+ Executive Summary

This report interprets the strengths and flaws of Baltimore City’s response to community issues, specifically those affecting the Govans neighborhood. Building a comprehensive account with IMRaD format, each team member explored a different resource in Baltimore: access to mental health care, quality of mental health care, access to nutritional food, and the role of faith communities providing support.

Within Greater Govans and Baltimore City, there seems to be an abundance of clinics, mental health centers containing experienced clinical counselors, and therapists. However, according to a Johns Hopkins assessment of mental health related analysis contains data showing a much greater need of mental health services that is higher than the National Average. Using data to understand the demographic background and healthcare we begin to see a racial disparity as well as obstacles of residents who live in the Greater Govans and Baltimore City. The question is not, “Why aren’t residents using these resources?”, but rather “Do they even have access to these resources?”

Baltimore mental health providers struggle to deliver effective treatments due to limited state funding and underdeveloped programs. In response, Behavioral Health System Baltimore (BHSB) provides funding and staff training regarding systematic racism to ensure quality care for Baltimore’s multicultural clientele. Govans’ population consists largely of people of color, so “quality care” resembles therapists exploring the psychological impact of racial injustice. This idea of “quality care” for multicultural clients stems from Dr. Helms’ WRID and D. and D.W. Sue’s REC models, which outline a therapist’s multistep process of building racial self- awareness. This process, encouraged by BHSB’s staff training, eliminates cultural biases interfering with clinical work and improves the therapist-client dynamic.

Food insecurity describes a situation where an individual does not have consistent, or any, access to healthy food options for a reasonable price. This issue continues to affect Baltimore residents, including those residing in Govans, with African Americans and children are the most likely to be affected. Inconsistent access to healthy options has negative effects on a person’s health, contributing to obesity and other diet-related diseases.

Faith communities are one of the anchors that support the Govans and Greater Baltimore community. Places of devotion and worship have the advantage of a long-established history in the community in comparison to other support organizations. Their dedication to the community through the decades offers a space where families grow and change yet still return to the places of worship. The faith communities in the Govans neighborhood have many support systems that assist residents with paying bills, finding jobs, providing food and shelter, and offering technical skills classes. The long-established faith communities of Govans work together and they reach a much larger audience with pooled resources. These communities provide internal support to the residents and parishioners struggling in the area.

After extensive research through official city reports, scholarly journals, articles, and books, we conclude that despite clear remnants of systemic racism in Baltimore and Govans, various initiatives strive to improve the city.

+ Introduction

This report provides a comprehensive account detailing the assets and deficits of the Greater Govans overall support system and its impact among its demographic for the Govans Heritage and Community Action (Govans Heritage) webpage, which can be accessed at govansheritage.org. See Maps for further details about the location of Govans in Baltimore. The focus of this report is the accessibility of resources in Baltimore and more specifically in Govans, and we have targeted four different subtopics:

1. access to mental health services;
2. quality of mental health services;
3. food access;
4. faith communities.

Our Methods, Results, and Discussion sections are divided into these four subsections. To conduct our research, we used secondary sources such as scholarly books, articles, and official city reports, in addition to our primary sources, such as peer-reviewed journal articles. These sources are further explained in the Methods section. In the Results section, we detail our findings. The Discussion section connects our findings to our research questions, and we discuss how these findings apply to Govans on a larger scale in our Conclusion Section.

+ METHODS

Using primary and secondary research, we anticipate answering the following primary research question: what is the history of community frameworks, including their deficits and assets, surrounding Baltimore and Govans? Because we have divided our findings into four different subtopics, each will attempt to answer a secondary research question:

1. Access to Mental Health: Are there barriers or obstacles regarding access to mental health services within the Govans Community in Baltimore? If so, what are they and how can they be overcome?
2. Quality of Mental Health Services: To what extent are Govans mental health facilities cognizant and attentive to the needs of their culturally diverse population?
3. Food access: How has Baltimore and Govans addressed accessibility to healthy and affordable food for its residents?
4. Faith communities: How do faith communities serve as anchors to residents of the Govans neighborhood?

We anticipate that our report will become part of the Govans Heritage website so that the information we synthesized will be available to a wider audience of future students as well as community members, teachers, and leaders. This report is a thorough discussion of the steps we took from beginning to end of the research process. If the report is approved for use on the website, it will be split according to section topics to make the information more accessible.

This report has been a semester-long endeavor. Beginning in January, the Service-Learning Team began its work at the GEDCO CARES Career Connection. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the team suspended its involvement in person-to-person service. Instead, the team is using this time to construct, edit and revise a comprehensive research report of the Govans community.

+ Results

The following reports the findings for each subtopic from the various resources explored. While these findings indicate social problems in Baltimore and Greater Govans, they also show that attempts are being made to mediate the present issues. In addition, a lack of accessible and quality resources has been found to be directly connected to racial injustices. Lastly, the findings show the importance of faith communities and their impact on residents.

Download the full report here.

+ Discussion

This section provides an analysis and discussion surrounding the findings reported in the previous section for each topic examined. Each resource indicates systemic deficits, but also that action is being taken to eliminate these issues.

Download the full report here.

+ Conclusion

The purpose of this document was to highlight the assets and areas of growth for residents in Baltimore and the Greater Govans neighborhood by pursuing the question: what is the history of community frameworks, including their deficits and assets, in Baltimore and Govans? Govans faces persistent obstacles such as food deserts, decreased access to mental health treatment and poor quality of mental health treatment. While access to essential resources remains a challenge in the city, community leaders have established many initiatives to attempt to resolve these issues. Faith communities play a significant role supporting initiatives as well and serving as anchors in neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to these resource deficits. Faith communities provide programs such as food and clothing drives, training workshops, and housing or utilities assistance to benefit Govans residents.

The main issue connecting three of the four topics--access to mental health services, quality of mental health services, and food access--shows the prevalence of racial injustice in Baltimore, as well as Govans. Due to Baltimore’s long-standing battle with institutional racism, many communities continue to lack proper access to essential resources. Even when Govans residents of color obtain these resources, these services are often inadequate due to underfunded staff training programs. Although efforts by organizations like BHSB function to improve mental health services, stronger efforts are needed to improve both access and quality of these services. Fortunately, the Govans faith community has a strong, historical foundation that continuously builds on its previous progress in support of the neighborhood. Men’s and Women’s faith groups are supportive outlets which work to uplift the community and parish individuals’ health.

Overall, Baltimore City and Govans’ residents have endured struggles over the years concerning equity and racial justice that had negative effects on the communities. In response to these growing concerns, Baltimore City’s government, as well as organizations and faith communities, push ongoing initiatives to support its most vulnerable citizens.

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