

44:41communities and they think they can size

44:44up

44:45who's prey

44:47because of this attitude of violence.

44:50And so, what I'm thankful for is the

44:52work that we are doing in Mo Ain and the

44:56work, I would say to my colleagues,

44:58based on the data that you all

44:59presented, these the factual data, it's

45:02unfortunate that the factual data seems

45:06counterintuitive.

45:08It seems like it's something not to be

45:10implemented because I don't think it's

45:12fully understood.

45:15And so, let me just say this, when we

45:16look at the work that we we're we've

45:18done,

45:20Councilman, when we look at this work,

45:23we there are a few things I just want to

45:24share. I'm not going to go through all

45:26of them, but these things work. We know

45:28they're scalable

45:30and we know they're replicable.

45:33The first one is the direct messaging to

45:36the individuals, these young people's

45:38minds.

45:39So, we have a strategy that fits to the

45:42process where even when you ask here

45:45individuals from Safe Streets who want

45:47to do more,

45:48but they need to be trained in that

45:50thing to do. And so, we have a concept

45:53in Mo Ain called narrative truth

45:54coaching.

45:56And in narrative truth coaching,

45:58basically is we speak to the

45:59individuals' minds

46:02to change behavior.

46:05It's scalable. And so, narrative truth

46:07coaches, let me just tell you who they

46:09are. They are some experts that you have

46:11in Baltimore.

46:13These individuals have an ability to go

46:15into a room of individuals, and these

46:17are the individuals that we have in our

46:18group. We have individuals from the

46:20Department of Juvenile Services. We have

46:22the individuals from the school system

46:24who have been very truant. We have

46:26individuals from the school system who

46:28have demonstrated a prop- inappropriate

46:30behavior. We've gotten those youngsters

46:32from Mr. Shawn in the Office of

46:33Reengagement and all those So, we have a

46:36sample, if you will, of individuals whom

46:39we are trying to reach.

46:42But, narrative truth coaching will help

46:43do that because in narrative truth

46:45coaching, one of the first things we do,

46:47we start with, and again, it's

46:49counterintuitive. Our children come to

46:51school, many of them without having a

46:53purpose of why they're there.

46:55It's just something to do. It's just an

46:57action to take. They don't have what we

47:00have, a why,

47:02a purpose for being there. And

47:05therefore, they don't act inside of a

47:06purpose. And violence, if we would give

47:09our children purpose, violence is not

47:11the purpose that we would give them.

47:12That's the first one.

47:14The next one is the reality-based

47:16curriculum.

47:17You have the curriculum that speaks from

47:19their reality, that speaks to their

47:21reality. That's why we call it

47:22pre-storative practices.

47:25Give you an example why we talk about

47:27pre-storative practices. We know that

47:30our children

47:32You know, our children don't know

47:33anything about the clearance rate.

47:37The police clearance rate. But, when you

47:39explain to our children that we are

47:42clearing in Baltimore 70% of the cases,

47:46and this is what's happening to those

47:48individuals who have gotten caught,

47:50these things These things begin to work

47:52as a deterrent.

47:55The clearance rate. We have another a

47:57concept that we use called six degrees

47:59of separation. Degrees of separation.

48:03Degrees of separation. We know by way of

48:06the science social science, there are

48:07only six degrees of

48:09of separation. That is, we are six

48:12social connections from knowing the

48:14person. If this young person gotten

48:16hurt, then I know if I could go talk to

48:19look at his circle and somewhere in his

48:21circle I know somebody that is connected

48:25to him.

48:26Because that's how close we are.

48:28Baltimore is 82.2 square miles.

48:31So, if we got six degrees of separation

48:33in the world, how many degrees of

48:35separation we think we need to know for

48:38of connecting individuals who are in the

48:40city?

48:41But when you teach our young people that

48:43we are six degrees of separation away

48:45from each other and therefore again,

48:48it's you're not getting away.

48:51It changes the mindset.

48:53And so, I'm I'm going to close,

48:57but this is something that my colleagues

48:58sitting to my right now

49:01believe and have believed.

49:03What we don't do in Baltimore, we just

49:06discount

49:08the family.

49:10We do not have family involved in

49:12because we somehow I believe that that

49:15the notion of family

49:16we think some of us think that that

49:18family doesn't really exist.

49:22When you look at our families the

49:23individual between parent and child,

49:25there's a 15 year to 20 year gap.

49:29You see fathers who are

49:3130 years old and they have children who

49:33are 15.

49:34And while they're 30 years old and still

49:36trying to grow up, they're still trying

49:37to get their life on, they don't have

49:39much to do about how to raise their own

49:41children.

49:43We don't deal with that. And we don't

49:45deal with it because I believe it's

49:47seemingly counterintuitive.

49:49So, I won't go further. I know again if

49:53I went down the list when we look at the

49:55family model that when we at Moen when

49:58we talk to families, my chief operating

50:01officer sitting there, I asked him, do

50:03not talk to a youngster.

50:06And don't ask them about the condition

50:08of their family.

50:11What do you need, Dad?

50:13What do you need, Mom?

50:16And so we can it's time for us to land

50:18this plane, Madam Chair.

50:21Our children should not be bullied.

50:24We have to land this plane and and the

50:25way that we're going to land this plane,

50:27we got to take legislation. Dr. King

50:28talked about you you have it's good to

50:30have legislation.

50:32Right? But you got to have mindset

50:34change as well.

50:36And so we got to do the mindset change

50:38stuff and scale it.

50:39I know we can do it. I'm looking forward

50:41to it. I'm excited when I saw this

50:43legislation and this particular topic

50:45come up and and that's what I like to

50:47share

50:48>> Thank you so much, Dr. Bunley. And I

50:49just want to underscore so agencies as

50:52we begin to

50:55as we begin to kind of progress this

50:56topic, it is going to be ever important

50:58and I'm going to press you all a little

51:00bit to have a little bit more more

51:01coordination and report back to the

51:03council what that coordination is. And

51:06for directors, making sure that it

51:08actually ties to a specific line item in

51:11your budget. As we begin to approach the

51:13next budget cycle, we're going to have

51:15to have those hard conversations and I

51:18want to make sure that we are not just

51:21coordinating

51:22and writing strategies for for the sake

51:25of purpose. We are actually beginning to

51:28connect the dots for an asset map for an

51:31ecosystem change that includes not only

51:33our hospital institutions, our young

51:35people, but also

51:37our agencies within city government as

51:39well.

51:40Director?

51:42>> Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair,

51:44council members.

51:46I am greatly greatly appreciative of the

51:48opportunity to share more about this

51:50topic along with our colleagues who work

51:52collaboratively to disrupt the cycles of

51:54youth violence. I cannot say how much I

51:57am appreciative to hear from the voices

51:59of our young people as we know whenever

52:02we're making decisions that are going to

52:04impact their lives, they are the people

52:06that we need to hear from.

52:08Before I start my presentation, I would

52:09be remiss if I did not say that I am the

52:12grandmother of seven young people that

52:14live in Baltimore City where five have

52:16been directly impacted by youth

52:19violence. So, this is near and dear to

52:22my heart, this work.

52:24So, to this morning I'm going to talk

52:26about two pieces of um coordinated work

52:31that we do across all city and state

52:34agencies um that include the integrated

52:38coordinated interagency coordinated

52:40response to youth violence in Baltimore

52:43City to speak to what you just said,

52:46Madam Chair, where there is a

52:47coordinated effort across city agencies

52:50and state agencies and I'm going to talk

52:51a little bit more about that as well as

52:54Safe Passage where there's also a

52:56coordinated effort across um multiple

52:58agencies and I'm going to talk about

53:00that as well.

53:01So, the first um that I'm going to talk

53:03about is the interagency coordinated

53:05response to youth violence um in

53:08Baltimore City and this is um across

53:11multiple state and city agencies where

53:14we as a response to um trauma-informed

53:17program designed to respond to incidents

53:19of youth violence by providing immediate

53:22and ongoing support to impacted youth

53:24and their families as you heard Dr.

53:27Bunley speak about. And then the second

53:29I'm going to talk about is Safe Passage.

53:32So, starting first with what we call

53:34ICryV and it's been operationalized

53:37by a collective of state city and state

53:40agencies And those agencies are

53:44MOCFS, the Mayor's Office of Children

53:46and Family Success, where we facilitate

53:49um and support through case management,

53:50Baltimore City Public Schools, MONSE,

53:53the Health Department, MOEM,

53:55the Mayor's Office of Economic

53:57Development, DSS, DJS, BPD, and the

54:00State's Attorney's Office. And we come

54:02together bi-weekly to review cases of

54:06young people aged 7 to 21 that have been

54:08impacted by gun violence and knife

54:11violence. And so, through a referral

54:14process, we get referrals from the

54:17State's Attorney's Office, Victim

54:18Services, BPD's Victim Services, and

54:22sometimes MONSE's Victim Services of

54:24young people that have been impacted.

54:26And as you can see on the screen, during

54:29the school year '24-'25,

54:31we had 19 referrals.

54:34Um 17 were gun-related, two were

54:36stabbing-related, 14 youth were

54:39supported, 10 families were supported.

54:41Um and then three families did deny um

54:44uh consent for us to be able to support.

