Waverly's New Principal Gets a Warm Welcome from the Community

Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke speaks to a room of supporters gathered to welcome Michelle Ferris as Waverly Elementary/Middle School's new principal.

On Thursday, July 23, partners and friends of Waverly Elementary/Middle School gathered at the Cathedral of the Incarnation to put on a welcome reception for newly appointed principal Michelle Ferris. Ferris began near the end of the 2008-2009 school year, and though she has a difficult job she clearly has an abundance of support from partners like City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, Delegate Maggie McIntosh, Franciscan Youth Center, Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Ednor Gardens-Lakeside, Waverly, and the Cathedral's leadership.

Representatives from these organizations, as well as City Schools CEO Dr. Andrés Alonso and several parents from the Waverly PTO, gave Ferris a warm welcome over light fare. Mary Pat Clarke and Maggie McIntosh spoke at the event, along with Karen Stokes and Karen DeCamp of GHCC, Rev. Jan Hamill of the Cathedral, and Antwaine Smith of Franciscan Youth Center. The reception provided time for speakers to thank the Waverly's strongest supports for their unfailing support of the school, especially their successful advocacy campaign to secure funding for a badly needed new middle school facility.

Overall, organizers hailed the event as a great success. DeCamp highlighted the potential for Waverly Elementary/Middle to become a flagship school for Baltimore City, given the forthcoming new facility and the wide network of support for the school. If Michelle Ferris' welcome reception is any indication, Waverly is well on its way to becoming a model for schools across the city.

Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Dr. Andrés Alonso at Waverly Principal Michelle Ferris' welcome reception.

How's Your Block?

Do you want to...

• be more informed about our community and city?
• talk about illegal dumping, vacant properties, safety, planting flowers and trees, or helping elderly/disabled neighbors?
• learn to use 311 and 911 more effectively?
• find resources to make your block cleaner, greener, and safer?
• get to know your neighbors?
• help make your block safer and stronger?

We're coming together to address these questions.

Meet and talk to the police officers sworn to protect and serve our community. Community organizations and city agencies are coming to offer support and everyone gets a free lunch, graduation certificate, and resource materials.

Better Waverly: Building a Safer & Stronger Community, Block by Block
Saturday, August 15, 2009
10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Marian House Dining Hall/Courtyard
949 Gorsuch Avenue
Baltimore, MD
For details and to RSVP, contact:
Joe Stewart
3212 Avon Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-243-4418(h) | 410-767-1354(w)
joeflashodaat@msn.com | jstewart@dat.state.md.us

YouthWorks Spotlight (Part III): Neil Davis

Hi, my name is Neil Davis and I am working here at Experience Corps for the summer. So far everything has been going well. I am now attending Lake Clifton High School and I am going into my junior year. I live around the Greenmount neighborhood. I like my neighborhood and have a lot to do around there. Sometimes in my spare time I like to play basketball. I am good at basketball, have played for recreation centers, and am trying out for my school’s basketball team next year so I can keep my skills in shape.

I also hope to take some of the skills I have learned over the summer back to school with me so I can use them over the year to become more successful. I am going into my last week here with Experience Corps – it has been fun and I will remember this place because it has taught me a lot of things. My birthday is August 2, and by the time my birthday comes I will be finished with the summer job. I like the experience that I had this year. This was my first summer job and I had a good time and I enjoyed it. I will always remember. Over this period of time I have done a lot of things, such as using a copy machine, filing papers, and packing and moving boxes. I also have been answering phone calls and using the computer.

I appreciate everyone for helping me and for their advice. I think that I might take up another summer job again sometime in the future or at least tell people about it and maybe they will try it. My mother really got on me to get a summer job because at first I did not want to do it, but I am glad I did it because it was better than I thought it was going to be.

Experience Corps' new home in Remington

GHCC's Experience Corps program volunteers may be on summer hiatus while schools are out, but the program staff is still hard at work. On Thursday, July 2nd, Experience Corps staff began moving into their new office at Miller’s Court, located at 2601 N. Howard Street, Suite 120.

The move was completed in shifts, through July 6th and all went well, thanks in large part to youth workers Neil Davis and Willie L. Hopkins. While the team is still adjusting to life off-site, and miss amenities such as the stamp machine, they love the new space. The building has an open court yard, which will soon include a fire pit, gym, and best of all, on-site training facilities!

Now that they are settled in, they plan to spend the next month gearing up to welcome back volunteers for the 2009-2010 school year.

Post submitted by Brandi Roberts, Field Manager for Experience Corps

GHCC from a VISTA volunteer's perspective

My time as a VISTA at Greater Homewood started just about one year ago, on August 5th, 2009. I walked in the front door to an all-staff meeting and was, over the course of a few hours, introduced to more people than I could count. That day set a tone of introductions and learning that would carry on through my entire time here.

Having attended Goucher College in Towson for four years, I managed to remain almost completely unaware of Baltimore, coming down only occasionally when I mustered up the courage and energy for what was sure to be a sizeable journey. It wasn’t until the second semester of my senior year that I began coming down to the city on a more frequent basis, yet even then I had a specific destination and almost never strayed from my course. And then I came to Greater Homewood.

