Baltimore’s youth are taking it upon themselves to make themselves heard tonight.
Dozens are expected to participate in a march from Penn North to Mondawmin tonight in support of Council President Jack Young’s much-awaited Youth Fund, which would be a “multi-million dollar pot of money for youth-focused, grassroots organizations in Baltimore,” according to Young’s council page.
Starting at 4 p.m., teens, community leaders and local officials will march from the Penn North Kids Safe Zone to Frederick Douglass High School on Gwynns Falls Parkway. A release from Councilman Zeke Cohen, chair of the council’s Education and Youth Committee, said the occasion will be a “historic moment of unity between elected leaders and the youth of Baltimore” that will retrace the path of the march that preceded the Uprising in 2015.
Afterward, Cohen’s committee will hold a public hearing in the high school’s auditorium where community members can testify. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.
Cohen will be joined by Council President Young and Rep. Elijah Cummings, as well as local student leaders.
Voters overwhelmingly approved Young’s Youth Fund proposal in a ballot measure during the 2016 election. A 38-member task force has since been deliberating the fund’s structure and criteria for grants. Lawmakers appointed Adam Jackson, CEO of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and Dr. John Brothers, overseer of T. Rowe Price’s philanthropic work, to co-chair the task force.
Here’s a video from Cohen’s office describing a little more of the intent behind the march:
