A second chance for former inmates

Students hope to combat re-incarceration

Sophomores Sam Randall and Charlie Wang received a $20,000 grant from the President’s Office to develop their program Build. Develop. Empower. (BDE).

The student-run initiative focuses on providing formerly incarcerated people in Baltimore with employment opportunities. Randall and Wang received the money by winning the University’s Ten by Twenty Challenge.

Randall summarized the goals of BDE. He said that they hope to change the stigma surrounding the employment of former inmates.

“[We want to] develop programs to train the previously incarcerated population for jobs, and in doing so show that it’s not a lack of ability, but rather a lack of opportunity that holds them back. We really want the participants to see how the money is helping them,” he said.

Although gaining the support of corporations such as Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has been a positive development for BDE according to Randall and Wang, they emphasized the vital role of Hopkins students in building the program.

“We’re going to need Hopkins volunteers to tutor. There’s a huge spot for probably the most valuable mentorship, tutoring opportunity that you could possibly do and it’s really unique,” Randall said. “A volunteer would have no idea how much of a difference they’re making.”

BDE started as a project for an Intersession class “B’More: Baltimore City Urban Planning” taught by Laurie Feinberg, assistant director of the Baltimore Department of Planning, before it grew into the idea they submitted to the Ten by Twenty Challenge.

“We were working on this project throughout the winter. We started in January in [the] Intersession course... where the end-of-the-week project was to help some people in Baltimore somewhere, a very open-ended project,” Randall said. “We kind of by chance worked together and wanted to create vocational programs to give [the formerly  incarcerated] jobs because we saw that as the root of the problem. We worked on it, presented it to the class. Charlie turned to me after and said, ‘Let’s take this out of the classroom,’ and so we did.”

Randall and Wang interacted with the community and local nonprofits to understand the formerly incarcerated population’s needs. By working with institutions such as the Caroline Center, they realized the importance of focusing on soft as well as hard skills. Soft skills refer to communication, networking and management, while hard skills refer to technical knowledge.

“Hard skills are very much what the job requires. For example, say that somebody is going to be a pharmacy technician assistant. In that case, they need to know some of the medical terms, the kinds of medicines, etc., but then there’s also a lot of other things that are important to the job such as talking and interacting with the customers,” Wang said. “This was part of our inspiration, to really focus on soft skills because they are applicable across industries, across jobs. They influence not only the job... but also their personal life.”

Wang discussed the opportunities that the program is currently developing.

“We have formed a partnership with BGE. They’re part of Exelon, which is a Fortune 500 company,” Wang said. “They have given us a lot of flexibility. They have an apprenticeship program that they’re setting up in 2017, and we’ll have quite a bit of opportunity to work with them on that.”

In January 2017 the organization will be releasing more information for anyone who is looking to volunteer or get involved in the program.

The co-founders stressed the importance of students getting involved in the greater Baltimore community, not only for the community’s benefit but also for their own.

“What really made a difference was that we were able to go out into the community and actually speak with people who live there, with real Baltimoreans. We were down in Station North and Waverly. Through being able to walk around these communities, talk with residents, we were able to get a sense and feel how much love there is in Baltimore,” Wang said. “Baltimore is a really special place. It’s not something you can experience just from the Hopkins campus or from reading about it. You really have to get out there and experience it yourself.”

Correction: In the sixth to last paragraph beginning with “Hard skills…” the quotation was attributed to Sam Randall, but Charlie Wang said it. Previously it was stated the Baltimore Gas and Electric is a part of Exxon. It is actually a part of Exelon.