Honors 214

What?

When I stepped out of the car on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in Baltimore City, I approached a huge brick building, called the Ella Bailey Baltimore Rec Center. The building was attached to Thomas Jefferson Middle School and adjacent to the school was a small playground. Kayla and I followed two small boys carrying a basketball through a gate and into the building. Once inside, there were many sights and sounds surrounding me. Just some of these senses included the bounce of basketballs in the gym area, the sight of volunteers giving children direction, and the sound of music playing for dancers in another room. We were quickly greeted by William Sullivan, the director of the Rec Center, who was looking quite sporty in a warm-up type sweat suit. The fact that William was wearing gym clothes gave me an impression that he is probably very dedicated to the children at the center. My first impression was that he is probably a very hands-on person who likes to interact with the kids and actually play with them. If he were wearing a nice suit and tie, I might have thought that he was just there to tell kids what to do, and wasn’t as involved. This made me feel a little more comfortable with him right away. We followed William upstairs into a small room where it was much quieter to begin the interview.

So What?

The Ella Bailey Baltimore Recreation Center provides children ages 4-19 with a safe and fun environment where a variety of different activities and services are offered, such as basketball, flag football, soccer, dance, art and crafts, and homework help. William described the center as “a safety link between school and home.” I think it’s very important to give children this opportunity, because their parents may not be able to pick them up after school in order to make sure they are safe. This center gives children that security they need. Volunteers are always welcome and their duties vary depending on their individual skills and interests. The responsibility of a volunteer can range anywhere from tutoring children with homework, to coaching basketball teams and teaching dance.  I then asked him what the overall mission/ goal of the Rec Center was. He said it was “to provide recreation activity and cultural awareness for Baltimore” and “to motivate kids to go beyond their comfort zone.” By going beyond comfort zones, children play with others from different racial and cultural backgrounds, which, according to William, “gets kids to see commonalities, instead of differences.” If kids are only brought up to see one type of culture, they may not accept other types later in their teen years, which can lead to violence. But, if the Rec Center can help kids at a young age to accept different races and cultures, it may help to reduce cultural and racial stereotyping and lessen violence among teens.

Another major goal he wanted to accomplish was “to try to make the number of kids graduating high school grow.” I think these goals are very important because they deal with a variety of social issues, including education, and crime prevention. While the Rec Center’s main activities are sport-related, they also offer homework assistance and tutoring. So William’s goal is to see the high school graduation rate, which is currently around 35-40%, to rise as a result of the Rec Center.

William also pointed out that there are only four sites for children outside of schools/churches within community area. He said that police even chase kids off of playgrounds from time to time. I think this is so terrible; no wonder kids are getting in so much trouble in the city, there is virtually nothing else for them to do. I don’t think kids can really be blamed for this. When there is nowhere for kids to go, it creates excessive loitering on street corners, which is how kids start getting into trouble with drugs and violence. The Baltimore Rec Center is designed for kids to have a safe place to go after school, and to help them stay out of trouble. I think this is a very effective way to deter crime because the programs and sports the Rec Center offers are catered to what kids enjoy, so they will want to go.

Now What?

I think that using the information I gained from the interview with William can really be a great tool to help solve some of these social issues, such as lack of graduation, violence and crime in Baltimore City, as well as cultural awareness and acceptance. When speaking with William, it was evident that that the Rec Center was a place that could defiantly help to solve these issues that the city faces. I think the next step in this process would be to promote volunteering at the Rec Center, as well as to construct more places around the community that are specifically for kids. As mentioned earlier, there are currently only four places in the area for kids to go, which I think is a major cause of violence and crime. If similar Rec Buildings were built, I think these rates would decline. Also, the more volunteer’s available means the more activities that can be offered. A variety of new activities would draw in even more kids off the streets and these Rec Centers could help kids to succeed. I am hoping that the website will attract volunteers from our school to help out at the Rec Center so these ideas can become a reality, and Baltimore City kids will change for the better.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.