Working here has been possibly the best introduction to Baltimore one could ask for as it has been an opportunity to meet a vast and diverse group of Baltimore resident’s who fight to make their city a better place. Whether they are the person coordinating the neighborhood association meetings every month and working to keep attendance levels on the rise, or they spend the majority of their free time volunteering at their neighborhood school. My time here has acquainted me with stories of individuals who come together to make change in their community, and given me a chance to help them achieve their goals.

A year ago I never would have thought that I would spend my time, energy, and concern helping parents pull a Parent/Teacher Association back together, or facilitating the growth of a fledgling community organization, and yet during a year as a VISTA at Greater Homewood I now hardly think twice about it. They have become normal features of a job that has been exceptionally fulfilling and engaging.

And now, with my time as a VISTA coming quickly to an end and the next phase of my life creeping closer and closer I find myself a little bit sad that my year is over, but more overwhelmed with a feeling of happiness that I was given an opportunity to see, learn about, and do so many things in a city that I now am proud to call home.

Image by Jaclyn Paul

Young Scholars come to Greater Homewood

On Friday July 10 Greater Homewood Community Corporation hosted a successful community service day with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Young Scholars Program. Seventy-seven youth and their ten staff mentors worked alongside community members and Greater Homewood staff on seven different projects around the community.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Young Scholars Program is a highly competitive program that nurtures students of exceptional academic and artistic talent with financial need by giving them guidance and resources to excel in high school, college, and beyond. Program staff work with scholars and their families to provide a personalized scholarship experience that enables the students to pursue their academic and artistic interests. Students apply in 7th grade, begin receiving support in 8th grade and continue through high school. After graduating students are eligible to receive additional assistance through college and graduate school from the program. Of the approximately 1,200 applications received by the foundation last year, only 77 were chosen.

Friday’s students were rising high school freshmen from across the country coming together with their class for the first time for a weekend at Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus. After a brief orientation at Barclay Elementary/Middle School, students split up into seven groups and went right to work. Community Connections VISTA Katie Horn led a group planting trees and plants as well as painting benches at Barclay Elementary/Middle School. VISTA Sam Chalfant and Waverly resident Irma Peav led a group weeding and planting flowers in planters along Old York Rd. above 33rd St. Better Waverly Resident Gail Kruesinger led a group weeding and mulching along Old York Rd. below 33rd St. Abell resident Bonnie Bessor worked with a group cleaning up an alley between 31st St. and Vineyard Lane behind Normal’s Bookstore, collecting 12 bags of trash and debris. Community Connections VISTA John Bernet and Peter Duvall worked with a group cleaning up the Harwood/26ers Community Park on the corner of 26th St. and Barclay St. as well as planting flowers and repairing the fence. Bob Brinkman and Margo Thomas led a group cleaning up the railroad bridge and alleys around 27th St. and Barclay St. Senior Resource VISTA Delores Somerville supervised a group that performed for and interacted with the residents at the Ellerslie Senior Apartments. Additionally, a group of 15 students from the Civic Leadership Institute worked with Brad Schlegel to clean up a vacant lot on 24th St. and Barclay. Overall the day was a great success with many accomplishments and positive and rewarding interactions between community members and the scholars.

Many thanks to all staff and community members whose participation made this great event possible, as well as Rebuilding Together, CSAFE and Barclay Elementary/Middle School for their donations of tools and space, Ronald Samuel for his coordination with the Ellerslie Tenant Council, and Civic Works and Parks and People for their generous donations of flowers and plants. Finally, thank you so much to Christine Borgelt, Julie Jarnot, Berkeley Burgess, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and all of the great students for all of the volunteer work they did!

Post submitted by Ethan Hunt

Image courtesy of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Join Our VISTA Team!

Think you missed your chance to become a VISTA at GHCC this August? Maybe not quite. We're looking for just one more AmeriCorps VISTA member to serve with us in a newly reopened position between August 24, 2009 and August 23, 2010. The only catch? We need you by Friday, July 10. Read over the job description below and contact Jaclyn Paul, VISTA Team Leader, at 410-261-3618 or jpaul@greaterhomewood.org for more information on how to apply.

Community Connections Coordinator

The Waverly Community Connections Coordinator will mobilize residents and advocate for stronger schools in the following Baltimore City neighborhoods and public schools: Waverly Elementary/Middle School, Abbottston Elementary School, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, Waverly, Better Waverly, Oakenshawe, Ednor Gardens. This VISTA member responds dynamically to community needs, creating capacity and connecting communities to neighborhood revitalization resources. Core responsibilities include:

• Become familiar with Waverly, Better Waverly, Ednor Gardens, and Oakenshawe neighborhoods and neighborhood leaders and actively seek ways to connect neighborhoods with resources for leadership development and capacity building.
• Build collaborations between neighborhood residents and associations; public schools; businesses; and local educational, faith, and health institutions.
• Enhance parent and community involvement in schools, mobilizing parents in support of their children's education.
• Alongside school stakeholders, identify specific needs within the school and build capacity to address them.
• Empower families and other residents to get more involved in their neighborhoods.
• Serve as a link between the school and the surrounding community to address specific needs and issues of common concern.

AmeriCorps VISTA provides an unparalleled opportunity to make a tangible difference in people's lives. VISTA, or Volunteers in Service to America, is a national service program often referred to as a "domestic Peace Corps." VISTA members commit to one year of full-time service and receive a modest living allowance plus education benefits, health care, child care assistance, reimbursement for relocation, and post-service federal employment incentives/opportunities.