Safe And Sound

On any given day, people at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Poplar Grove Street in West Baltimore are more likely to hear the patter of a drug dealer than a schoolchild's song.Yesterday afternoon, however, a gaggle of youths sang and banged away on tumba drums there -- one of six city sites where young people tried to gain attention for Baltimore's new Safe and Sound Campaign."Even though we're surrounded by negatives, they are positive," Joyce Smith, executive director of the Franklin Square Community Organization, said of the children.

Standing before some 30 activists and Union Square neighbors Saturday in a neon orange T-shirt with the words "I am Baltimore," 16-year-old Antonio Ellis recited a gritty poem about how the city appears through his eyes. "Born and raised in the city, where youth are always misunderstood. / Being judged based on skin color or because they're from the 'hood," the Reginald F. Lewis High School sophomore said in a lyrical rhythm. "Living in the city, where there is little chance to succeed.

Styrofoam cups, bent cans and wrappers litter the playground at the corner of Mount and Laurens streets in Sandtown-Winchester. On the large swing set, only one baby swing is intact. Two swings are tied together; the rest are missing or broken. But steps away, on a narrow concrete courtyard, 20 kids are twirling in Hula-Hoops, playing circle games and reading books. In an hour, they'll be begging the teen-agers in white T-shirts who brought the toys and fun ideas not to leave. The teen-agers -- "youth ambassadors" for Baltimore's Safe and Sound Campaign -- call this a "virtual playground," with fun, energy and a few simple toys as the only equipment.

In Belair-Edison, teens had babies at higher rates than they did across the city. In Penn North and Reservoir Hill, fifth-graders in public school did twice as well academically as the city average - even though a third of the families in their neighborhood live in poverty. These insights come from a new book that looks at Baltimore's neighborhoods through the eyes of children. While the statistical data at its core cover only one year, it provides a glimpse of the areas where children have to cope with multiple social problems, and where a polished neighborhood exterior can mask some surprising ills.

In its largest contribution ever to a single program, the United Way of Central Maryland announced a $10 million pledge yesterday to a project aimed at making metropolitan Baltimore a safer, healthier place for children.Previously, the most the local United Way has given any one charity was $1 million to Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland.The award to the Safe and Sound Campaign -- an independent offshoot of the Baltimore Community Foundation -- will focus on basic health needs of children from the prenatal stage through age 6.The grant is separate from the United Way's annual fund-raising campaign, which last year dispersed about $38 million.

NOT ONLY DID Baltimore win a $5 million Safe and Sound foundation grant recently but the effort helped galvanize the community. Over 900 volunteers from various schools, charities and city agencies worked 20 months to create a winning program. Along the way they developed relationships and innovations that should improve the quality of life for city children.The long grant-application campaign climaxed with a fall summit to discuss goals for a Safe and Sound program. That led to four areas designated for special attention:Better recreation activities after school and during summer months.

After a 20-month Safe and Sound campaign, Baltimore has won a $5 million grant to strengthen programs to make the city healthier for its children and adolescents.A key Safe and Sound planning committee was informed Friday that Baltimore and four other cities won the grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J. A formal announcement is expected soon.The grant will be used to implement a plan developed in recent months, said Hathaway C. Ferebee, project director of Safe and Sound.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke urged Baltimoreans yesterday to attend a "summit" Saturday to support the city's campaign to win a $4 million to $6 million grant to make streets and homes safer and healthier for children.Several thousand residents are expected to vote on 12 goals to help children. The goals were developed from hundreds of opinions gathered in the past 18 months in the Safe and Sound campaign guided by the Baltimore Community Foundation and Associated Black Charities.The goals will be given priorities and become the core of Baltimore's "action plan" in the eight-city competition sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J.Five of the eight cities will each win the $4 million to $6 million grants in December.

There are few things sadder, or more annoying, than a computer gone bad. Take my computer, please.Save file.Actually, the Apple Macintosh Powerbook Duo System itself may not be bad. The problem may have been a hiccup in the copy of Microsoft Word 5.1 that was working on it.The truth may never be known because a copy of Safe and Sound, a new "emergency disk" utility, failed to find a problem with the Powerbook Duo 230 that ate my column. And that's good, maybe.Save file.Safe and Sound is essentially the same Diskfix application found in Central Point Software's Mac Tools 2.0 utility program.

Allie Harper has studied poverty in the hallowed halls of Harvard University and the streets of Baltimore. She likes the front-row view from Baltimore better.In her Ivy League classroom, the 19-year-old became "frustrated because everything people have tried to solve poverty in our cities hasn't worked." But this summer, getting paid $10 an hour by the nonprofit Safe and Sound Campaign to venture into local neighborhoods, the Roland Park native found hope.Harper, a sophomore, is part of a four-person "mapping" team of college-age students who spent the summer compiling statistics for Safe and Sound on after-school and out-of-school activities for Baltimore children, especially the disadvantaged.

