I’ve had the honor of holding this post since March of 2016, and one of the things that we really worked on, and we’ve worked on with the governor and our understanding that we have an incredible team at the state but we also know that we need to collaborate and partner with all of you in order to make a better Maryland. I think that’s why we’re continuously looking for opportunities and encouraging collaboration between state, local, and federal partners from multiple disciplines. This collaboration can be highlighted by the impressive group of partners that have answered the call and are here with us today. Starting with our governor, Governor Larry Hogan. I want to thank you very much for making Maryland a positive national leader on so many levels, including leading the charge on our COVID‑19 response, fighting for a safer Maryland and addressing challenges brought by this pandemic such as mental health. Thank you very much, Governor.
I sincerely want to thank our Lieutenant Governor Rutherford for championing mental health awareness across the state, and early response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. Thank you very much.
I’d also like to recognize our superintendent of schools, Dr. Karen Salmon, for her leadership in the state education response to the COVID‑19 response, Lorraine Orr for prioritizing the partnership with the Boys and Girls Club to continuing build relationships in the community in a positive mentoring ‑‑ and a positive mentoring for those in the community. There they are. Right in front of me!
I also want to recognizer some of the great counselors within our office, the crime prevention and youth and victim services, we host the Maryland youth advisory council, and with us here is the public awareness chair, Nina Buna, students leading their peers in many different efforts, thank you very much for being here.
We also have eight Maryland Boys and Girls Club youth of the year award winners here. Congratulations on the honor and we’re so glad you’re here today to help us with that announcement. This is right in the part of the announcement where I say, make it exciting as I go through this. I am excited and we are all excited with this great group of people that we have here today and we’re going to keep going with this.
We have Ms. Kimberly Hill Miller, the principal of Lockerman Bundy Elementary who the governor will be introducing later to discuss her adverse experience with childhood experiences. Thank you.
Lorraine, the chief operations officer of the boys and girls of America, she flew out from Atlanta this morning and we are thrilled that the boys and girls have partnered with us to focus on reducing adverse childhood experiences and we’re very excited about that partnership. We’re getting close.
And, of course, I’d like to thank some of our private partners, partnering with us in this initiative that you’ll hear about just in a moment is Microsoft, LinkedIn learning, discourse analytics, their creativity in creating solutions and measuring the impact is going to have a direct impact on reducing adverse childhood experiences and helping us recover from COVID, so thank you very much.
And lastly, but certainly not least, here with us today are the incredible leaders from the Maryland alliance from Boys and Girls Clubs from across the state, thank you for banding together to bring services to those in Maryland. It’s an honor to be with you here today. Thank you very much everyone here are community leaders and helping spread the word about today’s exciting public private partnership that governor Hogan will help us understand today. He has directed agencies to adapt in innovative ways and address the current public health crisis. Paying special attention to the mental health needs of our Marylanders, coming out of the pandemic.
While confirmed cases of COVID‑19 can be clearly tracked, the impact of this pandemic on the mental health is not easily quantifiable. We know that our young people are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues and I’m proud of the trauma informed response that Maryland is able to provide especially for our youth, that’s why we’re here today. At this time, I’d like to thank governor Hogan again for his strong leadership throughout this pandemic and welcome to the podium to launch this exciting today, governor Hogan.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you very much, he did a good job of raising the excitement level a little bit. I appreciate that. Good afternoon everyone. It’s great to be here with all of you today, and it is an exciting announcement we’re going to make, but it’s great to be here we Webster Kendrick Boys and Girls Club which is doing such an incredible job helping young people here in Baltimore city to reach their full potential, we’re here today to announce project Bounce Back, which is a groundbreaking initiative to help our young people recover from the devastating impact of COVID‑19.
This global pandemic has been an extremely difficult time for nearly everyone. But it has been perhaps most difficult for our children. The uncertainty and isolation of the past year combined with prolonged school closures has been devastating for their emotional health, educational progress and developmental well‑being.
The CDC has labeled these “adverse childhood experiences” or ACEs, and they can severely undermine a child’s sense of safety and stability. ACEs are also linked to health problems and mental illness and substance abuse in adulthood and can hurt education and job opportunities later in life. As the governor, but also as a father and a grandfather, nothing breaks my heart more than to see what our children have suffered through over the past year. Especially those kids who are growing up in underserved communities. And I refuse to just sit back and accept this as the status quo.