54:47And I want to speak specifically to the

54:49types of support that was provided,

54:52because we provided support in a myriad

54:54of ways. Um educational support, medical

54:57support. Um we actually supported again

55:00with energy assistance, water bill

55:01assistance, re-engaging home and

55:04hospital through school, um youth-led

55:07programming, um trial prep. Again,

55:10because it's a cross-coordinated

55:13support that we provide. We've also

55:14provided and supported um young people

55:17with mental health supports. Um we were

55:20able to assist a young lady with being

55:23able to attend her prom, and as well as

55:26going, graduating. We're continuing to

55:28support the young lady, and she is now

55:30enrolled in post-secondary, where she

55:32will be beginning um in the spring. So,

55:35So, not that it's a one-and-done. We

55:37continue to support um the the young

55:40people, but most importantly their

55:42families, because what we know to be

55:44true is that to make a young person

55:46whole, that we have to make the family

55:48whole. Our young people are not feral

55:50cats. They come with families. And so,

55:53when a young person is impacted by gun

55:55violence or knife violence or peer

55:57violence, it impacts the whole family.

55:59And so, we have to support the whole

56:01family.

56:02I PraeVee is both reactive as well as

56:05proactive as it supports the families

56:07after crisis to help prevent further

56:10victimization and retaliation.

56:13Youth are referred, as I said, as well

56:15as the entire household, and we can we

56:18provide all of these resources.

56:21The other that I want to speak about is

56:22Safe Passage. Um we've heard a lot about

56:24Safe Passage in multiple council

56:26hearings.

56:27Um we partner very closely with school

56:30police as well as BPD.

56:32Uh we spent a 1-year, one full school

56:35year actually researching this. I went

56:37on ride-alongs with school police. I was

56:40uh asked by my team not to jump out, but

56:42I did do some jump-outs with school

56:44police. Um we did a lot of quantitative

56:47and qualitative data gathering. We spoke

56:49with young people. We spoke with um

56:52school leaders. We spoke with teachers,

56:54community members, parents to really

56:57hear what was going on and coming up for

57:00them as young people were traversing to

57:02and from school. And what we heard

57:04repeatedly was that young people felt

57:07safe once they were in the building, but

57:09it was the traversing to and from school

57:11where they were having difficulty. And

57:13not necessarily on bus stops, but in

57:15those walking spaces. And from that, we

57:18were able to identify schools where we

57:21saw the most incidents taking place.

57:24And so, during the 24-25 school year, we

57:27were able to launch Safe Passage. And we

57:30are at 15 schools with 14 campuses. And

57:34so we're at those schools for some of

57:36those schools actually five of the

57:38schools were there in the morning from

57:397:00 to 9:00 a.m. But all of the schools

57:42were there in the afternoon at dismissal

57:44as well from 2:00 to 4:00 and and one

57:46school, bless you, from 3:00 to 5:00

57:48p.m. And so what we have seen is that

57:51for the school year 2024-2025 and

57:542025-2026 an actual decrease in our

57:57violent crimes to include assaults,

58:00rapes, non-fatal shootings, and

58:02homicides of 33%

58:04in a half-mile radius during the times

58:07that we are implementing Safe Passage.

58:09And so our measured outcomes is again

58:11we're looking at those reported

58:13incidents of violent crimes in a mile

58:16and a half-mile radius, an increase in

58:18school attendance, and what I say all

58:20the time is this this is just one of the

58:22tools in the toolbox for school

58:25attendance. No way will I ever say Safe

58:27Passage is going to decrease um or

58:30excuse me, increase school attendance,

58:32but it is one of the tools in the

58:33toolbox. As well as decrease in resident

58:36and business calls. And Chief Shorter

58:38and I, as well as BPD, um and

58:42Councilwoman Ramos had the privilege of

58:44meeting with the school community and

58:46the school community leader over at

58:48Merbo, and we had a very rich

58:49conversation around Safe Passage, having

58:53a good greater understanding and Muncie,

58:55a greater understanding of what Safe

58:57Passage is, what it is not, um and we

59:00are really encouraging other school

59:02leaders to do the same.

59:05And with that, I will pass it to

59:08the health department.

59:09>> Thank you so much. I have a quick

59:10question um before you. Are you all in

59:13uh at these bi-weekly meetings?

59:15>> So for I CRI-V

59:18>> Yes.

59:18>> the health department is in those

59:19meetings. Muncie is in the meetings. Uh

59:22city schools is in the meetings. Um

59:24>> Academic institutions, um partner uh the

59:26academic partners, are they in the

59:27meeting?

59:28>> So, this is the first that I'm meeting

59:29them, but we're going to get their

59:30information because they absolutely

59:32should be. I was actually jotting that

59:33down.

59:34>> Perfect. I love that. Because again,

59:36connecting those dots, looking at those

59:39precursors, but also

59:41I believe Dr. Jones, you are you all and

59:43your team are

59:45collecting data and information. You all

59:47and your team are collecting data and

59:48information as well. I would love to see

59:50some data interoperability and overlap.

59:52>> Okay. Absolutely.

59:54>> Director Marvanous.

59:58>> You're welcome.

1:00:01>> Director Marvanous, I'm going to turn it

1:00:03over to Councilman Toren. Yes.

1:00:05>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a

1:00:06committee request cuz this is made

1:00:07during the budget hearings for city

1:00:09schools about supporting safe passage. I

1:00:11believe there was a $400,000 gap. I

1:00:13would like to know what your

1:00:14contribution will be to it as I am the

1:00:17recipient of three of those schools and

1:00:18have seen massive declines in youth

1:00:20violence around Mondawmin and the recent

1:00:23news of the multiple fights and the

1:00:25instances that we had to control without

1:00:27safe passage purchases there. So, I just

1:00:29want to make sure we have a conversation

1:00:31with your leadership about where is the

1:00:32$400,000?

1:00:34>> If you can clearly state that for the

1:00:36committee staff person what that

1:00:37committee request is?

1:00:38>> Yes. I would like to know where the city

1:00:41schools stand with a $400,000

1:00:43contribution to safe passage. It was a

1:00:45request during the I believe it was the

1:00:48June 2nd cuz it was yep, June 2nd budget

1:00:51hearing for city schools. In addition to

1:00:54I know they had a follow-up meeting for

1:00:55I would like to know and I had a meeting

1:00:57with the CEO. I would like to know where

1:00:58they stand with providing a contribution

1:01:00to it.

1:01:01>> Perfect. Thank you so much. All right,

1:01:03Director Marvanous, if we can land this

1:01:05plane. Thank you.

1:01:07Very last slide. Thank you so much. So,

1:01:11part of your resolution talked about

1:01:13where does the work go from here and

1:01:14collaboration's been a theme that's

1:01:16underscored all of our presentations.

1:01:19That really is what we have to do. We've

1:01:21built a foundation, we have a foundation

1:01:23of work. Now is about stitching the work

1:01:25together and making sure we fill the

1:01:27gaps. Um starting with increased

1:01:29interagency collaboration. The Baltimore

1:01:31City Health Department and Muncie, we

1:01:33co-chair the Violence Prevention Task

1:01:35Force. This is a interagency body that

1:01:38um represents our local city agencies

1:01:40and state agencies. Um we just had a

1:01:43discussion about the working groups that

1:01:45are going to be a part of that and we're

1:01:46looking at a youth prevention working

1:01:49group. Um one that would be led by um

1:01:52Dr. Bunley and um Director Burgess

1:01:54really bringing the expertise of our

1:01:55Office of Youth and Trauma Services and

1:01:58and Milwain to drive this work that you

1:02:00heard Dr. Bunley talk about. So that

1:02:02will be through the Violence Prevention

1:02:03Task Force, which is one of our

1:02:05coordinating infrastructure for this

1:02:06work. Um part of this also guided by our

1:02:09next Violence Prevention Plan um is

1:02:12youth-led public safety messaging. We've

1:02:14heard from our young people, um don't

1:02:16just talk about us, we need to be in the

1:02:17room and we need to direct the

1:02:19conversation

1:02:20about what public safety looks like for

1:02:22us and that's part of how we foster

1:02:24positive culture change. Um that is one

1:02:27area of focus for our future work.

1:02:29Additionally, early intervention and

1:02:32diversion. How do we do more on the

1:02:34prevention side? How do we get further

1:02:36upstream? Um and how do we expand

1:02:38engagements with our younger students?

1:02:40Um getting conflict mediation into our

1:02:42middle schools and and even younger. Um

1:02:44really fostering that skill set.

1:02:47Family and parental engagement, another

1:02:50um theme that you heard from my

1:02:51colleagues. One of the things in our

1:02:53Violence Prevention Plan as we move

1:02:54forward is establishing a parent and

1:02:56caregiver commission. So making sure

1:02:58that we we formalize those channels for

1:03:00our families, our parents and guardians

1:03:02to um be a part of this conversation and

1:03:05increase

1:03:06meaningful engagement.

1:03:08And then um last but certainly not

1:03:10least, beginning preparations now for

1:03:12next spring and summer. We know when the

1:03:14warm weather months come around, we need

1:03:15to be ready. Um and so how do we take

1:03:17the foundation we've built with our

1:03:19youth engagement work to the next level

1:03:22um and meet the moment for our young

1:03:23people. So, these are just outlining a

1:03:25couple of those areas and with that I'll

1:03:27leave this slide here.