Styrofoam cups, bent cans and wrappers litter the playground at the corner of Mount and Laurens streets in Sandtown-Winchester. On the large swing set, only one baby swing is intact. Two swings are tied together; the rest are missing or broken. But steps away, on a narrow concrete courtyard, 20 kids are twirling in Hula-Hoops, playing circle games and reading books. In an hour, they'll be begging the teen-agers in white T-shirts who brought the toys and fun ideas not to leave. The teen-agers -- "youth ambassadors" for Baltimore's Safe and Sound Campaign -- call this a "virtual playground," with fun, energy and a few simple toys as the only equipment.

Starting today, the multimillion-dollar Safe and Sound campaign plans to show a more public face -- one its organizers hope will persuade more Baltimoreans to sign onto its mission of improving life for the city's children. The effort will include a new Web site, a toll-free number, billboard advertisements and teen-age "ambassadors" doing educational theater in the streets. The drive began last night with a celebration at the Senator Theatre, where business leaders, young people and politicians said statistics show conditions for children are improving.

A growing movement of educators, working parents, community groups and crime fighters is trying to harness the hours after school for everything from elevating reading scores to quelling violence to supporting the new schedules of parents who have left welfare for work. Those so-called "dangerous hours" have emerged as the latest social target for large foundations and government bureaucrats, who see that part of the day as central to much that goes wrong for children and much that could go right.

A noted criminologist who studied Baltimore's murder culture for 18 months has concluded that understanding why gunmen pull the trigger is crucial to curtailing shootings that plague many city neighborhoods.Officials plan to provide details of the study today and make it the crux of the city's most ambitious plan yet to end gunfire that has claimed several thousand lives in the past decade and stained Baltimore as one of the nation's deadliest urban centers.David Kennedy, a Harvard University professor, said local law enforcement officials have operated under a false perception that there is no way to understand why the violence occurs, and therefore no way to prevent it."

Allie Harper has studied poverty in the hallowed halls of Harvard University and the streets of Baltimore. She likes the front-row view from Baltimore better.In her Ivy League classroom, the 19-year-old became "frustrated because everything people have tried to solve poverty in our cities hasn't worked." But this summer, getting paid $10 an hour by the nonprofit Safe and Sound Campaign to venture into local neighborhoods, the Roland Park native found hope.Harper, a sophomore, is part of a four-person "mapping" team of college-age students who spent the summer compiling statistics for Safe and Sound on after-school and out-of-school activities for Baltimore children, especially the disadvantaged.

In its largest contribution ever to a single program, the United Way of Central Maryland announced a $10 million pledge yesterday to a project aimed at making metropolitan Baltimore a safer, healthier place for children.Previously, the most the local United Way has given any one charity was $1 million to Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland.The award to the Safe and Sound Campaign -- an independent offshoot of the Baltimore Community Foundation -- will focus on basic health needs of children from the prenatal stage through age 6.The grant is separate from the United Way's annual fund-raising campaign, which last year dispersed about $38 million.

On any given day, people at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Poplar Grove Street in West Baltimore are more likely to hear the patter of a drug dealer than a schoolchild's song.Yesterday afternoon, however, a gaggle of youths sang and banged away on tumba drums there -- one of six city sites where young people tried to gain attention for Baltimore's new Safe and Sound Campaign."Even though we're surrounded by negatives, they are positive," Joyce Smith, executive director of the Franklin Square Community Organization, said of the children.

The Glendening administration is funneling $3.6 million in crime-fighting grants to Baltimore, including $100,000 to develop a plan to reduce youth gun violence and scores of smaller awards to community groups to erect fences, improve lighting and pay for after-school programs.Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend described the grants, which will help underwrite new programs and fund existing ones, as an extension of the administration's anti-gun initiative, unveiled this week. On Wednesday, the Glendening administration said it would target illegal-gun trafficking, create a state "gun czar" and put more effort into battling criminals in crime "Hot Spots."

Her face.I need to see Annie's face for it to be over.My wife works in the halls of our nation's Capitol. Not in an office, mind you, but right in the halls, where she stands for the C-SPAN cable station interviewing Congress members during their votes on legislation.So as I sit at my desk at 3: 40 p.m. Friday, my eyes fix on the CNN television footage showing the Capitol steps emblazoned with the logo: "Breaking News."As is newsroom tradition, reporters and editors have gathered around the television, arms folded, watching the drama play out. Two Capitol police officers have been shot in the halls, along with a female civilian.

The Glendening administration is funneling $3.6 million in crime-fighting grants to Baltimore, including $100,000 to develop a plan to reduce youth gun violence and scores of smaller awards to community groups to erect fences, improve lighting and pay for after-school programs.Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend described the grants, which will help underwrite new programs and fund existing ones, as an extension of the administration's anti-gun initiative, unveiled this week. On Wednesday, the Glendening administration said it would target illegal-gun trafficking, create a state "gun czar" and put more effort into battling criminals in crime "Hot Spots."