Education and youth development

Showing love and support to children and youth is a core part of how we neighbor at Collins Streamside. This has taken more and less structured forms over the years with different approaches based on each community member’s gifts and interests. It has involved coaching basketball at the local rec center, youth ministry at St. James Episcopal Church, a formal after school program in conjunction with St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, art camps, informal outdoor science classes doing the COVID19 outbreak, backyard basketball tournaments, pancake breakfasts for young people, building shared green space to be enjoyable for youth (tire swing, basketball court, fire circle).

This commitment has also informed career choices. Community member Yvonne McNair has designed and operated after-school programs for over 20 years. Another community member, Michael Sarbanes, is now a classroom science teacher at a nearby middle/high school which serves students from the neighborhood. This practice — “neighbor teaching” is described in “Neighbor as teacher; teacher as Neighbor”. This focus on education and children has also informed broader scale work for marrying education reform and community development and for education organizing broadly. One Collins Streamside Community member, Susan Goering, was formerly executive director of the Maryland ACLU, which brought the seminal case on education funding in Maryland. Michael was formerly the director of the Office of Engagement for Baltimore City Schools, and he and Susan used experiences of working with youth to inform the school system strategy for engaging with communities across the city, including during the 21st C. Buildings campaign to obtain $1 billion from the State of Maryland to rebuild outdated school buildings.