Too many people are getting hurt or dying on Baltimore City’s streets. Often, gang members are killing each other and innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire, making our streets and neighborhoods unsafe for all.

In a separate forum we can have a healthy discussion about the role of illegal guns, drugs, dropout rates, gang recruitment in elementary schools, and other potential causes or effects of our street crisis. However, knowing that it didn’t start today and, unfortunately, it won’t end tomorrow, we must generate effective and immediate solutions.

Every day I work in a professional capacity to make our streets safer. In fact, I took a significant pay cut when I left a private sector legal position to become an assistant state’s attorney. However, I did so to help play a role in making our streets safer for your children and mine.

My concerns about crime also come from a personal place; as a mom raising kids in Baltimore, I cannot sit by quietly and watch the city self-destruct.  Perhaps I am a hopeless optimist, but I believe if the community steps up, united and committed, we can make real changes to our city. We do not need to wait while government tries to unsuccessfully legislate our problems away and throw our tax dollars at solutions that have proven futile for years.

Do not misunderstand me: I know we must get more federal grants and state funding for schools, combatting opioids, public safety, and other Baltimore City needs. And I also know we must explore changing laws regarding illegal guns, drugs, and punishments for crime. But, thinking aloud, I wonder if those who are successful locally – individuals and businesses – are doing enough to help those who need a hand up, not a hand out.

I believe, as a community, we must invest more efforts, energy and resources to help at the preventative levels, to save our city. 

We know many Baltimore youth are heading down a path that could land them in jail. But are we providing them with alternatives to the enticing, or necessary, life of crime that surrounds them? Can we fault first graders for joining gangs or teens for selling drugs, when they see no viable alternative to a poverty-stricken future?

I think there are some great ideas already out there, and we need to harness available resources in the community to expand them. For example, I’d like to further explore building more public-private partnerships to create jobs and provide job training for youth during the summer vacations. Because for those without jobs, crime pays.

Baltimore has an existing job corps program for youth, but unfortunately, it is not enough. Last year, 14,000 youth in our city applied for 8,000 summer jobs. How many of the 6,000 were hanging out on the streets, restless and unproductive? Could we have done a little more to provide jobs for them? Should we do more?

According to Steven Raphael, Professor of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley, these summer job programs show that “a short, concentrated positive experience can have a long-lasting effect.” Researching this idea further, Sara Heller of University of Pennsylvania made modifications to an existing program in Chicago to determine whether summer jobs can significantly reduce the risk of crime for urban teens.

She altered a program in which students worked 25 hours a week over two summer months, and led a test group that spent 15 hours a week working and 10 hours in a cognitive behavioral therapy program that “taught an approach to better manage their emotions and behavior.” Each participant in her group was also assigned a mentor from the community. Following the summer program, participants were monitored for a year, and compared to the control group, there was a 43% reduction in arrests for violent crimes—murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

Is it the only solution? No. But it is a good start…if we can offer all the critical components.

So what can people in the community do? First, talk to your company, look around your office, and see if there is a possibility that you can offer a Baltimore youth a job next summer. Second, volunteer to mentor a participant. If you are a professional, or perhaps even a retired professional, consider mentoring an urban youth who, until now, may not have had the opportunity to learn from someone like you. Third, call on government officials to explore incentives to companies that participate. We seem to find ways to give tax breaks to the mega-rich, large businesses based on their promises for great benefits to the city, and we should find ways to provide financial incentives to businesses that create new summer jobs that can have a life-lasting impact on our city’s youth. And this can apply to non-profits and even EMT training programs, as well.

The short-term and long-term benefits are clear: kids will be off the streets and gaining skills and experience for a crime-free and productive future. If our city streets are safer, we could attract more people to live here and recruit businesses to set up shop or expand, growing the tax base and leading to an improved quality of life in Baltimore. While it has to be explored in greater depth, it seems to be a win-win scenario in which we should play a greater part.  

Do you agree or disagree? Dalya would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Email her at Dalya@DalyaAttar.com.