When Rachel Weber, a doctoral student in the Bloomberg School of Public
Health, returned to
Baltimore last year after an extensive fieldwork trip in
Tel Aviv, she had a slight nagging feeling. She
had just spent two years examining the sex worker trade and
human trafficking in that area — an
experience she felt was immensely valuable — and she
realized that since coming to Johns Hopkins, she
hadn't done any hands-on work to confront health-related
issues where she lived and went to school.
Weber said that when she decided to run for president
of the school's student assembly, she
knew a major aspect of her platform would be to help
connect students with the surrounding
community. She won the election, and one of her first
undertakings was to create an event that would
both encourage others to get involved with local agencies
and help dispel some of the fears they might
have about venturing out into the area.
Her efforts resulted in Baltimore Week, a week's worth
of community-related activities for
students at the schools of
Medicine,
Nursing and Public
Health. The October 2006 event was an
instant success, as several of the activities drew hundreds
of participants.
"I knew there was a lot of energy toward improving
relations with area residents and getting
students more involved with the community. What better way
to change the culture than having a
week at the beginning of the school year where we encourage
people to strengthen their connection
with the community and raise awareness to the issues right
here in our own backyard," said Weber, a
student in the Department of Epidemiology. "We also wanted
to get people excited about being in
Baltimore and show them some of the great things about the
community."
The second annual Baltimore Week, which begins today,
will kick off with a bus tour of East
Baltimore lead by Glenn Ross, a community activist and East
Baltimore resident for more than 30
years. Ross will impart a history of the neighborhoods,
talk about the environmental issues the area
faces and discuss the residents' view of their complex
relationship, both good and bad, with Johns
Hopkins. The tour, which takes place from noon to 1:30
p.m., starts at the hospital and travels down to
the harbor.
On Tuesday, the School of Public Health will host a
viewing of the award-winning documentary
The Boys of Baraka, a film that follows four "at risk"
Baltimore middle school students who attend an
experimental boarding school in Kenya. It traces their
journey from the inner city to the strict
academic and disciplinary school and then back again to
Baltimore. The film will be shown at 6 p.m. in
the School of Public Health's Sheldon Hall. A discussion
with some of the Baraka boys will follow the
viewing.
Baltimore Week 2007 also includes a talk by Baltimore
City Health Commissioner Joshua
Sharfstein; a community involvement panel; a performance by
WombWorks, a Baltimore-based theater
company that focuses on health issues; and a series of
seminars that link academic disciplines to
community health issues. Several of the activities were
pitched and are co-sponsored by various
student groups at the three schools.
The week concludes with the Tri-School Day of Service
on Saturday, Oct. 13. The day provides
opportunities for students to take part in one-time
community service projects at locations such as
Our Daily Bread, the International Rescue Committee, Parks
and People, Baltimore Reads Book Bank
and the Village Learning Place.
All the events are open to faculty and staff.
This year, Baltimore Week was organized and is
sponsored by SOURCE, Johns Hopkins' Student
Outreach Resource Center, which provides academic,
professional and personal development
opportunities for members of the schools of Medicine,
Nursing and Public Health through community
outreach and service-learning partnerships with
community-based organizations.
The three schools founded SOURCE in January 2005 to
create one centralized,
interdisciplinary community service and volunteerism
center. The center coordinates volunteer
activities — from a one-time park cleanup to an
in-depth internship — and functions as a
clearinghouse
through which community groups can request volunteer
help.
SOURCE's programs and services include an annual
volunteer fair, quarterly donation drives,
monthly lectures by community leaders and tours of the area
for new students.
Seth Christman, a coordinator at SOURCE and director
of Baltimore Week activities, said that
the center's staff felt strongly about the value of
Baltimore Week and wanted to continue what
Weber started.
"Rachel's vision and dedication to the East Baltimore
community is truly inspiring," Christman
said. "SOURCE has taken a key role in the planning to
ensure that this week of activities is
institutionalized and well-supported at all levels, and
that the week continues for years to come."
Christman said that an event like this could help
shatter some of the myths people have about
the community and foster individual relationships with area
agencies.
"We want to break down barriers, and the bus tour is
one way to get people out there and show
a lot of positive things," he said. "We want to show
students here that it's a great community that is
worth getting involved in."
For details about Baltimore Week and to sign up for a
Tri-School Day of Service project, go to
www.jhsph.edu/source/ProgramsEvents.html.
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