1:03:29>> Um, so three things before we go to city

1:03:30schools. Um, with the increased

1:03:32interagency collaboration, are there um

1:03:34public-facing meeting notes?

1:03:37>> There will be. There will be.

1:03:38>> Do you have an ETA?

1:03:39>> Uh, I can I get back to you on that?

1:03:42>> Okay. 30 days?

1:03:43>> Sure.

1:03:44>> Okay. Um, with regard to the youth-led

1:03:47public safety messaging, um that's this

1:03:49is an official committee request to make

1:03:51sure that you include the youth

1:03:52commission and the existing youth

1:03:55advisory councils that we have in the

1:03:56city of Baltimore. And so when you share

1:03:58that report with the city council,

1:04:00that's what I'm going to be looking for.

1:04:02Last but certainly not least, for family

1:04:04and parental engagement, um just

1:04:06quickly, why are we not using the

1:04:08existing infrastructure that Baltimore

1:04:09City Public Schools has with their um I

1:04:12believe it's their parent advisory

1:04:13council, parent advisory P- P- CAB? Why

1:04:17are we not using that infrastructure?

1:04:18Why are we creating an entirely separate

1:04:20commission?

1:04:21>> So, this hasn't been created yet. This

1:04:23was a recommendation that came out from

1:04:25some of our past interagency

1:04:27conversations. Um, we can explore what

1:04:29that what what that could look like. We

1:04:31certainly don't want to duplicate

1:04:33efforts. Sure. Um, but want to make sure

1:04:36>> Let's align it with one.

1:04:37>> I I hear you.

1:04:38>> Yeah, okay.

1:04:39>> Okay, good. We can look So, look into

1:04:40that and then get to you something back

1:04:42for committee request.

1:04:43>> Okay. Thank you so much. And the C-CAB

1:04:45as well.

1:04:47The C-CAC.

1:04:48>> Okay, perfect. All right. Next, we're

1:04:50going to turn it over to Baltimore City

1:04:52Public Schools. Thank you so much,

1:04:53Director.

1:05:07>> Good morning, Madam Chair, members of of

1:05:09your committee. Thank you for allowing

1:05:10us to present today.

1:05:12Uh we do have a slide deck.

1:05:19I'll be discussing um Baltimore City

1:05:21Public Schools' approach to preventing

1:05:22youth peer violence and in my lane

1:05:24school police's approach to it.

1:05:52Okay.

1:06:02Just click it.

1:06:04All right, um Chief Jeffrey Shorter, uh

1:06:06Chief of Baltimore City School Police.

1:06:08Um our approach combine on prevention

1:06:10education with student leadership and

1:06:12trusted connection with adults. Uh

1:06:14several of the programs that we have,

1:06:16like Dr. Bunley's um terminology, what

1:06:19do you call it, doc?

1:06:21Pre-storative approaches to uh youth

1:06:23peer violence. It's a great program, the

1:06:25Dare program, school safety program, and

1:06:27the Youth Advisory Board. Uh

1:06:29collectively, they create ways for

1:06:31students to contribute to safety in

1:06:33their school communities.

1:06:34Um for those who don't know, GREAT

1:06:36stands for

1:06:37um gang resistance education training is

1:06:39up on the screen.

1:06:40Um the program focuses on conflict

1:06:42resolution, anger management,

1:06:44communication, and positive

1:06:45decision-making.

1:06:47Uh its aim is to help students res-

1:06:49respond to disagreements before they

1:06:50become physical altercations, resist

1:06:53negative peer pressure cuz we all know

1:06:54in city schools and in the community, a

1:06:56lot of things that occur because of

1:06:57resolve of peer pressure, and feel

1:06:59comfortable reporting concerns to

1:07:01trusted adults.

1:07:02Um I like to I appreciate that this was

1:07:05the back end of um the presentation

1:07:07because we have students in the

1:07:08communities then they have safe passage

1:07:10to get them to school and now we're

1:07:12talking about what happens when they are

1:07:13in school.

1:07:15Uh the next thing is uh D.A.R.E.

1:07:17D.A.R.E. stands for drug abuse re-

1:07:19resistance and education. Um this

1:07:21program emphasizes responsible choices,

1:07:24emotional regulation, communication, and

1:07:26resisting again peer pressure.

1:07:28Students practice recognizing harmful

1:07:30harmful situations um by demonstrating

1:07:34um um participating in uh mock

1:07:36situations like on a bus. We may see a

1:07:39fight. You may see a fight in the

1:07:40hallway. What led to that? They identify

1:07:42the actors and the victims and then what

1:07:44could have been done

1:07:45um to prevent those situations.

1:07:48Um bullying and aggressive behavior are

1:07:49encouraged to seek seek um help from

1:07:52trusted adults. It's about trust. Um

1:07:55we all often notice the students can't

1:07:57intervene in those situations so they

1:07:58have to have a trusted adult that they

1:08:00can report this information to.

1:08:03The next thing is the triple A school

1:08:05safety pro- safety patrol program. I

1:08:07don't know how many of you were safeties

1:08:08but um I always wanted to be one. Um was

1:08:11never selected. So this is a program

1:08:12that really is dear to me. Um it helps

1:08:15children understand like their

1:08:16responsibility and roles um in providing

1:08:19safety for their instruction for their

1:08:21uh peers. Um this program gives students

1:08:23a supervised role in promoting school

1:08:24safety. Um the patrol members um model

1:08:27responsibility and respect from trusted

1:08:29adults. They reinforce safe safe

1:08:31expectations and they bring concerns to

1:08:34trusted adults as stated before. A clear

1:08:37boundary is essential. Students report

1:08:39unsafe unsafe situations to adults and

1:08:42staff and do not physically intervene or

1:08:44in a scene it intercede in the

1:08:46altercations.

1:08:48Um

1:08:50These three programs are currently

1:08:52active in 37 um elementary middle

1:08:54schools throughout Baltimore City.

1:08:56Um our goal is to put them in 10 schools

1:08:59every year.

1:09:00Um we would do a review a content a

1:09:03comprehensive review to review any

1:09:05attendance suspension and follow-up

1:09:07meetings with the members of each of

1:09:08these programs. And as the programs are

1:09:10introduced, we use like to use our

1:09:12youthful participants in these programs

1:09:14as coaches and models for their young as

1:09:16they come along. I mean, take this

1:09:18information. So, we plant the seeds

1:09:20early and often. So, by the time that

1:09:21they get to the high school, they

1:09:23already have these um tools in their

1:09:25toolbox to use to help help prevent

1:09:27these situations. And sometimes we use

1:09:29them to go back uh during the summertime

1:09:31to talk to students as we as we have our

1:09:33our middle school programs as well.

1:09:38Lastly, we have our Youth Advisory

1:09:39Board, which are high school students.

1:09:41Youth Advisory Board gives high school

1:09:43students a direct way to share their

1:09:45perspectives and help shape prevention

1:09:46strategies in schools. Student leaders

1:09:49promote mentorship, respectful dialogue,

1:09:51and early conflict prevention. This

1:09:53insight also helps school police

1:09:56understand how students experience

1:09:57interaction with officers and how those

1:09:59relationships can build mutual

1:10:00understanding.

1:10:03Next, we have the safety meetings and

1:10:04restorative circles. As Dr. Bonnie

1:10:07talked about family involvement, you

1:10:08must involve family

1:10:10prior to, during, and after any kind of

1:10:13incident occurs.

1:10:14After the incident, school police can

1:10:16participate in safety meetings with

1:10:17school staff

1:10:19and students. And when appropriate,

1:10:20restorative circles can support

1:10:21dialogue, accountability, and repairing

1:10:23harm. These incidents sometimes they

1:10:26just unavoidable, but you must repair

1:10:28the harm that has has occurred.

1:10:30School police provide an added layer of

1:10:31support by reinforcing safety

1:10:32expectations and following up on

1:10:34concerns that are presented to the

1:10:36school staff during these safety safety

1:10:38meetings. The goal to support our

1:10:40recovery and help prevent and repeat

1:10:42incidents.

1:10:46Uh this is a coordinated approach. These

1:10:47strategies serve different but related

1:10:49purposes. Great and Dare build

1:10:51prevention and decision-making skills.

1:10:54Safety Patrol and the Youth Advisory

1:10:55Board support student and trust.

1:10:58Safety meetings and restorative circles

1:11:00provide support and accountability after

1:11:01incidents. Together they reflect a

1:11:03shared goal, preventing violence,

1:11:06uh restoring relationships, and

1:11:07reinforcing accountability.

1:11:09In addition to these programs, I've

1:11:11created a gang police a gang office a

1:11:12position. It's one officer assigned

1:11:14currently right now. Um people don't

1:11:16want to talk about it. We have a gang

1:11:17problem in the city. Um it's real and

1:11:20it's it's across the city. Um and if we

1:11:22don't get in front of it before things

1:11:23happen, then things happen.

1:11:25Um they'll also be assigned will be

1:11:27people we're working with BPD's gang

1:11:28unit. Um they collaborate with BPD to

1:11:31identify community and school related

1:11:32issues that may be gang related and when

1:11:34feasible, coordinate with credible

1:11:36messengers and community based

1:11:38organizations to intervene and mediate

1:11:40any conflicts. We also participate in

1:11:42youth related activities with various

1:11:44stakeholders across the city.

