Mayor's Office of Children & Family Success Newsletter

Every hand that we don't shake must become a phone call that we place.

Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern.

Every inch and every foot that we physically place between ourselves and another, must become a thought as to how we might be of help to that other, should the need arise. 

—Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky

May 2020

We’re in Week 10 of the state of emergency and our community continues to be as resilient and committed to one another as ever. Thank you for caring for those around you.

The Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success is driven by seven priorities and a single core value: love for our children, community and city. Last month, our inaugural newsletter focused on one of those priorities, which has also been our highest-profile work during the coronavirus pandemic: reducing youth food insecurity. With this newsletter, we offer a window into our work in other priority areas that also aims to meet the particular needs of children and families during this time: increasing early childhood development and trauma-informed care for youth. We also introduce you to a few of our partners and share a glimpse into an exciting outgrowth of our meal distribution effort. Enjoy and stay well.

—Tisha Edwards, Executive Director

Distance Learning Isn’t Just for Big Kids

Did you know folding laundry—like sorting and matching socks—can help lay the foundation for algebra later on? Or that a walk outside can be great practice in shifting from closed conversation—“Look at that!”—to open-ended questions like, “What do you see in that tree?”

Such routine activities are becoming virtual learning experiences for nearly 3,000 Baltimore families as Baltimore City Head Start launches into distance learning. As of May 1, staff are leading daily Zoom check-ins with families, uploading content onto ClassDojo and pushing out weekly text messages with activities for parents at home. “This is such a formative time for children, from 0 to 5. Not having access to high-quality opportunities that are stable and consistent really impacts them,” says Shannon Burroughs-Campbell, Director of Baltimore City Head Start, which moved under the Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success last summer.

Almost all Head Start students go on to Baltimore City Public Schools, so as the district rolled out distance learning this spring, Head Start followed suit. And the new virtual universe also has Head Start doing online registration for 2020-21. Read more about Head Start's virtual re-do.

COVID-19 Adds Layer to Youth Trauma

Nearly half of Baltimore children experience 3+ traumas before adulthood. The disruption to young people’s lives caused by the coronavirus pandemic adds a layer of urgency to the healing that needs to happen among Baltimore’s youth—now.

“With school work happening from home and not being able to get out and see friends, a lot of youth are getting feelings of depression, absence, isolation,” says Shelah Johnson, a graduating senior at Frederick Douglass High School who has worked to heal from his own traumas and is committed to helping other youth do the same as a member of the Baltimore Children’s Cabinet trauma informed care workgroup.

With the pandemic comes heightened risk of chronic trauma, says Dr. Kyla Liggett-Creel, also a member of the trauma informed care workgroup. “With COVID, nobody can say what’s going to happen. So your brain says, ‘Do I need to be on high alert all the time?’ Part of the focus with trauma in times like this is to control what you can control. ‘I have no idea when school is going to open, but today I can control this.’ That helps manage the ambivalence and anxiety.”

Apply for the Trauma Informed Care Task Force NOW

This past winter the Children’s Cabinet adopted increasing trauma informed care for youth as one of its priorities and the city passed the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act, which created a Trauma Informed Care Task Force to lead adoption of trauma informed care policies and best practices across city agencies. Councilman Zeke Cohen, who sponsored the bill, and Tisha Edwards, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success, will co-chair the task force once it’s up and running. The task force is accepting applications for its 28 slots until May 31. 

Where Opportunity Meets Need

Unloading diaper donations. Boxing hot meals. Giving out gallons of milk. Hoisting boxes from pallets. Setting up and breaking down. Sharing friendly words and reassuring smiles. That’s how Matthew, Tyshae, Demonta, Nate, Ta’lon, Derwin, Ja’Sha and 20 other youth are spending their days in May and June: supporting the city’s COVID-19 emergency response.

Ever since the state of emergency began in March, approximately a dozen youth have been participating regularly in the city’s food response through Earn As You Grow, a youth employment and development program in the Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success. But thanks to a confluence of factors, that dozen more than doubled in May: the growing staffing needs of the city’s meal sites; state funding and the commitment of our community partners to lifting up Baltimore’s opportunity youth. And two weeks in, the program expansion is an all-around win.

“I like working with people that care,” says Tyshae Jennings, who works at The Food Project, a community meal site. “I set goals for myself and even when I want to give up they won’t let me.”

H2O Assistance Keeps Getting Easier

Be A Part of Baltimore's Vital Response

Please help make sure Baltimore City has the resources to protect communities and respond fully to residents’ needs during the coronavirus pandemic. To those who can: please donate to the Baltimore City COVID-19 Response Fund.

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