WHEN:  4th Tuesdays of every Month
WHO:    Anyone who wants to help with Clay Street
WHAT:  A monthly gathering of like minded individuals in pursuit of making Clay Street a safer place to live, come one come all.  
WHERE:  Stanton Center Conference Room

*We ask that if you are new and learning about the Association, to please hold your questions till the end of the meeting.   

Popularity: 2% [?]

WHEN:  4th Tuesdays of every Month
WHO:    Anyone who wants to help with Clay Street
WHAT:  A monthly gathering of like minded individuals in pursuit of making Clay Street a safer place to live, come one come all.  
WHERE:  Stanton Center Conference Room

*We ask that if you are new and learning about the Association, to please hold your questions till the end of the meeting.   

Popularity: 3% [?]

WHEN:  4th Tuesdays of every Month
WHO:    Anyone who wants to help with Clay Street
WHAT:  A monthly gathering of like minded individuals in pursuit of making Clay Street a safer place to live, come one come all.  
WHERE:  Stanton Center Conference Room

*We ask that if you are new and learning about the Association, to please hold your questions till the end of the meeting.   

Popularity: 3% [?]

City of Annapolis, Second Annual Sherwin Williams Home-Work Paint Training Programs

Popularity: 2% [?]

Taken from “The Capital”

‘Life is a lot bigger than your neighborhood’

By LIAM FARRELL, Staff Writer

Published May 18, 2008

The doors and windows would, at least, partially open.

People stood in the doorways of their rundown blocks and looked outside at the group passing by, with pairs of eyes also surveying the scene from the small parts between curtains. Others, standing outside, would take a flyer while volunteers canvassed down the sidewalk.More than 100 people walked through some of the most troubled neighborhoods in Annapolis yesterday in the hopes their presence would begin to end the isolation of the city’s public housing communities and create a more stable and peaceful society.

Blacks and whites, Methodists, Quakers, Baptists and Jews gathered for “Unity Walk” and day of prayer through communities such as Newtowne 20, Annapolis Gardens and Robinwood.

The motto of the trip – “Every place where the soles of your feet tread shall be given to you” – and prayers offered in the neighborhoods frequently invoked the Bible story of Joshua, who led the Israelites across the Jordan River to take control of Canaan. With the sounds of trumpets, they were able to flatten the heavily fortified walls of Jericho.

For the marchers, the walls they were fighting were much less visible: blockades built on poverty, crime and fear, the everyday of living on a street with garbage-strewn lawns and boarded-up homes mere miles from a pristine downtown.

And their trumpets can’t just sound for a single day.

“This can’t be one time,” said the Rev. Sheryl Menendez, an associate pastor of Light of the World Church in Annapolis and a chief organizer of the event. “We’re here for the long haul.”

Annapolis had a record nine homicides in 2007. This year is on pace to surpass that mark, with six homicides in the first five months. Most of the crimes, victims and suspects have been centered in the city’s public housing neighborhoods.

City, state and federal authorities began trying to crack down on the problem in February with the “Capital City Safe Streets” program, which is designed to pool collective government resources. Recently, local churches have begun “adopting” crime-ridden neighborhoods to try and start programs and mentoring for children.

“If we catch them younger, we have less opportunity for deviant behavior to take place,” the Rev. Menendez said.

Two people who are charged with that task are Adrian Williams, 29, and Raymond Medley, 31, who help out in the Light of the World youth ministry and attended the march.

Change will happen over time, and the dedication of the faith community will be a key part of the effort, Mr. Medley said. The toughest part of mentoring is the kids are only outside of their communities for a few hours before they go back into an environment that has little to offer.

“It’s a process,” he said. “You’re trying to pull, pull, pull.”

It took awhile for Mr. Williams to come out of a life that was clouded by drugs and violence. Growing up in Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore, it was easy to relapse as he struggled between the pull of his church and the seductive street life. But engaging with his religion and fellow parishioners began to turn his life around.

“Life is a lot bigger than Annapolis. Life is a lot bigger than your neighborhood,” Mr. Williams said. “Life is a lot bigger than money.”

More than anything, young people in the housing projects want to know the community cares about them, he said, a message projected by the march.

“Who wants to live in fear? Who wants to be afraid of coming out of your house?” Mr. Williams said. “I don’t think anyone wants to live like that.”

But as each street began to clear of the marchers and police escorts, the doors and windows and curtains closed once again.

People went back inside their houses or hung out on their front stoops, with some normal, and less than legal, routines sure to take place once outsiders cleared away and the sun set. The walls would still be standing for another day.

Government officials who attended the walk – aldermen Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8 and Fred Paone, R-Ward 2, and Eric Brown, the executive director of the city housing authority – were in agreement that the true solutions to the violence and crime in Annapolis rest on the shoulders of people like Mr. Medley and Mr. Williams.

“Ultimately, it is these various communities that are going to have to make up their minds that they are not going to take it anymore,” Mr. Paone said.

The eyes of public housing have seen protestors come and go, Mr. Arnett said.

“It’s really got to be a commitment,” he said.

Popularity: 2% [?]