Scarborough wants to open a one-stop shop where people can go for just about anything. Catering, landscaping, art projects, music, carpentry. All he needs is a storefront to serve as the nerve center, he says.
"When people come in, we'll say, 'How do you do today? How can we help?' "
Across the neighborhood at the Rose Street Center, 26-year-old Amon Boles is taking a smoke break from a GED class where students are learning about fractions and common denominators. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade to sell drugs after his first child was born - he now has six - and says he is trying to make up for the lost time.
"I have a felony, and it's hard for me to get a job," Boles says. "But I'm getting a chance."
Their success is tenuous. At a meeting on Wednesday, Wilson is frustrated. He starts off by berating the members and their commitment. He's exasperated that some who don't have high school diplomas are attending his youth meeting while free GED courses are taking place at the Rose Street center. He senses that some attendees are stuck in their old ways.
"Get. Yo. Mind. Right," he demands.
Later he will offer that he recently found out about a Rose Street success story who was drawn back in to the drug trade and got locked up four days earlier. Wilson is nervously awaiting the outcome of his own assault charge, which records show stems from a dispute after a party last month.
"Police can only do but so much," he says. "We are the ones who make the final decision on the community perception."
online
See a video about the program at baltimoresun.com/maryland