1:11:46School police presence have played a

1:11:47vital role in reducing violence at local

1:11:48events such as Safe Passage,

1:11:51summer youth violence prevention

1:11:53initiative downtown.

1:11:58Um we talked about agency coordination.

1:12:00So, I believe that's important, all

1:12:02right? So, we stay connected to all of

1:12:03the agency agencies because the

1:12:05foundation we're talking about is in the

1:12:07schools. Um things that happen in the

1:12:08community often spill into the schools

1:12:10and vice versa.

1:12:12Um I'll pass it over. Do you have any

1:12:13questions?

1:12:15I'll pass over to the next

1:12:16>> Not for right now.

1:12:17>> Okay.

1:12:18>> Yep.

1:12:25Good

1:12:26Excuse me. Good afternoon, Madam Chair

1:12:28and all of the council members um and

1:12:30everyone else in here. First, I would be

1:12:31remiss if I didn't um thank our um city

1:12:34partners for um all of the work that

1:12:37we've been able to do together. We

1:12:39appreciate you and we thank you for the

1:12:42collaboration. Um one piece that um we

1:12:46wanted to um continue with uh with the

1:12:50the

1:12:50is with the restorative approaches. Um,

1:12:53I do like your uh um coining of the word

1:12:56um Dr. Bundley.

1:12:58Um, the um pre

1:13:00the pre-storative. Yes, pre-storative.

1:13:02Um, so with that being said, I just

1:13:05wanted to say we understand the

1:13:07importance of the relationship building.

1:13:10And so as we continue with the um

1:13:13restorative approaches, we know that

1:13:15it's not an individual program that we

1:13:18are focused on, but more so making sure

1:13:20those restorative approaches are within

1:13:23each of the initiatives that we are um

1:13:26moving forward. Um, for example, with

1:13:29our community conferencing, um that's

1:13:31one of the pieces where we too agree

1:13:35that it's not just about the students,

1:13:37but it's about the entire family unit

1:13:40and also the ecosystem um that we have

1:13:43that um provides the wrap-around

1:13:45services. Um, we understand the

1:13:47importance of being proactive, but we

1:13:49also understand the importance of

1:13:51accountability. So though we are making

1:13:55sure that um we are being restorative

1:13:58and we are getting that youth version of

1:14:01um how they feel and how things should

1:14:03go, we're also we also have a code of

1:14:05conduct that we still have in place

1:14:07because there are rules and um

1:14:10guidelines that we have to make sure

1:14:11that we are following um to ensure the

1:14:14safety of our students.

1:14:16We also understand the importance of

1:14:19communicating and monitoring. So as

1:14:20we're doing that, um one area that we

1:14:23have really been looking close into is

1:14:26our um

1:14:27repeat suspensions. And we understand by

1:14:31looking at that area, um that is one of

1:14:34the um pockets of students that we have

1:14:37to make sure we're we're not just being

1:14:39compliant and making sure that the

1:14:41suspensions are on their records. We're

1:14:43making sure before they get there, we're

1:14:45assigning individuals to them to ensure

1:14:48that these students are being supported.

1:14:50So, these are some of the restorative

1:14:52approaches that we are taking as we are

1:14:55moving forward. We're also making sure

1:14:57that we are having conversations with

1:15:00our CBOs, the community-based

1:15:01organizations, um as they are in the

1:15:04schools working with the same students

1:15:06that we are, and they interact with them

1:15:08outside of our schools. Just ensuring

1:15:10that they um have the access that's

1:15:13needed for them to provide the resources

1:15:16um to the students, and also being able

1:15:19to come together with um the school

1:15:21system because their approach may be a

1:15:23little different, but just making sure

1:15:25that we're giving access to the uh um

1:15:28the room for the conversations to take

1:15:30place.

1:15:33One of the areas um that I know is a um

1:15:37hot topic for today is with the

1:15:39bullying, um and ours is bullying,

1:15:41harassment, um and intimidation.

1:15:44This year, we have really put more um

1:15:47emphasis on making sure that this is

1:15:49accessible to the stakeholders, to our

1:15:52students, um and to our families. We

1:15:55realized in the past, we held it um

1:15:58closer to us, and they had to depend on

1:16:01um getting the information from a

1:16:02school. Since that time, we made sure

1:16:05that we improved the um way that they

1:16:07can access it. We put it on our website.

1:16:10We have posters that are in schools that

1:16:12have the QR code that would take them

1:16:14right to the um website. Um we also have

1:16:18a coordinator who is designated to

1:16:21support with this work so that it's not

1:16:23just about the reporting of it. We

1:16:25realized that um as we increase the

1:16:28access and increase the um knowledge of

1:16:31how to report, um we've had more

1:16:33bullying reports coming in. So, we um

1:16:37but we know that we can't necessarily

1:16:39say that that is because it's Well, it's

1:16:42two different reasons. It could be

1:16:44because of the increase in the awareness

1:16:46and we're making sure that people have

1:16:49what's needed in order to access how

1:16:52they can get these this information to

1:16:54central office and another piece is

1:16:57um they also [clears throat]

1:16:59um can be uh

1:17:01if if they don't feel safe and if they

1:17:03are looking for a way to get this

1:17:05information across there they have um

1:17:08more accessibility in order for them to

1:17:11um share this information. Um one of the

1:17:14things that we've been hearing from um

1:17:16our um families is that um they want

1:17:19more access to someone who's more like a

1:17:21neutral party. Um so um we are trying to

1:17:24provide more um information for our uh

1:17:28for our schools so that we're supporting

1:17:31with mediation and community

1:17:32conferencing so that it just doesn't

1:17:34seem like it's just the school doing it

1:17:36but we're doing it um centrally as well.

1:17:39>> Sure.

1:17:43>> Um another area that I wanted to um

1:17:46bring up is the peer mediation. With um

1:17:49our peer mediation um we have been

1:17:51bringing cohorts of schools in for the

1:17:53past um 3 years working closely with the

1:17:56University of Maryland through the

1:17:58Center for Dispute Resolutions. Um and

1:18:01this is a method that we are um using

1:18:05with our schools. We do realize that um

1:18:08bringing in the small amount of schools

1:18:10that we have been bringing in each year

1:18:13that we have to increase that because

1:18:15this is giving that student voice. It's

1:18:17helping them with leadership

1:18:18opportunities. It's helping with

1:18:20relationship building and we want to

1:18:22make sure that we continue so that the

1:18:25um the

1:18:27the decisions are not just in the hands

1:18:29of the adults but it's in the hands of

1:18:30the students as well and and the

1:18:32families.

1:18:35Um the last piece that I just wanted to

1:18:38bring

1:18:39um, in is

1:18:41once we've gone through all of the

1:18:44different areas and we um,

1:18:46some feel like they've exhausted all of

1:18:48their options, we have an ombudsman's

1:18:51office. And in our ombudsman's office,

1:18:53we have um, individuals who are there to

1:18:57assist families. The families are able

1:18:59to call in. This information is placed

1:19:01on our website in order for families to

1:19:05know how they can contact um, the

1:19:07ombudsman who is a representative of the

1:19:10CEO. And through this process, they are

1:19:13able to be that neutral um, party that

1:19:16the schools and the um, the families are

1:19:19asking for.

1:19:21Um, they are able to support with

1:19:22decisions, support with um, pointing

1:19:25them in the right direction if they need

1:19:27to get um, greater assistance from one

1:19:30of our offices that's at the central

1:19:31level. Um, and they support with um,

1:19:34some of the mediation pieces. They don't

1:19:37necessarily do the mediations

1:19:38themselves, but they have access to our

1:19:41team so that we can ensure what's being

1:19:44said at the um,

1:19:45school level and what's being said by

1:19:48the family and the um, student Excuse

1:19:51me, I'm sorry. Student is it's all able

1:19:53to be brought together so that we can

1:19:56come to a resolution. Um, when they go

1:19:58to the ombudsman's office or when they

1:20:01call in, there's never a time when it's

1:20:04going to go unresolved. Um, and this is

1:20:07um, kept in our system to make sure that

1:20:09we're following up with the families um,

1:20:11so that they can get accurate

1:20:13information and they feel like they're

1:20:15being heard.

1:20:17Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

1:20:19I I First, I want to thank everyone for

1:20:22um,

1:20:23for sharing today.

1:20:26>> [sighs]

1:20:28>> I'm conflicted.

1:20:31I'm just going to say these three things

1:20:32and then um I'm going to let my

1:20:34colleagues because as you all know we're

1:20:36going to have

1:20:37an an additional conversation.

1:20:39First, there is a clear disconnect.

1:20:42Clear disconnect of what's happening

1:20:45within our agencies, the

1:20:46interconnectedness, the coordination,

1:20:48but also the duplicacy of programming

1:20:50and operations and also mission.

1:20:53We've got to get that under control.

1:20:56Secondly,

1:20:58if we are ever going to have any type of

1:21:01sort of of change in in Baltimore,

1:21:05I need us to and this is for BCIT. I

1:21:08need us to have that data

1:21:09interoperability

1:21:11ASAP.

1:21:12I'm noticing different data identifiers

1:21:14that are being captured in each of these

1:21:17each of these entities

1:21:18and there is no conversation amongst to

1:21:22have the fingers talking. Lastly,

1:21:25there are many many many well-developed

1:21:27plans within any of within many of these

1:21:29agencies.

