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Alison Collins
WR327 Civic Literacy
May 9th 2016

A Better Baltimore

An instance
On the morning of April 12th, Freddie Gray took a walk along North Avenue in
Baltimore with two friends. Although the reasons remain unclear, a short while later,
Gray was chased by police officers, arrested and escorted into a transport van, where he
was seen conscious for the last time. Sometime between the arrest and the transport, Gray
suffered a severe spinal injury that eventually led to his death a week later. Protests and
riots erupted both citywide and nationally, after a cell phone video was released by one of
his friends, showing what some believe to be extremely harsh actions taken by the police
during the arrest (Rentz).
Freddie Gray may not have been a saint. But his life and death depict a variety of
difficult problems that face Baltimore, Maryland. According to the Washington Post, as a
child, Gray was found to have high levels of lead in his blood from the peeling lead paint
in his home, opening the door to a multitude of medical and educational problems, his
family charged in a lawsuit. His mother herself was a heroin addict, leading to Grays
own involvement with drugs and a short time spent in prison (Fletcher).
For Grays West Baltimore community of Sandtown-Winchester, not to mention
the many other impoverished Baltimore neighborhoods -- this is their reality. Violence,
drugs, crime, jail time. But why is this the case? According to a 2011 Baltimore Health
Department report more than half of Sandtowns households earned less than $25,000 a

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yearand more than one in five adults were out of work - double the citywide average,
(Fletcher).

The Issue
Unemployment. As individuals, we like to throw this word around a lot -- in
conversations, in newspapers, on television -- but what does it really mean? You might be
thinking, Well, I have a decent job; Im not affected by unemployment. Wrong. If
unemployment is affecting people, even one person in your community, it is, in turn,
affecting you as a citizen and your community as a whole. As citizens of Baltimore City,
we cannot continue to simply dismiss this issue and believe that it is not our
responsibility to help others who are currently unemployed.
In order to be able to understand why we should care about unemployment on the
grand scale, we must first learn the importance of employment in an individuals life;
second examine the physical and mental effects of unemployment; and finally discuss
exactly how we can improve the Baltimore community and place those in need in careers
where they can thrive.

Employments Purpose
As children, our teachers and parents constantly asked us, What do you want to
be when you grow up? And as any child would, we responded with various generic
occupations such as a firefighter, a doctor, a police officer, a dancer, or even an artist.
Although we were too young to understand the concept, from such a young age, we were
actually taught to think about our future in terms of work. However, as we grew up and

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moved on to complete higher levels of education, the question of what or who we wanted
to be became more complicated and often had greater implications.
Oxford Dictionaries defines work as a mental or physical activity completed in
order to achieve a purpose or result. In society, these activities have essentially
become synonymous with the idea of earning income so that we may be able to continue
paying bills for our homes, putting food on our tables and living comfortably. Once we
are employed, it is often easy to forget that work is more than just a way of making
money but instead something that provides oneself with purpose and dignity. According
to psychotherapist, Charles Allen, as quoted by Andrea Gannett in USA Today, Selfesteem and self-worth are closely aligned with working. People in positions of power,
whether you are self-employed or are working under a CEO, are able to receive a
continuous source of feedback, re-enforcing the idea that as an employed individual
you are a contributing member of society (Gannett).
So what happens when that continuous source of feedback is suddenly taken away
from you? Or what if you never had the resources to obtain that feedback in the first
place?

Physical Effects
As studies show, unemployment will have a negative impact on a persons health
as they will most likely have fewer financial resources and higher levels of stress due to
attempts to find a job and earn a living wage. One section of the Gallup Healthways WellBeing Index titled The Physical Health Index strictly compares employed individuals
with those that are unemployed. The index looks at sick days in the past month, health

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problems that get in the way of normal activities, obesity, feeling-well rested, daily
energy, colds, flu and headaches (Witters). After examining the index, it becomes obvious
that the unemployed had the worst physical health overall for all ages.

Physiological Effects
Aside from physical health, unemployment can also lead to long-lasting changes
in behavior and mental health, (Peck). The Atlantic cites Glen Elder, a sociologist at the
University of North Carolina, who conducted a study on men who suffered hardships in
their early twenties and thirties during the Depression. The study found that these men
appeared as beaten and withdrawn - lacking ambition, direction, and confidence in
themselves compared to the men who had been employed in the 1930s (Peck).
More recently, after examining national data Krysia Mossakowski, a sociologist at
the University of Miami, found that individuals who were unemployed for long periods
in their teens or early 20s were more likely to develop habits such as heavy drinking and
develop depressive symptoms by the time they reach middle age (Peck). As Andrew
Oswald, an economist from the University of Warwick in the U.K, quoted in Don Pecks
Atlantic article describes it, unemployment is similar to the death of a spouse, resulting in
a tarnished identity and a loss of self-worth leaving an individual with permanent

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"psychological scars. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index further confirms
16.6% of unemployed Americans are depressed compared to 5.6% of those who work
full time (Gannett).

Shorter Life Expectancy

Although both the physical and mental effects of unemployment are enough to
raise a concern, The Atlantic describes another disturbing study conducted by Von
Wachter, an economist at Columbia University, and Daniel Sullivan, of the Federal
Reserve Bank of Chicago. They examined mortality rates of men who had lost their jobs
in Pennsylvania in the 1970s and 80s. The study concluded that mortality rates rose
quickly after a layoff specifically for men in their 40s or 50s and all men were left with
an elevated risk of dying in each year following their episode of unemployment
regardless of age (Peck).
So why does this all matter? Why should Americans who are not affected by
unemployment care about those who are unemployed? The answer is simple. If
unemployment is affecting the individuals in your community, it is, in turn, affecting your
community as a whole.

Back to Baltimore
According to CNN, nearly 24% of the citys population is living below the
poverty line this means that a family of three is living off of a mere $20,090 a year
(Malter). This lack of income directly stems from the lack of employment opportunities
in the Baltimore area. The once prosperous manufacturing and shipping industries have

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sharply declined over the last few decades, leaving large sections of Baltimore in
economic despair (Malter). On the other hand, many jobs in the city now seek white
collar, college-educated workers which further means that those without a college
degree are largely disadvantaged. If we compare the neighborhood of SandtownWinchester with the Baltimore average, we see a great economic difference.

The Justice Policy Institute collected further data from those living in SandtownWinchester and discovered that:

40% have a high school diploma

49.3% are chronically absent from school

458 citizens are behind bars

19 out of every 1,000 people in the area die between the ages of 15 and 24
(Gorman)

Now, none of these statistics positively reflect the community. Young kids may see their
parents either unemployed or working a minimum wage job, struggling to get food on the
table. They drop out of school to help out at home and face the possibility of becoming
involved in illegal activities just to make some extra cash. Sometimes it will even cost
them months in prison.

One Solution
Unfortunately, we cannot just snap our fingers and place everyone who is
currently unemployed in respective jobs. However, we can start by taking small steps
such as educating ourselves on unemployment in the Baltimore area and becoming
involved in organizations dedicated to helping those in need.
Maryland New Directions, better known as MND, is a non-profit organization
assisting low-income Baltimore City residents hoping to enter or re-enter the workforce.
They begin by having their clients, ages 18-60, attend workshops that will teach them a
variety of skills such as resume building, interviewing, job searching and computer
literacy. Once they have completed job training, MND sets up their clients with job
developers who will be able to further place them with employers that fit their needs.

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According to their 2015 report, MND served 307 low-income job seekers with 82.5% of
those clients retaining employment in at least 90 days after their training sessions (MND).
Although MND is just one organization, they continue to grow in size, making it possible
for Baltimore City residents to lift themselves out of poverty thus improving the lives of
their family members in the short term and in the long term, paving a new path for our
community.

A New Direction
Sonya Harrison is just one individual who has been able to improve her life with
MNDs guidance. At the age of 49, Sonya came to MND after she was laid off as a result
of the 2008 financial crisis. She had been a manager in the retail industry for 17 years,
lacked a high school diploma, had few computer skills and was unsure of how to properly
format a resume.
Feeling hopeless after months of relentless searching, Sonya attended a job fair where
MND greeted her with open arms. Although she was reluctant to join, she decided to
complete their two-week training program. At 50 years old, Sonya earned her GED and
became employed at MND as a job-training coach, specifically working with individuals
who have been previously incarcerated. After five years with MND, Sonya proudly
claims that she is able to physically see the effects within her clients and around the
Baltimore community. Most people wont tell you that they are unemployed because
theyre embarrassed and think they can fix things on their own, Sonya stated. But
MND is that first step in shaping your future. You come in here one way and leave a
different person. You walk a bit taller, more confident in yourself.

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With Sonyas words in mind, you have to wonder what could have happened if we
had focused on unemployment as a specific problem in Sandtown-Winchester. Maybe if
we worked on developing a job-training program such as Maryland New Directions,
maybe those children would have grown up in a better environment, steering them away
from a life of crime. And maybe, they could go on to be the great leaders our community,
the ones we envision and know them to be.

Works Cited
Annual Report. Maryland New Directions. 2015. Web.

Fletcher, Michael A.What you really need to know about Baltimore, from a reporter
whos lived there for over 30 years. The Washington Post. 28 Apr. 2015. Web.

Gannett, Andrea Kay. At Work: Job, self-esteem tied tightly together. USA Today.
31 Aug. 2013. Web.

Gorman, Ryan. Baltimore neighborhood at the center of riots was a ticking time bomb.
Business Insider. 29 Apr. 2015. Web.

Malter, Jordan. Baltimores Economy in Black and White. CNN Money. 29 Apr. 2015.
Web.

Peck, Don. How A New Jobless Era Will Transform America. The Atlantic. Mar.

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2010. Web.

Rentz, Catherine. New details emerge about morning Freddie Gray was arrested. The
Baltimore Sun. 13 Nov. 2015. Web.