2010 Audacious Entrepreneurs: The New Class of Baltimore Community Fellows

This year’s Baltimore Community Fellowships include legal help for victims of creditor abuse; a performing arts program focused on social justice issues for young people; ancestry and heritage exploration for girls; a self-advocacy program using skateboarding as a hook; and a program to connect youth in Baltimore’s jail to mentors, counselors and resources.

Editors’ Note: Names and projects for the new Baltimore Community Fellows can be found at the end of this release.

BALTIMORE—An acclaimed comedian and mother of three will take young women from Park Heights on a journey through time to study their rich African and Native American ancestry and heritage. An attorney will work to protect low-income residents who have been victims of creditor abuse by providing training, assistance and co-counseling services to other attorneys who take on the victims’ cases. A woman who learned to love skateboarding as an adult will mentor young Baltimore skateboarders and teach them leadership and self-advocacy skills, as they work to get a skate park built in the city. And a recent Johns Hopkins graduate will pair graduate psychology students with youth charged as adults to connect them with mental health, case management and rehabilitation help while they await trial.

These are just four of the seven people whom the Open Society Institute-Baltimore selected to be 2010 Baltimore Community Fellows, as the program celebrates its 13th year of supporting social entrepreneurs and innovators to achieve their dreams to improve the city.

Each of this year’s fellows will receive $48,750 to work full-time for 18 months, implementing creative strategies to assist and revitalize underserved communities in Baltimore. This year’s new class brings the total number of Baltimore Community Fellows to 117—most of whom still are actively working in the city, continuing to bring their energy and ideas to effect social change.

This year, for the first time, OSI Baltimore will name a fellow in honor of attorney Clinton Bamberger, who has been an invaluable member of the nonprofit’s advisory board since its inception in 1997. The annual Clinton Bamberger Fellowship will be awarded to the Fellow whose project most embodies the audacious qualities that characterize Bamberger, an enthusiastic and tireless advocate and mentor with a commitment to justice and opportunity for all. Bamberger has been a member of the selection committee for the Community Fellowships Program 12 of the last 13 years, and has supported and advised fellows during and after their tenure.

The Clinton Bamberger Fellow will be revealed at a private reception later this afternoon as OSI-Baltimore simultaneously honors Bamberger, who is stepping down from the board, but will be named the first Trustee Emeritus.

From their proposed projects to their personal stories, the Class of 2010 is extremely diverse. Fellows will take on a wide variety of projects, including a food sustainability effort for residents in the Irvington, Yale Heights and Beechfield communities that will lead to a community gardening collective and a local community market; a youth performing arts project that will teach middle school students to avoid violence, risky behaviors and substance abuse, explore their emotions and choices, and perform well in school; and a community-based arts organization in Better Waverly that is dedicated to the development of youth leaders and strives to bring about a safer and more vibrant neighborhood.

Meshelle Foreman Shields, who has showcased her humorous side on BET’s “ComicView” and on Nick at Night’s “Search for the Funniest Mom in America,” will tackle a serious matter: girls in her childhood neighborhood of Park Heights, who are at risk of getting pregnant, dropping out of high school and a host of other issues. Meshelle, as she is known, will encourage the young women to study their ancestry and heritage, including through DNA testing, and discover a sense of identity and pride. She will challenge the girls to reconsider how they have traditionally defined themselves, and urge them to find pride in the “majesty” of their heritage. Rebecca Coleman, a woman who graduated third in her law school class at the University of Baltimore, will use her considerable talents not for personal wealth, but to help low-income residents fight corporations who have abused fair debt collection practices or other consumer protection laws.

Our new Community Fellows are dynamic and committed social activists, each with an innovative vision for bringing opportunity and greater justice to Baltimore’s neighborhoods so that all residents can participate fully in community life,” said OSI-Baltimore Director Diana Morris. “With this 13th class, we are proud to add to our corps of talented Baltimore Community Fellows. Working across issues and neighborhoods, these Fellows are bringing hope, new approaches, resources and advocacy skills to residents throughout the city, mobilizing them to take action to meet their own needs and to revitalize Baltimore communities.”

Fellow Koli Tengella, an artist and teacher at Collington Square Elementary/Middle School, will form two troupes of 25 actors each, most of them young people from neighborhoods in East Baltimore. His “urban hip-hop Sesame Street troupes,” will use poetry, dance and hip-hop in short five- to 45-minute performances that will encourage positive behavior changes and improve academics.

Each performance will have an opportunity to share information about healthy behavior and for the audience to share their feelings too,” Tengella says. “To show that once people are given the correct information we all are uplifted.”

Fellow Gary Ashbeck, who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, will work to establish farms and gardens in urban areas, beginning with the Irvington, Yale Heights and Beechfield communities in West Baltimore. During his fellowship, he will train and support neighbors to grow food on urban farms and sell the produce to area restaurants, stores and individuals. He also will encourage smaller-scale personal food gardens.