So today, we are launching project Bounce Back, which is a $25 million first in the nation public private partnership that will provide a critical support network for Maryland youth and families by harnessing the resources of the Maryland state department of education, the governor’s office of crime prevention and youth and LinkedIn learning, KPMG, discourse analytics and e-care vault. The mission is to provide critical services to young people in need and to build post‑COVID resilience among Maryland youth, families and communities. Through project bounce back, we will expand the reach of the Maryland alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs to every single county in Maryland, prioritizing title one school districts as well as rural communities in order to reach 45,000 children across all jurisdictions and to provide youth development programs and positive mentorships as part of this expansion, we’re also creating a new partnership between the Maryland state police and the Maryland alliance of boys and girls clubs to create positive mentorships and to grow community and police relationships. In addition, the Maryland state department of education is launching six regional mental health crisis teams composed of counselors, psychologists, and experts to collaborate with local school systems in order to provide on the ground, crisis and technical assistance, finally, through project bounce back, we are working with private sector partners to provide an innovative, new technology platform that will enable non‑profits like the Boys and Girls Clubs to provide better services and job development skills to local youth. Early today, I signed an executive order to make Maryland a national leader in working to address adverse childhood experiences through project bounce back, we are leveraging the full weight of the government and the private sector to connect Maryland youth with the critical support services that they need.
Of course, the single most important thing our local school systems can do to help us get back on track is to utilize the more than $1.2 billion in funding that we have provided to local school districts to provide private tutoring, in person summer learning opportunities and full in person five days a week for every single child in Maryland. Last week the Maryland board of education voted unanimously to require in person schooling this fall for all schools in the state, and this is a key part of our recovery and a beacon of hope for young people all over Maryland. There are far too many kids struggling right now and I want each and every one of you to know that help is on the way, and I can think of no better place to launch this initiative than with our Boys and Girls Clubs, which have given more than 200,000 hours of support to youth throughout this pandemic.
And so on behalf a grateful state, we want to thank them for their efforts to provide hope and a safe, inclusive environment to so many young people. So at this time, I’m going to ask Lorraine Orr, the chief operations officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, to please come forward so that I can present her with a governor’s citation, I’ll put my mask back on in recognition of a partnership on this initiative and all of their incredible efforts on behalf children all across our state and across America. So …
GLENN FUESTON: Thank you very much governor and congratulations to Ms. Orr from the Boys and Girls Club, and we’ll be hearing from her just a little bit later. Our next speaker has diligently served Maryland as a lieutenant governor and chairs the commission to study mental health and behavioral health. Lieutenant Boyd Rutherford has helped combat the opioid crisis, and one of his greatest passions is connecting those who need help with those that can help, I want to welcome to the podium lieutenant governor Boyd Rutherford.
Thank you, Glenn. And good afternoon, everyone. Before I get started and before the next speaker comes up, I would like to remind everyone that May is mental health awareness month and to our fellow Marylanders who are suffering from mental health issues or are in crisis, you’re not alone and it’s okay to seek help. In the bottom line, it’s okay to not be okay. We need to make sure that mental health services are widely available, and if you need mental health resources, 211 Maryland can help connect with you the resources for mental and behavioral health needs. I’m here to introduce Principal Kimberly Hill who about six years ago, I attended a program that she puts on called doughnuts for dads, an event at an elementary school which is located in West Baltimore.
During the program and the presentation, she mentioned that since the end of the previous school year and the time that we were having the program, she was having the program, which I think was early November, four of the fathers of the school kids had been murdered in that short period of time, less than six months, and two of the parents had participated in the doughnuts for dads just a year before. So think about the impact that the kids in that school are feeling when they live in a community, they go to a school with classmates who have last a parent due to violence of the streets in such a short period, not just the children of the deceased but the classmates, the community members, they walk through this crime zone, crime scene, they may have seen what happened, and so, you know, it’s ‑‑ I’ve wanted to make sure that the principal came here to talk about that impact, these impacts, these adverse childhood experiences or trauma have occurred long before COVID. You know, COVID‑19 hit.
COVID‑19 exacerbated a lot of the challenges that we already face and I wanted her to come to talk about the experiences that her students are going through because she is on the front line dealing with the ramifications of these challenges as she educates and mentors innocent children experiencing trauma. Her students face, you know, many problems every day.
