Next Steps in Support of the Baltimore Community

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past three weeks, Baltimore has begun to move from a state of fear and crisis toward one of healing and rebuilding. Within Johns Hopkins Medicine, groups from across the organization have been meeting over the past week to share perspectives on these recent events. These sessions have been frank, compelling and provocative. They have reinforced the strong sense that our Johns Hopkins community is committed to working to have a positive impact in our city. They have also pointed out areas within Johns Hopkins Medicine where we can do a better job of talking with each other. We are grateful for your willingness to share your thoughts and concerns.

We asked that you consider ways in which we can help the community around Johns Hopkins and the city in general. You have responded with an outpouring of ideas. Some highlight our existing efforts. Others identify new activities or programs. At the same time, James Page, vice president of diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and others have met with community faith leaders to discuss their thoughts about how we can contribute in the near term and over the long term. These community leaders identified summer activities and employment for the young people of Baltimore as the highest priorities.

On Friday we met with more than 60 leaders from the School of Medicine and Health System to discuss these various recommendations. As a result, we decided to expand our current summer jobs program to provide employment opportunities for more city youth. To ensure success, we need broad participation across JHM, including your unit. If your department would like to hire and mentor a Baltimore student, please contact the Office of Strategic Workforce Planning & Development at jhsjp@jhmi.edu or 443-997-4585 by June 1 for more information. We will also meet with more community and government leaders in the coming weeks to assess how we can contribute to increased access to and capacity of summer recreational facilities and programs.

The many ideas that you contributed during the past week fall into several themes, including employment, education, health care, youth mentoring and support, trust building, social support enhancements and new community facilities. We are forming a task force to consider those themes and ideas in more detail. This work will take place over the summer and will include discussions not only within the JHM community but with members of our Baltimore community and the Mayor's Office, asking them to tell us what their priorities are and what would be most beneficial. Our goal is to identify, together with our community, a small number of long-term, sustainable projects by the end of September.

If you are looking for additional ways to help or want to see what Johns Hopkins faculty, staff and trainees are already doing in Baltimore, an excellent source of information is The Community Engagement Inventory, produced by The Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Community Affairs Office, a part of the Office of Government and Community Affairs.

We are determined that Johns Hopkins Medicine will play an active role in building a safer, stronger, more vibrant Baltimore. We are very proud of the many things that you are already doing, and we are grateful for the way that you intend to step into, not away from, the challenges highlighted in recent weeks. We will continue to update you on our efforts, and we look forward to working together with you. Through this, we are certain that Johns Hopkins Medicine will also become a better place.

Thank you for thoughts and assistance as we define the path forward.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ronald R. Peterson
President, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System
EVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine