Reports from the Field The Center aims to capture media reports including radio reports and other field reports that highlight the seriousness of youth violence, in addition to current efforts aimed at reducing the violence in Baltimore City. This section highlights youth violence media reports as well as youth-inspired projects and other local violence prevention reports. For a list of Features Reports, click here. To see those reports and media venues of special note, click here.
Featured Reports
In 2008, the WYPR’s news department and the Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence decided to start a series to focus on what life was like for Baltimore’s at-risk youth. The reasons were simple: The first was the number of violent crimes involving juveniles, including the murder of former City Councilman Kenneth Harris in September 2008. The second was the huge high school dropout rate in Baltimore City Public Schools. And the third was the growing number of community groups, churches and activists involved in day-to-day efforts aimed at saving the city’s most vulnerable children from lives of hopelessness, despair, incarceration, teenage pregnancy, unemployment and death. This series, “Growing Up Baltimore,” is an attempt to tell the stories behind the statistics, as well as provide content and examine the nuances.. To listen to individual stories from Growing Up Baltimore, click here.
In February 2007, WYPR began a series of stories about crime in Baltimore, entitled, The Toll: Coping With Crime and Violence in Baltimore. The objective was to illustrate the impact of crime on the quality of life, and on life itself. The WYPR News staff and freelance reporters compiled nearly 90 stories and essays in all, interviewing academics, police officers, prosecutors, hustlers, drug addicts, drug counselors, the young, the elderly, gang members, elected office holders, community activists and dozens of ordinary city residents. This year, WYPR brings us a new series titled Growing Up in Baltimore, which is scheduled for release in October 2009. Individual pieces looked at specific neighborhoods and specific issues, as well as problems and possible solutions. To listen to individual stories from The Toll, click here. 
A partnership between the Baltimore City Health Department and Living Communities, Safe Streets is modeled after Chicago's Cease-Fire Program, which aims to reduce shootings among the 14 to 25 age group in Baltimore City. The East Side team has assisted more than 50 people in either obtaining jobs or going back to school. The program also operates in Southwest Baltimore. Organizers are working towards making it a citywide initiative.
The Center complies a list of reports associated with the prevention of youth violence in Baltimore City and in Maryland in general. This section will be updated as information becomes available.
A community advocacy and support organization for families who have been affected by violence, founded by Millie Brown Improving student academic and behavior outcomes is about ensuring all students have access to the most effective and accurately implemented instructional and behavioral practices and interventions possible Back to To p
Of Special Note
For the last several months, LaMarr Darnell Shields, president of the Urban Leadership Institute, has been sitting down with teens from across Baltimore talking about the effects of violence on their personal lives. And what he found was uncut, unedited conversations with a group of battered, yet resilient, students, who are searching for answers to this urban dilemma. As a bonus to the conversation, LaMarr has added the beautiful voice of the soulful singer Donnie Hathaway, who too died at a very young age, singing "Young, Gifted and Black." Click here to listen. 
An audience award winner for best documentary at the 2003 SXSW Film Festival, "Girl Hood" looks at the lives of two troubled teens who must convince authorities and themselves that they are ready to return to their community after being incarcerated at the Waxter Juvenile Detention Center in Baltimore, Md. Shanae is introduced at age 14, two years after she fatally stabbed a classmate. Initially, she seems frighteningly cheery and callous, claiming she sees no reason "to beat herself up" over a minor thing like manslaughter. But as she matures and, more importantly, spends more post-Waxter time with her mother, she better appreciates the enormity of her actions. Alternately, Megan, a repeat runaway from foster homes, has a much more volatile relationship with her biological mother, whose own history includes prostitution and drug use. This audio link is the one-on-one uncut interview with Shanae as she interacts with youth as a memoir for her book. Click here to listen.
"Men II Boys" is 44-minute documentary featuring Congressman Elijah E. Cummings; NFL Player Daniel Wilcox (Baltimore Ravens); Freeman A. Hrabowski III, President of University of Maryland Baltimore County; and TV Personality & Activist Jeff Johnson (BET) capturing men from all walks of life, delivering words of wisdom or jewels, as a resource for boys and young men of color as they ascend to manhood. The "Men II Boys Film and Lecture Tour" is a series of community discussions on Black Male Development encouraging dialogue, strategies and solutions relating to the challenges of boys and young men of color. The event consists of a screening of "Men II Boys", discussion, readings and book signings. For more information, visit http://www.mentoboys.com.
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