Building the institutions that serve and protect large numbers of people takes years, and sometimes decades, so it’s hard to read in the news these days how the ones that have been most successful are being dismantled so quickly.
Is it worth the effort to build them? Is collective action to better the lives of our people still valued in our country?
It’s fair to ask those questions when destruction and greed appear to be reaping the greatest rewards, but the human spirit, when freed from the burdens of anger and revenge, is always drawn to collective action. It’s in our nature, and yes, it is worth the effort.
I’m lucky to be surrounded by public servants who won’t give up. And they are winning. They are building institutions, the kind that protect and serve large numbers of people.
Remember back in 2019 when the Anne Arundel County Public Schools Board of Education voted to create a Mental Health Task Force? That was inspired in part by student leaders who had organized a group called Our Minds Matter. I’ll never forget meeting with them in my office and hearing what it’s like when a close friend takes their own life.
Well, the task force happened in a big way, led by AACPS and Anne Arundel County Mental Health Agency. It engaged mental health providers, students, parents, educators, public servants from many agencies, and community leaders.
The recommendations were published in the fall of 2020, and the next year our friends in the Maryland General Assembly created and funded a program that implements that vision. It’s called the Maryland Consortium on Coordinated Community Supports Program, and it uses a "Hub and Spokes" model to coordinate the efforts of providers who work inside our schools, directly with students.
I re-read the task force report on Tuesday morning before heading over to the Michael E. Busch Library for a meeting of the hub, Anne Arundel County Mental Health Agency, and the spokes: Villa Maria Behavioral Health, Anne Arundel Partnership for Children, Youth & Families, Arundel Lodge, Anne Arundel County Department of Health, Thrive Behavioral Health, Anne Arundel Community Action Agency, The Children's Guild, and Playworks.
Each organization was there with an information table, and thousands of students are now being served. Annapolis High School Social Worker Kerry Mueller described how it works, how students' lives are being changed, and how hope is emerging where there was none.
This was a room full of public servants, most from the nonprofit sector, who have stepped up and taken collective action, building organizations that serve, protect, and empower the generation that will hold our future in its hands very soon. Spending time with them was a gift, and knowing that they will never give up is empowering.
Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park is another collective action underway in the heart of our county. We released the final Master Plan last week, after more community engagement than any project I’ve ever been part of. It will be a place where people who never give up take collective action to make life better for our people, and heal themselves in the process.
Today, more than 100 nonprofit organization representatives had their first look at the new home of our county’s Nonprofit Center, on the Crownsville campus in a recently renovated building called 41 Community Place.
We restored the building with a federal earmark that our delegation secured on our behalf, and we engaged scores of local nonprofit organizations before we began work on the 18 months of renovations needed for this space.
The first tenants won’t arrive until late spring or summer, but the buzz at today’s open house was strong. Like everything at Crownsville, the building speaks to all who enter. It tells the story of the patients and the caregivers, and calls us to service. I am confident that the emerging nonprofits who grow capacity there, and all the people who work in them, will answer the call.
Collective actions like these happen every day, in our county and across the country and the world. They happen because building and protecting the institutions that serve community is simply what humans do - when we are free. We tear those institutions down only when we are burdened by anger and revenge.
So let’s stay free, and keep working collectively.
Until next week…