And initiatives to implement trauma‑informed policies create a pathway with technologies and infrastructure hopefully that can help them through this process. So Principal Kimberly Hill, please come up. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Hill, and I’m the principal of a school in West Baltimore. I would like to first thank governor Hogan and lieutenant governor Rutherford for their unwavering support towards reducing adverse childhood experiences. The children and families in our wonderful state desperately need them. I’m excited to know that married name is leading the charge through the groundbreaking public‑private partnership supported by multiple state agencies, private organizations that will help tens of thousands of children across Maryland. Throughout my 25 years as an educator, of our state, I have witnessed the need for extra support beyond academics in the classrooms that are preparing four scholars to be outstanding twenty‑first century leaders who are prepared to meet the rigorous demands of college and career success.
These initiatives are answer the urgent call for those supports, the equitable supports for our students across the state. My mission as an educator and administrator is to provide rigorous instruction and to meet and exceed the needs of diverse learners that normally is the goal of any educator across the country. Maryland is leading the charge to address the mental health crisis occurring within our scholars now as a response to COVID‑19. As I reflect on the past experiences that my scholars have received ten, 20 years ago, I came to the conclusion that the amount of adverse childhood experiences that our scholars have faced has a direct correlation to their future trajectory which I personally have categorized as the five Cs.
The letter C, that’s the teacher in me. [ Laughter ]. College, career ‑‑ as in jail cell.
Cemetery has positive outcomes which leads into the first two Cs, of having a successful college and career experience throughout my journey, many positive educational experiences have only led a small portion of my scholars, some of them advanced students exceeding the proficiency levels of students in other states.
There are houses with more than one adverse childhood experience of either drug abuse in the home, incarceration of a parent, and having a deceased parent. Or even traveling to schools just to get to a safe haven, passing the corner which is one of the Cs, their role models, because the only ones that they have are in the corner of our building, hoping for a new future, so that they are not headed towards those negative trajectories which are those other three Cs.
The corner, cemetery, or the cell, due to the lack of the supports of mental health and technology a powerful event that lieutenant governor Rutherford mentioned that we have every year is our annual doughnuts for dads. I have been a principal for eight years and I’ve been at schools where there’s been low participation of our males due to some of the Cs, and that led in the negative trajectories.
So every year, I am faced with explaining to a child that I am going to allow them to attend that event because they do not have a male figure or a mother figure to represent them. So our gym, which is filled similar to gym here, is filled with seats of parents and students with fun filled activities, with hope in their eyes, when you see them participate and then knowing that there are about four or five students a year who aren’t able to enjoy the fun so what I do each and every year, I have those students, and I dedicate the program to falling parents that we have lost to the sensitive violence in the city. One particular year, which lieutenant governor didn’t know because he only saw the academic piece and support, three out of the five students who were honored guests sitting with me at the podium, they and they still attend my school, they are actually the children of my former students that I ‑‑ who I provided those positive experiences for just like I did for their children now, they were actually there and I had to guide them and hold their hands and let them know the reasons why their parents were not there but they are [ laughter ]. So what I do every year, I have the audience.
We wrap our arms ‑‑ albeit virtually ‑‑ and we let them know that even though there is an absence of a parent, every adult in that room is here for you today. And so around the gym, you will see posters where we have those students decorate with maybe pictures of themselves with their fathers, they have a name a section in the gym, and I just ask the audience before they leave to leave one positive message of hope for those students, and that is their take away from the program, while others can get photos and souvenirs with their fathers. So with that being said, our students are experiencing a myriad of emotions which have a negative impact on their educational experiences, seeing them growing up, needing the mental health interventions, we began a partnership with Roberta house, and through that partnership, we were able to get grief counseling at our schools. So we were one of the first elementary schools in the city where I asked for that assistance because there was a need. And so today, our first layer of support is with the mental health in order for us to attack the mental health aspect of it that’s inside of them. I truly believe that every child is a genius and with that hope and with the support, we can further their education, so they will not end up in the negative trajectories of my 3Cs.
So with my message today, I hope that you remember those five Cs.
And realize that those adverse childhood experiences can definitely make a major impact on the path that our students will travel into the future.