1:21:31I would love to see a crosswalk map of

1:21:35what is

1:21:36happening, an evaluation of those

1:21:38particular programs, whether they are

1:21:40working, whether they're not working,

1:21:42whether we need to, you know, shift

1:21:44funding. Like those are the types of of

1:21:46interagency conversations that I really

1:21:48want us to have with with with regard to

1:21:51the uh limited funding that we have, but

1:21:53also there are so many of you all that

1:21:55are working on the same issues and the

1:21:57same concerns. So, I'm going to stop

1:21:59there. I'm going to turn it over to my

1:22:00colleagues um who have been patiently

1:22:03waiting. Um colleagues, you're going to

1:22:05have an opportunity to ask two

1:22:06questions. Um I'm going to be here

1:22:09through lunchtime. We want to make sure

1:22:10that we give these people a time to eat,

1:22:12but I'm going to be here. So, Councilman

1:22:15Conway, I'm going to turn it over to

1:22:16you, sir, to open us up.

1:22:17>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate you

1:22:19bringing this to the committee. Um

1:22:21I'm going to try and be brief cuz I want

1:22:23to eat lunch, too.

1:22:24Um to that effect, uh I I really

1:22:26appreciate uh one the testimony from our

1:22:29young people about their personal

1:22:30experience. I can't tell you how much

1:22:31that means to us to be able to connect

1:22:34the conversations and experiences that

1:22:36you're having amongst each other with

1:22:38the policies happening by the leaders in

1:22:40this room. And so, one I just value that

1:22:42so so much. Um two, I I I I want to

1:22:45focus on

1:22:46two things here. I'm going to ask first

1:22:48about early indicators and then I want

1:22:51to get into root causes.

1:22:53Um each of you said something that ties

1:22:55to all of those pieces and I want to

1:22:57help bring it all together and to the

1:22:58chair's point, um the data is super

1:23:02duper important and I think we need to

1:23:04not just collect the data, but actually

1:23:06make it actionable.

1:23:07Um and the first part of that is using

1:23:11what we know to identify when there's a

1:23:13red flag. And I talked about this a ton

1:23:15in the public safety committee when I

1:23:17talked about how we know we need to step

1:23:19in. Um you know, with the school system,

1:23:21I talked a lot about um

1:23:24um absenteeism

1:23:27as an early indicator for a young person

1:23:29that may be having issues. Uh and this

1:23:31is before they decide to bully someone.

1:23:33This is or maybe maybe they have already

1:23:35decided to bully someone and chronic

1:23:37absenteeism becomes an issue afterward,

1:23:39but um that is one of those data points

1:23:41where we know this young person is

1:23:43struggling for some reason. That reason

1:23:45may be that the bus doesn't show up on

1:23:46time or that reason may be that they're

1:23:48struggling with you know, inconsistent

1:23:51housing.

1:23:52Um whatever the case is, it tells us the

1:23:54city and potentially our state partners

1:23:56that there are programs that can support

1:23:58them and if we can step in using that

1:24:00data expeditiously, can really help that

1:24:02person out. Um so I I I really want to

1:24:05know um

1:24:07how are we thinking about that when it

1:24:10comes to early indicators for young

1:24:11people that well before they decide to

1:24:15partake in bullying or violence or

1:24:18any degree of crime in our streets,

1:24:20they're showing us that they're having

1:24:21issues. How do we How do we identify

1:24:24that? Are we looking at it that way

1:24:25today?

1:24:31>> Councilman, I think

1:24:35in each office we with the population

1:24:38with whom we work,

1:24:39we're looking at that.

1:24:42But, again, we've been talking about the

1:24:44collaboration has not been good.

1:24:46As the chairwoman stated that we have to

1:24:49be in the crosswalk

1:24:51from the data and then the actionables

1:24:54that address the that those data pieces.

1:24:57So, that is where we are. I mean, that's

1:25:00why this meeting is so important this

1:25:03hearing is so important because we have

1:25:04to begin to do that. Those are my

1:25:07thoughts.

1:25:08>> And if I could add to what Dr. Bunley is

1:25:10saying, so I think your question is

1:25:12spot-on and I think what is happening is

1:25:15there are some of us that are looking at

1:25:17that but not collectively across all

1:25:19sides. You're spot-on. So, I'll give an

1:25:22example. So, those of us that sit on

1:25:24child fatality, that is part of those

1:25:26are pieces and data points that we look

1:25:28at and I happen to sit on child

1:25:30fatality. I also happen to participate

1:25:33on the local care team. So, that also is

1:25:35discussed as we have a member from my

1:25:38office as part of local care team and

1:25:40then I also get telephone calls from

1:25:42that. So, I also am able to hear from

1:25:44that piece.

1:25:46And then also through the um

1:25:48ICRV. Um and so, we we that is all part

1:25:52of that case management. And then as Dr.

1:25:54Bunley and I talk through the whole

1:25:56family model

1:25:57um and then also when I work with city

1:25:59schools. So, there are pieces

1:26:02because of the nature of the mayor's

1:26:03office of children and family success, I

1:26:05work with the ombudsman, I work with the

1:26:08attendance team, I work with school

1:26:09police, BPD. So, to your point, although

1:26:13I am one agency and I I consider myself

1:26:15the connector agency, but there does

1:26:18need to be where all of us come together

1:26:20and convene. And by us having this

1:26:22hearing, there's a way in which now,

1:26:26even if it's me convening us all

1:26:28together to see how can we all come

1:26:30together and put the pieces of the

1:26:32puzzle together to do this. But, your

1:26:34point to what I'm hearing you say and

1:26:36what Dr. Bonilla said, we're all doing

1:26:39this, but we need to do it in a very

1:26:40coordinated way instead of one agency

1:26:44that's kind of sitting in all of these

1:26:45spaces being the keeper of all of this

1:26:47information.

1:26:48>> Yeah, I appreciate that, Director. And

1:26:49and I I really appreciate you one saying

1:26:53always tough for someone to say I'll

1:26:54volunteer tribute to help

1:26:56sort of coordinate so I would appreciate

1:26:58that if Sorry to give you guys work or

1:27:01They're like, "Oh, man."

1:27:02>> Can I Can I just add one point to that?

1:27:04Um and I also wanted to um because I

1:27:07totally agree. Um and we all are doing

1:27:10the work. Um I think we should really

1:27:12look into some of our data sharing

1:27:14agreements. Um because sometimes

1:27:18um things are self-created that the

1:27:20restrictions. And um yeah, I just want

1:27:24to say if we could look into that so

1:27:26that because we're we're supporting the

1:27:27same students. Um but there are some

1:27:30things we can share, some things we

1:27:32cannot, and sometimes that serves as an

1:27:34impediment.

1:27:35>> Can I

1:27:36I'll add a little thought that I had

1:27:37when Bella Grace was talking. Um she was

1:27:40talking about how she was getting

1:27:42bullied um

1:27:43because she

1:27:45is smart and she's capable in her class

1:27:47and that maybe some of her other

1:27:49colleagues who are bullying her

1:27:51um don't don't feel like they measure up

1:27:53in that way. And one way for them to

1:27:54exact some degree of um

1:27:59um

1:28:01Do- dominance. Thank you. Um having

1:28:04word-finding difficulties right now. But

1:28:06uh to extract some degree degree of

1:28:07dominance is for them to bully her. Um

1:28:10and when I think about um what we then

1:28:13can do here, I wonder what information

1:28:15or data we might have to identify those

1:28:18instances. Our teachers know a heck of a

1:28:20lot about what's going on in their

1:28:21classrooms.

1:28:22They know the grades, they know the

1:28:24interpersonal relationships between

1:28:25kids, they know all these things. And of

1:28:26course they can't share that with some

1:28:28of our agencies here, but they might be

1:28:30able to recommend some kids for

1:28:32programming and mentorship and things

1:28:34that might help them deal with some of

1:28:35those

1:28:37insecurities that they're feeling so

1:28:38that maybe our own people that don't

1:28:40need that extra support can thrive and

1:28:42not have to deal with this extra burden

1:28:44perhaps in their classrooms. So, um, I

1:28:46appreciate Okay.

1:28:49>> Councilman and and Madam Chair, I do

1:28:51want to say we've had multiple

1:28:53conversations and many of the directors

1:28:55we've been in those meetings

1:28:58where we talked about data sharing

1:28:59agreements. And let me just think as a

1:29:02parent,

1:29:03right? I don't care about data sharing

1:29:05agreements when my child gets bullied

1:29:07because I have enough data.

1:29:09Because I'm looking at my child.

1:29:11>> Yeah.

1:29:12>> Right? And so, that's no

1:29:15I'm not in opposition to my colleague,

1:29:17but we don't want to get We don't want

1:29:20to stumble because of those agreements

1:29:22because the data comes from different

1:29:24directions. So, if I as a parent say

1:29:26that my child has been bullied and I

1:29:29have evidence from the hospital, you

1:29:31don't need much more data than that.

1:29:33All right, we might have to verify so we

1:29:35don't want to get caught up while we're

1:29:37working on those. And I agree, you know,

1:29:39but we tried to talk about memorandums

1:29:41of understanding and all that stuff.

1:29:43Yeah, let that that allow somebody else

1:29:46to do that and let the us workers make

1:29:48certain that our children aren't being

1:29:50bullied.

1:29:50>> Yeah.

