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Summertime: Schools Might Be Closed,
Yet the Living is...BUSY!

The City School's 2020/21 Year Remote Launch 9/8, Classrooms Remain Closed
School Buildings Will Remain Closed on September 8, 2020
(Image Credit: My Classroom by hrenchri, licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
If you’re like most people, you probably picture school-related teams enjoying their leisure summertime vacations while spending time out and about in steamy Baltimore or elsewhere. 

Yet this year, Promise Heights teams are busier than ever managing
special pandemic-related programs in Upton/Druid Heights,
while also preparing to launch virtual school year programs next month.
We wanted to share a bit of what’s been happening, so you’ll be in the know...
Promise Heights in Focus:
Nurture Joy & Comfort while Building Social Skills
As a safety measure, Parent University's Meet Up in the Park gathers families outdoors
“I know I’m only one person, but one person can really make a difference. It has been overwhelming at times, but it makes my heart smile that we are doing so much in the community to reach the people who need it the most.”
Nikea Taylor, Early Childhood Assistant at Furman L. Templeton Preparatory Academy
Spring 2020 seems to have been a watershed moment for countless parents and caregivers around the world, since nearly every person who became an unwitting (and untrained) homeschool teacher quickly understood the intrinsic value of good education.

Experienced teachers possess vast skills and methods to impart knowledge, and it seems that suddenly and collectively across our nation, most adults who were new-to-teaching-due-to-COVID-19 grasped the immense dedication and skill that teachers offer our children. We've heard a frequent lament of recent, "How in the world am I going to manage my kid's classes?!" Meanwhile, it seems that countless students will be shortchanged by this ersatz schooling, as documented in newly emerging reports by experts, such as was reported in April by the Washington Post.

Young children aren't inherently drawn to teach themselves classroom lessons on their own, and most also have short attention spans. Clearly that's not a good pairing.

Promise Heights students face great challenges, and now that school will be focused on remote learning for an undetermined time, our team has worked to reconfigure our support of families with children from birth to age five, aimed to ensure the children and families of Upton/Druid Heights won't lose traction or fall behind. (Learn more about all that we're doing)
Mobilizing Community-Based Crime Reduction Teams

Samirah Abdul-Fattah Brings a Wealth of Experience to Promise Heights
Crime Reduction in Baltimore Requires a Multi-faceted Team-based Approach (Image Credit: "PB150007" by adcrumpton, licensed by CC BY-NC 2.0)

“Usually everything I've worked on has been grant-driven. The most important part about these projects is to diversify the funding.”

Samirah Abdul-Fattah, Program Management Specialist
If you take a moment to talk with Promise Heights’ Samirah Abdul-Fattah about her career, the immediate takeaway is that you’ve just met a tenacious and bold professional who’s deeply focused on building measurable success, while bringing a wealth of experience and methodologies to her job as our new team member. We’re so lucky to have her onboard!

This experienced specialist has managed numerous grant--funded community health incentives, and given the momentum and timing of the pandemic and her arrival in Promise Heights, we can't imagine a better moment to join our staff.  (Click to read more)
Our New Community School Director is Here!
Russ Elmore looking towards Hidden Falls in Grand Teton National Park (2019)
"Baltimore's population is about twice the size of Saint Louis, but historically, it faces similar racial issues, similar levels of poverty and social injustice"
If you glanced at this photo and thought, "That's not St. Louis!" we did much the same double-take during a virtual meeting with Russ Elmore, Promise Heights' new Community School Director at Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary School. Russ had described that day's weather while staying with family in Columbia, so naturally it seemed he was in Columbia, Maryland.

Yet while chatting about driving U-Haul truck to Baltimore later that week clarified he was still in Missouri, preparing an upcoming cross-country move, made all the more challenging given a heat wave and pandemic. Yet Russ maintained his cool, "Right--August weather is brutal. I’m glad we’re doing the move in late July instead of late August!" 

Clearly Russ is prepared for a tight turn-around between his arrival and launching his new Promise Heights’ job. "I'm really excited to get to work. I'm very social. I would say --very extroverted. I really enjoy having professional relationships, and I make friends everywhere I go." 

Since the Baltimore City Public School System will start with virtual learning, might that be of concern? “Of course, with everything being virtual, that just adds a lot of different layers—a lot of different challenges. So, I think that [starting the school year virtually] will be my biggest challenge, but also my main goal from the start is to get to know the building, and students, and staff." Get to know Russ
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