The East Baltimore community contains more than 250
churches and faith centers whose
congregations number some 150,000 strong. Individually,
these houses of worship can have a profound
impact on people and the community. Collectively, they can
effect significant change.
Realizing this, leaders from the East Baltimore faith
community came together in the mid-1990s
to form CURE, Clergy United for Renewal in East Baltimore,
an organization focused on access to
better health services for area residents.
This spring, the Johns Hopkins
Urban Health Institute partnered with CURE to create a
series
of forums to bring together leadership from Johns Hopkins
and the faith community to share
perspectives, concerns and ideas for improved
collaboration. The first forum addressed broad issues,
and the second, held two weeks ago, focused on
youth-violence prevention and improving access to
health care.
Robert Blum, director of the Johns Hopkins Urban
Health Institute, said that these forums
were initiated to enhance communication between the faith
community, community-based organizations
and the leadership of Johns Hopkins institutions.
"The faith leaders have historically been the glue for
the East Baltimore community," Blum said.
"Close collaboration and coordination is critical between
Hopkins and the faith community for our
community's success."
The first CURE/UHI community dialogue was held in May
at the Garden of Prayer Baptist
Church. The event featured a panel of leaders from both the
faith community and Johns Hopkins,
including the pastors of five of the area's largest
ministries; Edward D. Miller, dean of the medical
faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine; Michael Klag,
dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health; Martha Hill, dean of the School of
Nursing; Ron Peterson, president of the
Johns Hopkins Health System; and Jack Shannon, CEO of East
Baltimore Development Inc.
The panel discussed ways to re-establish and
strengthen ties between Johns Hopkins' East
Baltimore campus and the surrounding communities and to
identify areas for future collaborations.
During the forum, pastors identified a variety of health
issues that concerned their congregations,
including chronic conditions like hypertension and
diabetes. They also discussed issues related to
adolescents, such as violence prevention and HIV and STD
awareness and treatment.
The relocation of East Baltimore residents, employment
opportunities and workforce
development were also discussed.
The second and most recent community dialogue took
place on Nov. 27 in Feinstone Hall at the
School of Public Health. The panel included Miller, Klag,
Hill, Peterson and the Rev. Harlie Wilson,
pastor of the Israel Baptist Church, and the Rev. Marshall
Prentice, pastor of the Zion Baptist
Church. Blum moderated the forum, which drew more than 70
participants from both the Johns
Hopkins and East Baltimore communities.
The panel members discussed several innovative youth
violence prevention initiatives in which
JHU is currently involved, such as the God and Gang Clergy
Summit, which was organized by CURE, the
Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence,
the Family League of Baltimore City and
the Mayor's Office. The summit, held June 15 at the Israel
Baptist Church, drew more than 100
people and focused on the role of the clergy in "restoring
hope and resurrecting morality in
Baltimore."
Efforts discussed at the November forum included
Operation Safe Streets, which involves
community mobilization and the hiring of ex-offenders to
engage youth and others involved in violence,
and the new School of Public Health book Hands Off:
Strategies to Combat Youth Violence, written by
Sara Hassan, program coordinator for the Johns Hopkins
Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence,
and LaMarr Darnell Shields, co-founder and president of
Urban Leadership Institute. The aim of
Hands Off is to educate students, teachers and parents
about youth violence, its consequences and
preventive interventions.
Blum said that the forums have been tremendously
positive and that the most important
outcome to date is that people are talking and sharing
ideas. Since the first faith forum, Blum said,
much work has been done on issues related to health care
services and a joint Johns HopkinsÐCURE
planning process on violence prevention.
Collaborating with a number of partners, the Urban
Health Institute has jump-started several
initiatives to help address the concerns that the faith
community identified in the initial forum. With
regard to issues impacting access to care, the UHI
Community Health Workers program began working
with pregnant women through the OB/GYN clinic of the East
Baltimore Medical Center, encouraging
mothers-to-be to stay in prenatal care, and providing them
with both education and emotional support.
UHI also has partnered with SOURCE (Student Outreach
Resource Center), SPARC (Students for a
Positive Academic paRtnership with the East Baltimore
Community) and other student groups at Johns
Hopkins to begin to explore how to better collaborate with
East Baltimore churches for health
screenings of parishioners.
In May, Johns Hopkins will host a conference called
Violence and the Challenge of Healing in
Our Communities, which will examine the topic of violence
as a public health problem through
theological and social ecology lenses. The conference is
being organized by the School of Medicine, the
Center for Prevention of Youth Violence, the Johns Hopkins
Hospital Department of Pastoral Care and
the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing.
Blum said that Johns Hopkins plans to host forums
every several months. Based on the response
from participants at the Nov. 27 event, the next forum will
focus on after-school programs and will be
held on or near the Homewood campus sometime this
winter.
For more information, go to
www.jhsph.edu/urbanhealth.
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