Community Partner: Strong City Baltimore Intern: Celine Shanosky Site Supervisor: Lottie Sneed
What is Strong City? Established in 1969, Strong City is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build and strengthen vibrant urban communities in Baltimore City. Our work centers on the pillars of vibrant urban living: safe streets, good and diverse quality housing stock, quality schools, and livability.
The Nate Tatum Community Center, a joint venture of Strong City Baltimore and Telesis Corporation, has been my home for the past seven weeks. I have had the pleasure of working with my compassionate and dedicated supervisor Ms. Lottie to plan her keynote events: the BMOG Cookout and the Annual Women’ s Empowerment Conference. To prepare for these events I visited over fifteen businesses to solicit in‐kind donations, made hundreds of phone calls to secure turn out, created and distributed flyers, purchased materials, and coordinated day‐of logistics.
In addition to event planning, Ms. Lottie tasked me with creating youth programming. When school ended in June, I placed dozens of Barclay youth in free summer camps. Over the next few weeks I created“ Tuesday Kids Night” and“ Tuesday Teen Night”, drop‐in hours where youth could stop in for dinner, games, and other activities. For“ Tuesday Kids Night”, I was able to organize a Smoothie Making Class held in conjunction with Baltimore Orchard Project and a Yoga Class donated by a local instructor. I was also able to coordinate a free trip to Camden Yards for 130 youth and 20 chaperones. I publicized these events through phone calls and flyering, and as the summer progressed I was given more opportunities to write and design publicity materials, including the Seasonal Barclay Newsletter.
Beyond these projects, I was also involved in the day‐to‐day functioning of the center. I provided employment services to drop‐ins by administering skills tests, creating resumes, and assisting in job searches. I was able to attend many fascinating meetings and events, including biweekly community building meetings, the center’ s dedication, the End of School Cookout, Block Ambassador Trainings, Strong City Baltimore’ s board meeting, and a conference between Congressmen Bill Henry, developers and affordable housing policy makers.
Throughout my internship I worked side by side with Ms. Lottie, a woman who inspired and challenged me every single day. Ms. Lottie tasked me with meaningful projects while encouraging me to interact with community members, making this internship so incredibly valuable to me. I have gained solid experience in community building, exposure to non‐profit management, and a further interest in advocating for affordable housing, employment and literacy in the community I have grown to care so deeply for. To my supervisor, the Barclay community, CIIP, and everyone that made this summer possible for me: thank you from the bottom of my heart. ‐ Celine
Tasks:
• Solicited in‐kind donations planning for BMOG Cookou Empowerment Conference
• Organized summer camp e youth programming such a Tuesday Teen Night.
• Created and distributed pu center events. Headed wri seasonal newsletter.
• Facilitated day‐to‐day cent providing employment ser members.