Because I live in an area where good, fresh food is hard to come by, I want to cultivate small gardens on people’s properties, or even just some small containers on their front doorsteps with some tomatoes or something they can eat,” Ashbeck says. “I want them to understand that gardening is something that is really tangible for all of us.”

And Jessica Turral, 23, will grow and improve Hand in Hand, an organization she founded to connect juveniles charged as adults in the Baltimore City Detention Center to caring mentors, who will counsel and guide them while they await trial – and even after they’ve been released or, in some cases, convicted.

A lot of these boys end up with post-traumatic stress or depression because they don’t have anyone to talk to or to help them. They come in to jail perfectly fine, but they leave completely broken,” says Turral, a 2009 graduate of Johns Hopkins University. “I don’t believe that re-entry will work if people don’t have a healthy mental state. People need to change the way they think not only about themselves but about what they can be in their community.

Open Society Institute–Baltimore launched the Baltimore Community Fellowships in 1998. The program has received support from OSI-Baltimore and several other foundations and individuals, including The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, The Lois and Irving Blum Foundation Inc., The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Cohen Opportunity Fund, The Commonweal Foundation, The Hoffberger Foundation, the Gloria B. and Herbert M. Katzenberg Charitable Fund, The Marion I. & Henry J. Knott Foundation, The Foundation for Maryland’s Future, the John Meyerhoff and Lenel Srochi Meyerhoff Fund, the Moser Family Philanthropic Fund, and the Alison and Arnold Richman Fund.

A six-person committee selected the seven finalists after an extensive process, including peer reviews, site visits and interviews.

2010 Baltimore Community Fellows

West Baltimore
Gary Ashbeck—Farmer

Using The Samaritan Women (TSW) as a base of operations, Gary will create opportunities for food sustainability for residents in the Irvington, Yale Heights and Beechfield communities. He will work with residents to start community gardens and establish a community gardening collective and a local community market and encourage residents to eat more healthfully.

Citywide
Rebecca Coleman—Lawyer

Rebecca will launch the Baltimore Creditor Abuse Prevention Project to protect low-income residents who have been victims of creditor abuse, by providing training, assistance and co-counseling services to attorneys who pledge to take on the victims’ cases. The project will increase the number of attorneys representing Baltimore debtors and help consumers become more aware of their rights.

Park Heights—Northwest Baltimore
Meshelle Foreman Shields—Entertainer

Meshelle will establish GoalDIGGERS: The Sankofa Project, which will encourage African-American girls, ages 14-18, to study their ancestry and heritage using technology, anthropology, and DNA testing. Girls will also participate in journaling and relevant cultural exchanges to learn about indigenous communal mores, bolster their identity and self-esteem and become more civically engaged citizens.

Citywide
Stephanie Murdock—Skateboarder

Stephanie will launch “Skateboarding for Success,” which will provide a safe place for youth to skateboard while learning important independent living skills and gaining leadership experience. By partnering with local schools, the program will offer mentoring, beginner lessons, private lessons, park clean-ups, and the motivation and skills necessary for the youth to graduate from high school.

Citywide
Koli Tengella—Teacher

Koli will engage youth, primarily in East Baltimore, in the development of a theater and filmmaking troupe to explore social justice issues, enrich academic studies and learn life skills. The cadre of youth performers will use poetry, dance and hip-hop in short 5- to 45-minute performances that will encourage positive behavior changes and improve academics.

Better Waverly—East Baltimore
Sarah Tooley—Artist

Sarah will solidify 901 Arts, a community-based arts organization in Better Waverly, by improving its organizational infrastructure and expanding its programming. 901 Arts is dedicated to the development of youth leaders and is an integral part of the community’s ongoing efforts to build a safer, stronger, and more vibrant neighborhood.

Baltimore City Detention Center
Jessica Turral—Program Director

Jessica will administer Hand in Hand, an organization she founded to connect juvenile males with mental health, case management, and rehabilitation resources while awaiting trial as adults at the Baltimore City Detention Center and upon release into the community. The program will seek to lower the juvenile recidivism rate while empowering youth. 

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Open Society Institute-Baltimore was started in 1998 by philanthropist George Soros as a laboratory to better understand and solve the most intractable problems facing urban America. OSI-Baltimore is a private operating foundation that focuses its work exclusively on the root causes of three intertwined problems – drug addiction, an over-reliance on incarceration and the obstacles that keep youth from succeeding inside and outside of the classroom. OSI-Baltimore also sponsors the Baltimore Community Fellows, now more than 100 members strong, who work to create opportunity and bring justice to people in the city’s most underserved neighborhoods. The office is part of the Open Society Foundations, which aims to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local communities in more than 70 countries, the Open Society Foundations support justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and education.