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BALTIMORE, MD. (December 17, 2012) – This morning, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined Archbishop William E. Lori, Senator Barbara Mikulski, AmeriCorps CEO Wendy Spencer, and others at the dedication of the new the National Civilian Conservation Corps (NCCC) campus in Baltimore. The following is the text of her remarks (as prepared):
Good morning. Thank you for the kind introduction.
On behalf of the people of Baltimore, I want to officially welcome AmeriCorps to this great city. It’s a pleasure to welcome so many people who believe in the incredible things we can accomplish when we serve others. As we work to grow Baltimore by 10,000 families in the next 10 years, we will count on people like you to stand with us in partnership to confront this city’s greatest challenges.
Thank you, Senator Mikulski, for fighting to create, strengthen, and sustain AmeriCorps. You have been and still are an awesome champion of national service.
Thank you, Wendy Spencer and the Corporation for National and Community Service for your leadership, which brings over 80,000 AmeriCorps members into communities across America.
Thank you, Kate Raftery, for your leadership of the truly unique, rough-and-ready NCCC.
And thank you, Archbishop Lori and the Archdiocese of Baltimore for your service to our citizens and your role in bringing NCCC to the city.
I’m honored to say that Baltimore will be the future home of one of only five NCCC campuses in the entire country. Beginning this coming summer, up to 240 full-time AmeriCorps members will live at the Baltimore NCCC campus each year. These 18 to 24 year-olds from across America have made a 10-month commitment to strengthen our communities and our country. They will serve Baltimore, and they will also radiate out from Baltimore, to serve our neighbors in 10 states on the East coast. I like that imagery—of them radiating out from Baltimore, like rays of sunshine, providing warmth and hope to people who need it the most.
Now I want to say something.
On Friday our country suffered an unimaginable tragedy in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Last night, President Obama read aloud the names of each victim, including the names of the first-graders senselessly gunned down in their classroom.
The grief of the families of Newtown is similar to the grief of families in Baltimore who have also suffered from gun violence. For too long as a country, we have been unable to stand as one to address the root causes of gun violence—whether on street corners in Baltimore or at schools in places like Newtown.
The president said, “We can’t tolerate this anymore,” and promised to use his office to begin an effort to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. As a mother, and as mayor of Baltimore, I am prepared to stand with President Obama.
I know Senator Mikulski stands with us. And already other leaders, including my colleague, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have called for action that can improve safety for children throughout America.
Those of you here today—people who are dedicated to solving some of this nation’s greatest challenges—understand this as well as anyone. Meaningful change can happen if we channel our grief, sorrow, and frustration into this effort. As the president said, “Surely we can do better than this.” Indeed we can—we must do it together and we must to it now.
In Baltimore, since 2009, 460 NCCC members have given more than 90,000 hours of service. That’s 90,000 hours making Baltimore a better, safer, and stronger city. They have removed approximately 18,000 pounds of trash and debris, cleared vacant lots across the city, and completed dozens of community revitalization projects, including landscaping 7 acres of land.
They have preserved and revitalized houses in neighborhoods across the city, assuring that low-income homeowners—from the elderly and disabled, to families with children—live in homes that are warm, safe, and dry. And their construction skills don’t end with homes. They also refurbished a closed middle school, helping to turn it into a new charter school.
NCCC members have worked with over 2800 youth in Baltimore City Public Schools, providing mentoring; increasing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning; and even helping children learn to swim!
Amazing. These are all things that keep residents in the city and attract new people to move to the city. These are all things that get Baltimore growing again.
Besides proudly claiming these NCCC members as Baltimore’s own, I’d like to recognize the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) members that serve the city through my stepUP! initiatives. The beauty of stepUP! is that we are tapping into our very own citizens as volunteers and channeling their energy in a highly focused manner to impact the city’s most pressing challenges.
Without VISTAs—who are on the ground every day in organizations and communities around the city, tapping into and channeling citizen energy—stepUP! would simply not exist. We wouldn’t have been able to make such great impact in such a short period of time. Here’s what our citizens have done in just one year.
They’ve revitalized hundreds of abandoned and vacant lots; helped hundreds of people in drug treatment transition successfully into long-term recovery from addiction; connected dozens of youth in the justice system to professional and social networks they otherwise wouldn’t have access to; and provided more than a thousand kids with nutritious meals and learning experiences over the summer.
It’s been a very busy year, but we’re not done yet.
We know from evidence that a child’s reading proficiency at the end of third grade is a strong predictor of whether the child will go on to graduate from high school and do well in life. We also know that if a child isn’t in school, he or she isn’t learning. The facts show that kids who are chronically absent drop out at higher rates and score lower in both reading and math proficiency than kids with higher attendance.
That’s why in our second year of stepUP! we’re launching two new initiatives. Last week, we kicked off Third Grade Reads to deploy our city’s residents as one-on-one tutors to ensure that first-, second-, and third-graders who have fallen behind in their reading skills can catch up and read proficiently by the time they finish third grade. And we will soon deploy citizen volunteers in a variety of roles to support our most vulnerable students to increase their attendance in school.
I’m happy to count on the support of VISTA and the Corporation for National and Community Service for these important efforts in our city to make sure kids are on the right track to succeed in school and life. And I’m counting on you, the people of Baltimore, to sign up to volunteer right now as a reading tutor.
We’ve already identified the kids who need the help of a reading angel like you to get them caught up in their reading skills. Don’t let these kids wait any longer. As a reading angel, you really can alter the course of their lives. Sign up right now at www.thirdgradereads.com.
It’s fitting that I end my remarks with a call to service. Sometimes the call comes from above. Sometimes it comes from others. Sometimes it comes from within. But no matter where the call to service comes from, we should answer it.
We owe it to ourselves, our neighbors, and our country.
Thank you.
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