Community Partner: United Workers Intern: Evan Drukker-Schardl Site Supervisors: Adriana Foster
What is United Workers? United Workers is a non-partisan poor people’ s multi-racial and bilingual human rights organization fighting to secure the human rights of everyone, everywhere. We do this by organizing low-wage workers around human rights values of respect, dignity, and sanctity of human life, and by developing leaders from the ranks of the poor.
" Two weeks into my summer at United Workers, my duties brought me to three different meetings around Baltimore. I found myself navigating totally new spaces full of people I had never met before. They seemed to all know each other very well, and I sensed a kind of mutual understanding to which I was not yet privy. People were talking and joking with one another. I was the newcomer in this world of Baltimore organizing, and I felt like I couldn’ t possibly feel at home here by the end of the summer. I didn’ t speak at these meetings— I just listened closely, introduced myself, and chatted with a few people. As June ended, and I began petitioning, I stopped thinking about becoming a“ part” of the community. There was too much going on— running around the city collecting signatures, formulating systems for following up with people we met, calling our membership about various events, and dealing with the odd catastrophe here and there. We strategized for the end of the summer, researched the city and its finances, and more. Things were hectic, and I was meeting people left and right on the streets and in the office. Then, at the end of July, I mentioned to the other organizers at United Workers that I would be leaving in a little over a week.“ No!” they said.“ Like, forever?” I clarified that I would still be around, but my formal internship ended the next week. Later that week at the another Baltimore Housing Roundtable meeting, I found myself joking and laughing with my friends in the room, sharing little stories and chatting about music, the stifling heat, and community land trusts. I became a part of the community without realizing that it was happening. People form special bonds in this kind of organizing— it’ s physically and emotionally draining, and it’ s entirely based on forming relationships with people. I’ m proud and happy to have found a Baltimore community this summer, and a group of kind, dedicated, smart people whom I call my friends."-Evan
• Collected petition signatures for Baltimore ' s 20 / 20 Vision for Fair Development, asking the city to invest in permanently affordable housing, jobs, and environmentally sustainable communities.
• Strategized with the Baltimore Housing Roundtable, the Remington Housing Working Group, and other BHR-affiliated groups to determine how to form community land trusts in Baltimore and present the 20 / 20 Vision to the City.
• Conducted correspondence for United Workers and the Baltimore Housing Roundtable, including updating members about meetings, inviting interested Baltimoreans to join the campaign, and talking one-on-one with prospective leaders.
• Researched neighborhoods in Baltimore and the Baltimore City budget process.
50