Four Baltimore City high schools are piloting a new violence intervention program that aims to build conflict mediation skills and counsel high-risk students.
In a press conference Tuesday at Carver Vocational-Technical High School, city leaders said the program partners each school with a community-based organization specifically catered to meet the school’s needs.
“There is a relationship there, and through that relationship, we're able to see what long-term success looks like,” said Stefanie Mavronis, director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. “Building an effective, comprehensive community violence intervention ecosystem means tailoring programs specifically designed to support Baltimore's young people and giving them the tools that they need to peacefully resolve conflicts.”
Mavronis said principals at the four pilot high schools — Carver, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical, Digital Harbor and Edmondson-Westside — are already seeing initial signs of improvement.
The Movement Team, for example, reported 46 mediation sessions and 25 conflict interventions at Carver and Digital Harbor since August.
“When young people just can't see eye to eye, those conversations are being had to make sure that they're able to connect in a way,” said Director of Programs Kea Crowder. “We are allowing the students… to decide for themselves how they're going to get through this conflict, and then hopefully walking away with a better understanding of what it is that the problems stem from.”
And starting in January, eight student ambassadors will begin working alongside the community partners at each school to boost peer-to-peer engagement.
“When we say it takes all of us to end violence in our city, we have to include Baltimore's young people,” Mavronis said.
City leaders have raised nearly $1.1 million from private and federal sources to fund the pilot. And after two years and an independent evaluation, Mavronis said leaders will consider whether to expand to other high schools.
“We're not copying and pasting,” said Councilman James Torrence, who graduated from Carver in 2005. “Because often when we talk about our young people, when people put it on the news, it is about a city in crisis, not about the children who need our help, not about the parents who can't afford to be present, not about the fact that we still need to fully fund our education system.”