1:29:51I want to get to my second question.

1:29:53>> Oh, please. Go ahead.

1:29:53>> Oh, no, I was just um,

1:29:55going to chime in. I think

1:29:57I think we should be mindful of what

1:29:59we're talking about when we talk about

1:30:00these different levels of data. The

1:30:01reason that I presented data around

1:30:03early adolescent and fighting in

1:30:05emergency department is because that is

1:30:08to your point about risk factors, that

1:30:10is a risk factor. We've also tried to

1:30:12look at the issue of victim and and

1:30:14perpetrator in those cases and it's not

1:30:18clean. It's almost never clean. And so I

1:30:21I want us to sort of as you're thinking

1:30:22about risk factors and how we're

1:30:24considering conceptualizing them and

1:30:27quantifying them for data, how we talk

1:30:30about that is extremely important and I

1:30:32think we have an opportunity here to

1:30:33think about that.

1:30:34>> Appreciate it. Thank you.

1:30:36Um I'll quickly get to my next question

1:30:38cuz I do want to get you guys to lunch

1:30:39and I got a couple of colleagues behind

1:30:41me. And that's around root causes. And

1:30:44Dr. Bonley you said a lot. One thing

1:30:46that really stood out to me was

1:30:50what you added around families.

1:30:52And that's sort of stability of the

1:30:54household and I I come across a lot of

1:30:57parents that come to my office saying,

1:30:58"Look, I just don't have control of this

1:30:59kid anymore.

1:31:01I can't do anything. You know, he's 14,

1:31:0315, 16. They don't listen to me. They

1:31:06And and so I it begged the question for

1:31:08me

1:31:09about tools, supports, and otherwise

1:31:12that we can use for these young people

1:31:13because of that that's of course what

1:31:15what what your office does and we have

1:31:18tons of programs that can step in and

1:31:20try to the best of our ability support

1:31:22these young men and women. But it makes

1:31:25me think about

1:31:27what we can do to support the parents.

1:31:29What can we can do to support the

1:31:31households? And and even more going back

1:31:34to root causes,

1:31:36what we can do to prepare

1:31:38parents and households before their kids

1:31:40turn 10.

1:31:43Especially when we know we see these

1:31:45issues primarily in certain

1:31:48neighborhoods that have certain

1:31:49pressures.

1:31:50ACE score, ACE scores, or whatever the

1:31:52case is. We know a lot of these things

1:31:54well before kids turn 13, 14, 15. We can

1:31:57sometimes predict the likelihood that

1:32:00our young people will be dealing with

1:32:02trauma and issues in their neighborhoods

1:32:04well before they even know it. So it

1:32:06begs the question for me,

1:32:08what can we do to support families

1:32:09before

1:32:11their kids reach those ages that they

1:32:12start to have these issues and are large

1:32:16enough, capable enough, and connected

1:32:17enough to commit violence in a way that

1:32:19affects our streets. And so

1:32:21that's my root causes question.

1:32:27>> So if you think about the programs that

1:32:29I discuss in reference to school police,

1:32:30on surface this looks like a program,

1:32:32but it really focuses on the deep rooted

1:32:34issues that you talk about. And if we

1:32:35don't get in front of the some of these

1:32:37issues at the first grade, second grade,

1:32:39third By the time they get to ninth or

1:32:40tenth grade

1:32:41>> It's too late.

1:32:42>> it's too late, right? The plant is

1:32:43already grown. So we trying to pre

1:32:45uh uh plant those productive seeds early

1:32:47and often and then we can identify some

1:32:49students at the elementary level like,

1:32:51"Hey, this student participated in this

1:32:53program, but they their behavior while

1:32:55they participate in the program was

1:32:57alarming."

1:32:58So that goes to the teacher, the

1:32:59principal, and up the chain, right? And

1:33:02then the social workers get involved. So

1:33:04although we're there to just present a

1:33:06program, we're also identifying that

1:33:08negative behavior that occurs at that

1:33:10early age. And hopefully, you know,

1:33:12working with the Roger Shaw Reengagement

1:33:14Center, when some students come back

1:33:15home from a car incarceration just being

1:33:18reengaged back to the school system, I

1:33:20work with him so that I identify those

1:33:23who may just get some support like a a

1:33:24credible a mentor to be able to say,

1:33:27"Hey, listen, I know you've been through

1:33:28something, but let's hit the reset

1:33:29button."

1:33:30>> Yeah.

1:33:30>> So that's the that's that's the programs

1:33:32that we that we focus and and sponsor.

1:33:34On paper on surface focus it just looks

1:33:36like it's just a program, but it's more

1:33:38than just a program.

1:33:40>> And and and just adding to to what Chief

1:33:43stated is

1:33:45that we we have a process, another one

1:33:48of our processes or strategies is QCR,

1:33:51building quality connected

1:33:52relationships. Individuals, when you're

1:33:54talking about an individual who is in

1:33:56the sixth grade and not in the second

1:33:57grade or in the 12th grade, 11th grade,

1:34:00you have to have individuals who can

1:34:02engage them where they are. And so as a

1:34:05part again, it seems counterintuitive,

1:34:07but the fact of the matter is we have

1:34:09individuals

1:34:10who don't feel comfortable engaging our

1:34:13children.

1:34:14>> Mhm.

1:34:14>> [clears throat]

1:34:15>> Right? Whether they be you have to have

1:34:16the right people in the streets and I

1:34:19know many of Dr. Brooks's team,

1:34:22they have to feel comfortable engaging

1:34:25children that they don't know.

1:34:27And that's a process, and that's why we

1:34:29have to have those skills. And so again,

1:34:33those things we have to build those

1:34:34pieces up in those those individuals,

1:34:37train those individuals, and we have to

1:34:38have a larger number of those

1:34:41individuals. That's why we I'm glad to

1:34:43hear we're talking about budget because

1:34:45you have to have people who have

1:34:47particular expertise.

1:34:49>> Yeah.

1:34:50>> Yes, and

1:34:51as you know, October is anti-bullying

1:34:53month, so we've been going around to

1:34:55different schools in the month of

1:34:57October so that we can

1:34:59have different programming and the

1:35:01engagement that we have been

1:35:03receiving from our youth

1:35:06has been amazing because they're

1:35:08reaching out and they want to talk to

1:35:09someone. So now we're saying we can't

1:35:12just stop in October and now that we

1:35:14have this information, if a student is

1:35:16requesting assistance, like we need to

1:35:18make sure there's someone at the school

1:35:20level who's able to talk to them and to

1:35:23be able to give them the resources

1:35:24that's needed. And now like I'm charging

1:35:27my team every month, we need to go into

1:35:30school so that we can support and not

1:35:32just get information from the students,

1:35:34but also build the capacity of our teams

1:35:37that are at the school level.

1:35:39>> I appreciate that.

1:35:39>> And and Councilman, if I may, I want to

1:35:41add one thing about something you said

1:35:42about the kind of calls that you get

1:35:43from parents cuz we receive those calls

1:35:46from parents who and I think this

1:35:47connects to what Dr. Burnley said, like

1:35:49our families, they they don't need

1:35:50additional data, they know what's going

1:35:52on. They can see what's coming. They can

1:35:54also express when they need additional

1:35:55support.

1:35:57It's one of the reasons why we didn't

1:35:58speak about it a lot today. As we think

1:36:00about the future of youth diversion

1:36:02work,

1:36:03we're not thinking about just making it

1:36:04a fence base or waiting until that young

1:36:06person acts out in a certain way to be

1:36:09able to connect them with services, but

1:36:10we're also opening that process to

1:36:13community referrals, to family

1:36:14referrals. So if we have a family that

1:36:16calls as they often do to our offices,

1:36:18we can say, "Hey, there is a pathway

1:36:21that we can support you and your young

1:36:22person getting connected to what you

1:36:24need." And so I think it's one thing

1:36:27that responds directly to

1:36:29um

1:36:30to that point that you made.

1:36:31>> Yeah, I look forward to seeing what you

1:36:32guys come up with. You know, this super

1:36:34important thing.

1:36:35>> And then I'll just close it all out

1:36:37>> Oh, I'm sorry. Real quick. Okay. Dr.

1:36:39Finnegan Carr.

1:36:40>> Okay, thank you.

1:36:40>> The one thing that I will say is some of

1:36:43the research that Dr. Jones and I have

1:36:44done over the past two decades, Jesus,

1:36:48um is recognizing that the parent

1:36:51engagement that we do has to differ

1:36:53depending on elementary versus middle

1:36:55versus high. And um what we tend to do

1:36:58is have town halls or meetings

1:37:02the same exact way at all three levels

1:37:05and we know that doesn't work. Uh and

1:37:08then the problem that comes up with our

1:37:10middle and high school parents

1:37:11specifically is they don't get the phone

1:37:13call until something happens with their

1:37:15child. And we need to go back to how do

1:37:17we engage parents in the home-based

1:37:21parent involvement that they are doing

1:37:23to strengthen those muscles so that they

1:37:25know how to work with their middle and

1:37:27their high school students before they

1:37:29show up in your office saying, "I don't

1:37:31know what to do." Because we've already

1:37:32given them the strategies they need

1:37:35before the child gets out of hand.

1:37:37Thank you.

1:37:38>> Dr.