As an educator and principal, I’m proud of my state, governor Hogan and our leadership to diligently address the ACEs with the collaboration of the agencies and partnerships. I am hopeful that our next generation of bright leadership will have a great future, just like most of us may have had in this audience. Thank you so much, well, thank you very much, Principal Kimberly Hill, and I want to congratulate you on the award you had just a few years ago. Thank you very much for your dedication.
Next, Dr. Salmon has served as her state superintendent of schools since 2016. With more than 45 years of experience as an educator, Dr. Salmon’s constant focus on being ‑‑ to ensure equity and excellence in the education experience for all children of Maryland. Over the last year, she has led the state’s education response during the COVID‑19 pandemic, spearheading Maryland’s together, Maryland’s recovery plan for education, which is one of the first of its kind in the country. Welcome, Dr. Salmon.
DR. SALMON: Thank you, Glenn, you’re a great partner to work with, and I’ve enjoyed our work this year, and I also want to say thank you to the governor. I don’t know where we would be without him. He has led our state in a time of incredible crisis, in a very positive and proactive way, and he has been a total supporter of our children and our education program, so I thank you so much, governor, it’s been my pleasure to work with you over the last few years. I appreciate your diligence and your proactive association with the need for mental health in our state, and I’m hoping we can do you proud as we put these programs together in the future.
It’s also good to be here with our community partners today, especially the Boys and Girls Club of America. We are so looking forward to your expansion across Maryland. Maryland and the state department of education is very eager to collaborate with this partnership in the project bounce back, to help prevent adverse childhood experiences that were too well described by our principal. Students in Maryland and across the country are suffering. They have been impacted by the pandemic, academically, physically, socially, and emotionally. We know that too many students have been exposed to trauma, disruptions in learning, physical isolation, and disengagement from school and peers.
Many students who once excelled are now failing. Children are overwhelmed, anxious and depressed. The most immediate ready solution to protect children is to return them to schools for full, in‑person learning as soon as possible.
Sadly, too many students have yet to access a normal classroom learning experience based on our latest data, state‑wise less than half, approximately 43 percent of pre‑K through 12 students are receiving any in person instruction. Said another way, almost 500,000 of our students are not receiving any in person instruction.
In school in person instruction is the only way to ensure equitable instruction for our students. The state board passed a resolution calling for the return of full‑time in person instruction next fall.
By providing this resolution, the state department of education is prepared to support all systems in removing obstacles and bringing students back and teachers to the classroom.
At MSTE, our mission is children.
And our children she their school communities.
When we do reopen this fall, we want to make sure that schools are fully equipped to address learning needs. To do so, we must help schools and school systems to provide physically, emotional, and mentally safe learning environments. To deliver these supports, we are establishing six new regional crisis teams across the state.
These teams will provide crisis and technical assistance to local school systems for ‑‑ advisory committee consisting of a cross‑section of professionals in the student services team, including two students here today, Ian and Nia, stand up again! These are great people. Since February, the task force is building this network of regional teams composed of counselors, psychologists, substance abuse coordinators and counselors, nurses, and a consulting psychiatrist.
As well as a family navigator, who will enrich and enhance, not replace, the work of site‑based student support personnel in our school systems. These teams will extend the reach of current intervention resources and provide targeted school‑based services that might prevent the need for future crisis intervention. They will provide boots on the ground direct student care as well as professional development for educators. With May serving as mental health awareness month as a lieutenant governor announced this week is recognizing teacher appreciation week. It’s a compelling reminder of the very strong ‑‑ ‑‑ current intervention resources and provide targeted school‑based services that might prevent the need for future crisis intervention. They will provide boots on the ground direct student care as well as professional development for educators.
With May serving as mental health awareness month as lieutenant governor announced and this week is recognizing teacher appreciation, it’s a compelling reminder of the very strong link between educators and the emotional ‑‑ assistance needed.
My sincere thanks to our educators, school staff, and community partners who continue to put children first. To our teachers, thanks for keeping Maryland’s students engaged, physically, mentally, healthy, and safe. As I close, just a reminder, if you have a concern about the mental well‑being of a student, a classmate, or a friend, please use our Maryland center for school safety hotline, 1‑833‑Maryland‑BE‑SAFE, or visit safe schools, where you can download an app and complete a fast form. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of children and together we can fully recover and bounce back from this pandemic. Thank you very much. (Applause).
