Two community partners unveiled plans Thursday for a new “healthcare village” in West Baltimore’s Sandtown neighborhood, which will include a resource center, multi-income housing, and a childcare center.
The project is a partnership between the Jack and Nancy Dwyer Workforce Development Center and Resurrection Sandtown. The village will be available to participants of Dwyer Workforce Development, called “Dwyer Scholars,” who receive job training and placement within the nursing field.
Dwyer CEO Barb Clapp and Resurrection Sandtown board president Rod Hudson signed an official memorandum of understanding at Thursday’s ceremony. Hudson is also the pastor of Ames Memorial United Methodist Church.
The collaboration aims to alleviate the healthcare staffing shortage, care for the community’s elders, and provide access to economic opportunities for residents of a neighborhood that has historically suffered from lack of investment.
The health care village will be built on land in the Ames-Shalom Community donated by the Cook family, who owns Northeastern Supply. The first step involves renovating Ames Memorial United Methodist Church, which will house a temporary resource center to serve the Sandtown community.
The request for proposals for the village will open next week. The partners hope to complete the “predevelopment phase” in 2024. See the expected timeline here.
“We’re overjoyed to welcome the Dwyer Family and Dwyer Workforce Development to Sandtown as partners to build the first Dwyer Scholar Healthcare Village on those grounds,” Hudson said in a statement. “The Dwyers and DWD have come here because Sandtown is a special place with people who are ready for change and where our partnership and the Dwyer Scholar Healthcare Village can have an enormous impact. What was once a spark has grown into a flame that is fueling the fires of hope, opportunity and transformation for our community and the people of Baltimore.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Pastor Hudson and the West Baltimore community on Resurrection Sandtown,” Clapp said. “When looking for a location for our first Dwyer Scholar Healthcare Village, we wanted to select a region where many of our Dwyer Scholars live and a partner who is committed to doing whatever is necessary to uplift people. This is a great fit for us as our mission starts with providing comprehensive support to individuals who lack opportunity, and most residents of West Baltimore are without access to opportunity – so we’re coming to Sandtown. We hope our partnership is the first of many for Resurrection Sandtown.”
At Thursday’s ceremony, Clapp said Dwyer Workforce Development is “excited to be a foundational partner in the Resurrection Sandtown project to help develop a long-neglected stretch of West Baltimore.”
“It’s difficult to get ‘No’ your whole life and not ever hear ‘Yes,’” Clapp said. “So we’re here at Dwyer to help them find their ‘Yesses’ through comprehensive case management and wraparound services.”
“We want people to be able to live where they work. We want them to be able to walk to work,” she added.
Since so much of training is virtual, Dwyer’s new resource center will provide “access to computers, fax machines, printers, and copiers; large conference areas and meeting rooms with Wi-Fi; education on financial literacy, taxes, and health insurance open enrollment; personal safety advocates; and more – all at no cost to participants,” according to the press announcement.
The village will recruit Sandtown residents to become Dwyer Scholars, Clapp said, who will in turn be able to help fulfill the needs of the community.
“We want to recruit from the neighborhood in our resource center,” Clapp said. “We want to get Dwyer scholars from this neighborhood, and we want to see them grow and prosper.”
Dwyer hopes to more than double the number of certified nursing assistants that they train and place.
“Last year Dwyer Workforce trained and placed 287 CNAs in Maryland, with an 82% retention rate,” Clapp said. “We hope to place over 700 this year, and we hope many of them are right here from this neighborhood.”
Rev. Dr. Wanda Bynum Duckett, District Superintendent of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, spoke at the ceremony to those who ignore or oversimplify the problems in neighborhoods like Sandtown.
“It’s easy to look at the challenges of our communities and shake our heads, shake our finger, close our blinds, roll up our windows, drive by or through,” she said. “It’s easy to say, ‘Why don’t people just get a job? Why don’t they just get off the corner? Why don’t they just do this or that you-fill-in-the-blank.”
Duckett continued, “But we need to understand that there are centuries of systems of oppression and disparity. Of racism, classism, redlining, mass incarceration, selective policing that are all at work in our world.” She thanked Clapp for understanding that there’s more to getting a job than filling out an application.
“Love doesn’t just shake a finger,” Duckett said. “Love moves the needle. Love sets up shop in the neighborhood, like Reverend Hudson and the people of Ames Church have done.”
She continued, “Love listens and learns about the challenges the way Dwyer has done and develops relationships, invests resources that can make a difference, like Dwyer Workforce Development.”
Two Dwyer Scholars shared the ways in which the organization helped them when they were in desperate situations.
One scholar, Ashley Wilson, spoke of losing everything after she and her three young children were in a severe car accident.
“The Dwyers have went above and beyond for me and my family,” Wilson said. She told the crowd that she just passed her placement test at CCBC. “I start July 17, and I will always thank the Dwyers.”
Ayana Hall, another Dwyer Scholar, went through the program and is a CNA as a result.
“Dwyer has helped me with the resources to be able to get to my job and start up in a different way,” Hall said. “I see my life in a different prospect now thanks to Dwyer. The support I received has been nothing but the best,” she said.
Clapp and Hudson spoke of both the urgency of the project, and their passion for seeing it through to success in a conversation with Baltimore Fishbowl.
“We have Dwyer Scholars who are living in their cars. It’s really tough,” said Clapp.
“Everything starts with jobs,” she said. “If you don’t have a job, you can’t pay your mortgage, support your children, treat yourself to anything.” They plan to keep the jobs center open while the rest of the project is being built.
Hudson agreed, saying, “We really want the resource center along with the apartments. We have the space for both of those.”
“This is a life-changing opportunity,” said Hudson. “Each day someone is dying. This is life and death, in this city…We’ve got to encourage our city to see that they must invest in our city, especially in our poor neighborhoods.”
Hudson spoke of Dwyer’s “stepping in and stepping up.”
“Barb [Clapp] comes on the scene with the idea of transforming a community and people want to get on board,” said Hudson.
Clapp said, “The only return I want from this is knowing my scholars are having success.”