1:37:38>> clear that I was meant to go behind her

1:37:40because the other piece that I was going

1:37:42to add is as I also get calls and as the

1:37:45former executive director of special

1:37:47education for city schools, my office

1:37:50also gets calls. And also

1:37:51differentiating depending upon the need

1:37:54of the student. Um that the calls vary

1:37:57as well. And so um we work very closely

1:37:59with the school community coordinators

1:38:01in each of the schools and also with as

1:38:04councilman um

1:38:05Torrence indicated C-CAC um to be able

1:38:08to support families as well. And so we

1:38:11do have parenting classes at our CAP

1:38:13centers to be able to support around

1:38:15that as well. And so again um our

1:38:19children come with families. So ensuring

1:38:21that we're supporting the families um

1:38:23because we also know attendance um is

1:38:25not usually a child issue. It's usually

1:38:28a family issue. So being able to support

1:38:30the family, meet the family where they

1:38:32are, provide those diverse um needs to

1:38:35be able to support the young person so

1:38:37that they can be successful in school.

1:38:39>> Thank you so much, Councilman Torrence.

1:38:42>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going

1:38:44to be transparent. I don't care today.

1:38:45Um

1:38:47I see a failure in the system from

1:38:48multiple sides. 75,000 young people sit

1:38:51at city schools daily.

1:38:54480 days of school year. And there was

1:38:56no data presented today. Um

1:38:58as someone who worked at city schools,

1:39:00your your suspension data alone tells me

1:39:02more about what's happening in your

1:39:04schools. And then the diversionary

1:39:06program that you presented today

1:39:09was not what I was seeing on your

1:39:10previous boards. So I was reading your

1:39:12board materials while I was sitting

1:39:13here.

1:39:14Um arrests went down, but diversions

1:39:16have gone up. Um I had a young person I

1:39:18just referred to you because he was

1:39:19stabbed with a pencil last year, right?

1:39:22That was an incident of bullying. Um my

1:39:24wife, who's a nurse practitioner, had to

1:39:26give her patient the link to the

1:39:28bullying report because it was not

1:39:29public when that child walked into the

1:39:31building. I've been in six schools since

1:39:33the school year started. I've not seen a

1:39:35poster in any of those buildings. This

1:39:37is the low-hanging fruit. Um to be

1:39:39transparent with you, what I expected

1:39:42today from city schools was your

1:39:43suspension data, your arrest data, your

1:39:44division eight data. Also, the one thing

1:39:47I've been pushing the district on, I

1:39:49want to know who's suspending our black

1:39:50children because I want to know the

1:39:52suspension codes because what I've

1:39:53learned from working and doing the data

1:39:55behind suspensions, it's either a white

1:39:57teacher or a middle class black woman

1:39:59that is actually suspending them. And

1:40:00then the referrals to either a white

1:40:02principal or a black female principal.

1:40:04All of these things between racism and

1:40:06social economics determine how we treat

1:40:08our young people. In addition to that,

1:40:11who's the teacher and then what support

1:40:13the teacher was provided because often

1:40:15that is actually a director for

1:40:18instruction is not in the building with

1:40:19the principal and coaching a teacher on

1:40:22how to actually have classroom

1:40:23management.

1:40:25I say that as a child who came from city

1:40:27schools, who's seen what city schools

1:40:29look like when you have a teacher who

1:40:31has a principal who has that support.

1:40:33It starts at school climate and school

1:40:35culture. Um

1:40:36I'm I saw no data about school climate

1:40:38and school culture today. Um I say that

1:40:41because I still have not seen the impact

1:40:44of young people returning back to

1:40:46Douglas and safe passage because again,

1:40:49school school culture. There's a

1:40:51principal there who's never been in that

1:40:53building. When you have to actually

1:40:55staff his building according to how

1:40:57young people will traverse to Mondawmin.

1:40:59There's a principal that is at Carver

1:41:01who after I had to get in a verbal

1:41:04back and forth with the chief of chief

1:41:06of schools as well as the former chief

1:41:08of staff who lied to me in one actual

1:41:10email and then person that a young

1:41:12person walked in Carver with marijuana,

1:41:15left out of Carver with smoking said

1:41:16marijuana, went to One Plus One, the

1:41:18same place I used to go for carryout,

1:41:20went back into the same building while I

1:41:22sat in my car for 45 minutes.

1:41:24There was not a staff person that was

1:41:26there at entry and exit at that building

1:41:28and it took me pushing pressure on the

1:41:30district to actually have that. You know

1:41:32what what went down after that?

1:41:35Violence.

1:41:38There was no staff person present the

1:41:39day when a young man was shot and

1:41:42pistol-whipped in front of Carver

1:41:43Vo-Tech.

1:41:46Prayer.

1:41:47There was warnings by school police that

1:41:48there might be retaliation, but there

1:41:50was no coordination as well as making

1:41:52sure that that family didn't return

1:41:53there to that school. That was 3 days

1:41:55prior.

1:41:58So, I'm going to say this. 75,000 of our

1:42:01young people sit in school buildings

1:42:03across 156 campuses. There was no data

1:42:06presented today by the district. Can

1:42:09someone explain to me why there was no

1:42:10data?

1:42:15>> I'm not going to make an excuse why any

1:42:16data wasn't supplied. So, the

1:42:17information that we got was that this

1:42:19wasn't a data-driven presentation

1:42:23for school police and for school system.

1:42:25It was more of an informational session

1:42:27about processes and programs in place to

1:42:30prevent or address peer violence.

1:42:33>> I'm sorry, but

1:42:34>> We did make note. So,

1:42:37all those items that you just requested,

1:42:39we did make note to make sure that you

1:42:40did.

1:42:40>> I'm sorry, but there's $400,000 of

1:42:42salary sitting in this room from city

1:42:45schools.

1:42:46And processes are informed by data as a

1:42:48person who used to write the processes

1:42:50and the actual policy for city schools.

1:42:52That data informs it. And I'm basically

1:42:54I'm just being transparent. I'm

1:42:56offended.

1:42:57Because my child goes to city schools

1:42:59and not to see that data today says a

1:43:02lot about the impact of it.

1:43:05>> So, councilman, um I'm I'm going to take

1:43:07some responsibility here. What I can do

1:43:09is we can begin to have additional

1:43:11conversations, maybe an additional

1:43:14legislative oversight hearing

1:43:16um that could answer those questions for

1:43:18you. I understand your concern

1:43:20and I want to make sure that we address

1:43:22it in the proper venue and fashion um at

1:43:24a next hearing.

1:43:26>> Yeah, manager, I I hear you. That's not

1:43:28your fault. And I just want to make sure

1:43:29that the people who make hundreds of

1:43:31thousands of dollars a year who sit at

1:43:33central office now that that those

1:43:36programs were required by state law. The

1:43:39state law required that there be data

1:43:40attached to those programs. So, and if

1:43:43you're if you're presenting a program,

1:43:45the data should be there. We had the

1:43:46data from safe passage. We had the data

1:43:48from the school diversionary program,

1:43:50which we went out and sought funding

1:43:51from from the National League of Cities

1:43:53actually helped pay for it, right? These

1:43:55things have data. Those programs were

1:43:57informed. That that's where I'm talking

1:43:59about disconnect, right? You don't show

1:44:01up to say that this is our program

1:44:02without saying what the data is. Um my

1:44:05next question is related to

1:44:07coordination. Um

1:44:08I would like to make a data request. I

1:44:11actually know a committee request. I

1:44:12would like to know what issues what data

1:44:15you cannot share um that so that we can

1:44:17prepare for the general assembly um

1:44:19because some of that may be something

1:44:20that we need state action on to ask the

1:44:22general assembly provide us with a pilot

1:44:24to allow us to share that data cuz I do

1:44:26know that there are some things that we

1:44:28can't share. I would like to know what

1:44:30data you can't share with other partners

1:44:31because that then allows us to create a

1:44:34dashboard that then informs us because I

1:44:36can tell you based off this office of

1:44:37returning citizens, thanks to Stephanie

1:44:39and their work,

1:44:40we know who more than likely will be

1:44:43uh victim of homicide or a shooting

1:44:44next, right?

1:44:46We know that if we connect you to

1:44:48resources, we know we we can do that

1:44:50longitudinal like we know within the

1:44:52next 6 months. I think that we need to

1:44:54figure out what that data looks like

1:44:56across the board, create and destroy the

1:44:58barriers to get it so that we can be

1:45:00predictive and say if John goes to

1:45:03Altharetta school, Carver Vo-Tech, and

1:45:06he's transferred multiple times, why has

1:45:07he been transferred multiple times? Was

1:45:09he a safety transfer cuz he was bullied

1:45:11or was he a problematic child that was

1:45:13transferred as well, right? And that's

1:45:15how we have conversations about how we

1:45:16wrap services around him.

1:45:18>> That's right.

1:45:18>> And with my last point, I just want to

1:45:20lift up two names. Um Dante Crawford and

1:45:23Ennis Jolly. And I say that because that

1:45:25was a young man who was murdered over an

1:45:27and a young man who had to live with the

1:45:29rest of his life that he took another

1:45:31classmate's life and it took a moment

1:45:33for us to not really and I say that

1:45:35because the bullying information is not

1:45:38public.

1:45:39Had that young man had those resources,

1:45:42there would be two young men who are out

1:45:44and one that's not not one that's out

1:45:46that doesn't have to worry about people

1:45:47calling him a murderer every time he

1:45:49walks around the street and another

1:45:50who'll be here and see prom and see his

1:45:52see children grow up. Thank you.

1:45:55>> Thank you so much councilman and I I I

1:45:57can I thank you for your your comments

1:45:59and I will also just share there's going

1:46:01to be a follow-up hearing so councilman

1:46:03Parker and I were just talking

1:46:05about a a joint hearing between our both

1:46:09both of our committees

1:46:11so that we can begin to address some of

1:46:13these issues and I do believe there is a

1:46:16list of identifiers from a data

1:46:18interoperability perspective and so your

1:46:21there is a list I've seen it. And so we

1:46:24can definitely work together within this

1:46:26committee to address the concerns that

1:46:28you have and then with the additional

1:46:30joint hearing we can begin to get that

1:46:32scheduled as soon as possible in the

1:46:34next couple of months.

1:46:36>> Yes.

1:46:36>> Madam Chair, may I just say this and

1:46:38again I'm just excited that you called

1:46:40for this hearing.

1:46:42But as the former

1:46:45director

1:46:46>> Mhm.

1:46:46>> in city schools for climate

1:46:50one of the things that's very clear

1:46:53the biggest crime prevention strategies

1:46:55we have in Baltimore City

1:46:58are the family

1:46:59and city schools.

1:47:02That's the biggest crime a youngster who

1:47:04has a pupil number at kindergarten

1:47:07>> Mhm.

1:47:07>> and a full name at kindergarten

1:47:09>> Yep.

1:47:10>> it doesn't matter when he come up and

1:47:12say I'm Mook Mook. No, you're James

1:47:15Johnson

1:47:16and if we track our children positively

1:47:19to support them from the time that they

1:47:21enroll in city schools That's right.

1:47:22It's nowhere for them to go.

1:47:24>> That's right.

1:47:24>> Cuz they don't [clears throat]

1:47:25drop out of school and go to New York

1:47:28all of a sudden.

1:47:30They hunger hunker down right here and

1:47:32in these different neighborhoods and

1:47:34become what we see.

1:47:36>> That's right.

1:47:36>> So, we have to do this work.

1:47:38>> Sure. And I'm I'm so grateful that not

1:47:41only do we have um

1:47:44various leadership on this committee. Um

1:47:46we have the the leader of the education

1:47:49uh youth and young adults uh that sits

1:47:51on this committee. And so, Councilman

1:47:53Parker, I'm going to turn it over to you

1:47:55to uh bring us out um and then I'll make

1:47:57some closing remarks on next steps.

1:48:01>> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you,

1:48:02everybody for the conversation.

1:48:03Especially thank you to members of the

1:48:04Youth Commission for being with us today

1:48:05and for sharing your experiences.

1:48:08Um

1:48:09I'll say this as somebody who grew up in

1:48:10the city of Baltimore.

1:48:12Um

1:48:13I kind of I in my in my place that I

1:48:16think is most worth talking about, um

1:48:18violent encounters with peers on the

1:48:21street. Um I mean, I could I could sit

1:48:25here and go back 30 years and describe

1:48:28to the day exactly what took place to

1:48:30me, right? And and mine, you know, and

1:48:32the the end result of mine after a lot

1:48:34of push and shoving and yelling and

1:48:36screaming

1:48:37was was not particular I didn't have to

1:48:38go to the emergency room and things like

1:48:39that, but I could still tell you exactly

1:48:40what happened and and how it made me

1:48:41feel and how it reshaped my experience

1:48:44of growing up in the city. And that was

1:48:46the second of of two, right? And

1:48:48so uh so, all of that being said, that

1:48:50that the impact

1:48:52um on our young people, especially in

1:48:54cumulative ways, especially when we look

1:48:56at the the disparate impact for folks

1:48:57who are growing up whether it's in

1:48:59certain areas, certain schools, with

1:49:00other risk factors involved um uh is

1:49:03huge and it's it's not necessarily easy

1:49:05to quantify. We can talk about specific

1:49:06incidents, but not necessarily easy to

1:49:08quantify. And so, I appreciate the work

1:49:09that's being done and the opportunity on

1:49:12this committee and in our committee to

1:49:13to focus on

1:49:15on this um and to make sure that we're

1:49:17putting the experience of young people

1:49:18first and foremost.

1:49:20I was one of the reasons I referenced

1:49:23kind of my own experience growing up,

1:49:24that was a seventh grade incident. Um,

1:49:27uh, is that it didn't involve, in the

1:49:30end, police. I mean, maybe police

1:49:31responded eventually. Um, but uh, uh,

1:49:34uh,

1:49:35not not before the situation had fully

1:49:37resolved itself and there was no kind

1:49:38of, um, judicial follow-up or or

1:49:41criminal justice follow-up. And

1:49:42thankfully, it didn't have to involve

1:49:44medical care. Um, and so so much of

1:49:47these events, um, and incidents and

1:49:51attacks or violence isn't captured

1:49:53anywhere in our systems.

1:49:56Um,

1:49:57uh, that allow us to kind of like fully

1:50:00wrap our heads around, um, what's taking

1:50:03place and what the impact is. Um,

1:50:05which doesn't mean that that we

1:50:06shouldn't be doing our very best. And so

1:50:08just as we think about, uh, the data

1:50:10that we are pulling that we're looking

1:50:11at moving forward, um, that's helpful.

1:50:14Just on that front, I do I do appreciate

1:50:16Councilperson Torrence's call for some

1:50:18of that data that we can get on the city

1:50:19school side. Again, it doesn't capture

1:50:21everything happening all over the city

1:50:22and and, you know, in streets and and

1:50:24other, um,

1:50:25less formalized places, but, uh, but it

1:50:27is really important to see.

1:50:29Um, Tumansi, briefly, yeah, I I

1:50:32absolutely understand that the primary

1:50:33goal of Tumansi and and our primary data

1:50:35there is, uh, non-fatal shootings and

1:50:38homicides.

1:50:39Um, and, you know, in the aftermath of a

1:50:41of a uh,

1:50:43multi-victim, uh, shooting involving

1:50:45teenagers uh, a block from my house,

1:50:48very mindful of that and understand why

1:50:50it's such a priority for not only for

1:50:51Tumansi, but for all of us.

1:50:53Um, I'm mindful the the data presented

1:50:56here was all about today, was all about

1:50:58non-fatal shootings and and homicides,

1:51:00right? There wasn't anything around, uh,

1:51:03assaults or other categories of violence

1:51:05between young people.

1:51:07>> That's correct for today's presentation,

1:51:09but with BPD's help, it is something

1:51:11that we can we can work on with them for

1:51:13future conversations.

1:51:15>> I think just following up with that and

1:51:17Madam Chair, as we look towards the next

1:51:18thing, getting a sense of I mean this

1:51:19incredibly not to diminish anyway the

1:51:21importance of this and the progress

1:51:22we've made and and the important work

1:51:23still to do.

1:51:25Uh but but whatever stats we can pull

1:51:26from Muncie and from BPD relative to uh

1:51:30I to the kinds of

1:51:33violence that we're speaking about that

1:51:35that don't involve necessarily a gun but

1:51:37that still are

1:51:38um are are deeply harmful, physically

1:51:41harmful, but but certainly mentally

1:51:42harmful to young people. Um

1:51:45would love to to have that be a feature

1:51:47of our next gathering.

1:51:48Thank you, Madam Chair.

1:51:50>> Thank you so much, Councilman. I think

1:51:52you just helped plan our next joint

1:51:54committee hearing. I'd love to see it.

1:51:56Um so, colleagues, we're going to vote

1:51:58this out of committee today given that

1:52:00we have quorum. So, I'll entertain a

1:52:01motion to vote on resolution

1:52:0526-0064R.

1:52:10That was moved by Conway.

1:52:13All right. Porter, yes. Conway.

1:52:16>> I.

1:52:17>> Parker.

1:52:17>> I.

1:52:18>> Dorsey, absent. Torrence.

1:52:20>> I.

1:52:20>> Bullock, absent. And Ramos, absent. Four

1:52:23in the affirmative.

1:52:25Motion passes. This resolution moves to

1:52:27second reader at the next Council

1:52:28meeting, October 26, 2026. I'll close

1:52:32this out with saying I want to thank

1:52:34everyone for for coming today and and

1:52:36really really really

1:52:38delving into this issue. Um when I set

1:52:42out to lead this committee, I said we're

1:52:43not going to do performances. We got to

1:52:46do real work. And so, I'm super grateful

1:52:49that my colleagues have been able to to

1:52:50go on this journey with me, entertain my

1:52:54various long hearings but impactful

1:52:57hearings because we really have a lot of

1:52:59work to do in the city of Baltimore. We

1:53:01need to include our young people. We

1:53:02need to include our government. We need

1:53:04to include our hospital entities. It's

1:53:06so much money and resource flowing in

1:53:09the city of Baltimore. We should have

1:53:11these issues taken care of. And so, it

1:53:14is our charge here to make sure that we

1:53:16beginning to put the

1:53:19processes, the ecosystems, the planning,

1:53:21the evaluation

1:53:23in place so that we can really attack

1:53:26these large-scale issues that are

1:53:27impacting generations in the city of

1:53:29Baltimore. Thanks so much, everyone.

1:53:31Have a good day.