GLENN FUESTON: Thank you, Dr. Salmon. When we first met the governor’s most recent citation recipient, Lorraine Orr serves as chief operations officer of the Boys and Girls Club of America, she leads many activities there, handling child safety and protection strategies and overseeing leadership development for staff. Lorraine’s leadership and commitment to the youth have been both recognized locally and nationally, including the coveted others award and the Boys and Girls Club of America national service award among others. Please welcome Lorraine Orr.
Good afternoon. I will tell you, sitting here, I’ve just been in awe of the comments and what the leadership here of the state of Maryland is doing for Boys and Girls Club. For over 160 years, I like to call Boys and Girls Clubs a part of the institution, a part of the legacy of this nation so for over 160 years, we have, in fact, so many difficult times and times of crisis but clubs have always showed up and to make sure that young people are safe rebuke our kids, our tweens and our teens.
And today, I will tell you and you can see it in the eyes of the leadership of Boys and Girls Clubs across the state that we are committed now more than ever before to do whatever it takes to make sure that our kids, their families, and whole communities are better.
And you’ve heard it said in a lot of different ways, this past year has been really difficult for us all.
Not only young people, but us all in our ability to take care of, and the responsibility to take care of the emotional well‑being and health of young people is paramount. So to governor Hogan and all of the staff here of Boys and Girls Clubs and the leadership of the state, thank you for your unwavering support to young people and as I said, this has been a difficult time but having access to technology and positive mentors and the guidance and food accessibility, you know, all of those things that are so important to the positive development of young people, you know, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a lot of states in the last year, and I will tell you, what you all have announced here today in terms of Project Bounce Back, I haven’t heard of anything quite as innovative. And it is so appreciated from the leaders of Boys and Girls Clubs of America but even more so for these hundreds and thousands of staff that have showed up in the darkest times to take care of our young people. What we know is the right support in hard times can build resiliency in young people. I will say to you, across the front row, I see resiliency, of young people who have taken advantage of their Boys and Girls Clubs that are showing up in the spaces for education in doing those things but we know that there are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of young people across this great state that need access. And I may be a little bit biased, but I say they need access to our Boys and Girls Club [ laughter ] because I have seen over the last 35 years of my work in this organization the difference that it can make through the programs that they have that teach life skills, social and emotional skills, academic support.
I will tell you that these young people here that you see in front of you in the tens of thousands ‑‑ and the tens of thousands of others, when they leave the Boys and Girls Clubs, they will be ready for the future. It’s what they bring to us and what we give to them. When they graduate from a high school on time, they will be ready for the workforce. We need children and kids and teens that are ready to join the workforce.
They will be ready to go on to college and some will choose to serve in the United States Armed Services, all of which will make our nation better.
You know, you’ve heard of a few comments around, you know, mental health, mental health has always been a focus of Boys and Girls Clubs and, you know, the impacts of trauma that you have heard folks talk about today, it can be devastating. But with the right supports again I’m so excited about what’s happening here in this state and I will be one governor that will walk to other states and say, you’ve got to replicate what’s happening in the state of Maryland. We are here to help build skills in the state of Maryland. Help them be ‑‑ from this pandemic and beyond. I cannot, again, say how grateful I am as a leader in the youth development space but more grateful for these folks here that have not left the front lines in the last year and I’ve seen it and heard the stories.
And honored to stand in front of these youth of the year who, you know, are here that show us all what it really is about, growing up in the great state of Maryland but also growing up in the United States of America. So, again, governor, thank you. Lieutenant governor Rutherford, thank you. Executive director Houston on, thank you. And superintendent salmon, thank you. It was my privilege to be here today, and I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all my colleagues at the boys something girls’ clubs who have been there every day. So thank you so much.
GLENN FUESTON: This is an incredible event. The excitement has been here through the roof. You see the level of commitment that you have at all levels throughout the state and I hope you’re as excited as I. In closing, under governor Hogan’s leadership, project bounce back has come to fruition, and it will reduce adverse childhood experiences while supporting the needs of youth coming out of this pandemic, and I want to thank everybody here, especially the Webster Kendrick Boys and Girls Club for hosting this thing, and all the staff that went to pull this together, my team, and everybody else, I just want to say thank you for supporting us for this event and many others. I also wanted to invite you to join the governor, lieutenant governor Dr. Salmon and I along with colonel Jones. We’re going to do some stem activities in the room next door. I will warn you, though, that my friends from Baltimore city, please, and I have done these before, so we’re experts, so I wanted to reach out and say thank you, Baltimore center, we’re going to do some work with 3D printers and also going to do some work with conductive Play‑Doh to learn about electrical currents. I think I’m going to stay around the air plane with the 3D printing while you guys do the electricity. I want to say thank you. This is such an amazing event to the leadership, everybody from the state, everybody from the Boys and Girls Club with everybody who has come together to bring this together, thank you. This is going to be a great event for the state of Maryland and I can’t wait to do more work for the children. So thank you very much.
I sincerely want to thank our Lieutenant Governor Rutherford for championing mental health awareness across the state, and early response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. Thank you very much.
I’d also like to recognize our superintendent of schools, Dr. Karen Salmon, for her leadership in the state education response to the COVID‑19 response, Lorraine Orr for prioritizing the partnership with the Boys and Girls Club to continuing build relationships in the community in a positive mentoring ‑‑ and a positive mentoring for those in the community. There they are. Right in front of me!
I also want to recognizer some of the great counselors within our office, the crime prevention and youth and victim services, we host the Maryland youth advisory council, and with us here is the public awareness chair, Nina Buna, students leading their peers in many different efforts, thank you very much for being here.
We also have eight Maryland Boys and Girls Club youth of the year award winners here. Congratulations on the honor and we’re so glad you’re here today to help us with that announcement. This is right in the part of the announcement where I say, make it exciting as I go through this. I am excited and we are all excited with this great group of people that we have here today and we’re going to keep going with this.
We have Ms. Kimberly Hill Miller, the principal of Lockerman Bundy Elementary who the governor will be introducing later to discuss her adverse experience with childhood experiences. Thank you.
Lorraine, the chief operations officer of the boys and girls of America, she flew out from Atlanta this morning and we are thrilled that the boys and girls have partnered with us to focus on reducing adverse childhood experiences and we’re very excited about that partnership. We’re getting close.
And, of course, I’d like to thank some of our private partners, partnering with us in this initiative that you’ll hear about just in a moment is Microsoft, LinkedIn learning, discourse analytics, their creativity in creating solutions and measuring the impact is going to have a direct impact on reducing adverse childhood experiences and helping us recover from COVID, so thank you very much.
And lastly, but certainly not least, here with us today are the incredible leaders from the Maryland alliance from Boys and Girls Clubs from across the state, thank you for banding together to bring services to those in Maryland. It’s an honor to be with you here today. Thank you very much everyone here are community leaders and helping spread the word about today’s exciting public private partnership that governor Hogan will help us understand today. He has directed agencies to adapt in innovative ways and address the current public health crisis. Paying special attention to the mental health needs of our Marylanders, coming out of the pandemic.
While confirmed cases of COVID‑19 can be clearly tracked, the impact of this pandemic on the mental health is not easily quantifiable. We know that our young people are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues and I’m proud of the trauma informed response that Maryland is able to provide especially for our youth, that’s why we’re here today. At this time, I’d like to thank governor Hogan again for his strong leadership throughout this pandemic and welcome to the podium to launch this exciting today, governor Hogan.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you very much, he did a good job of raising the excitement level a little bit. I appreciate that. Good afternoon everyone. It’s great to be here with all of you today, and it is an exciting announcement we’re going to make, but it’s great to be here we Webster Kendrick Boys and Girls Club which is doing such an incredible job helping young people here in Baltimore city to reach their full potential, we’re here today to announce project Bounce Back, which is a groundbreaking initiative to help our young people recover from the devastating impact of COVID‑19.
This global pandemic has been an extremely difficult time for nearly everyone. But it has been perhaps most difficult for our children. The uncertainty and isolation of the past year combined with prolonged school closures has been devastating for their emotional health, educational progress and developmental well‑being.
The CDC has labeled these “adverse childhood experiences” or ACEs, and they can severely undermine a child’s sense of safety and stability. ACEs are also linked to health problems and mental illness and substance abuse in adulthood and can hurt education and job opportunities later in life. As the governor, but also as a father and a grandfather, nothing breaks my heart more than to see what our children have suffered through over the past year. Especially those kids who are growing up in underserved communities. And I refuse to just sit back and accept this as the status quo.
So today, we are launching project Bounce Back, which is a $25 million first in the nation public private partnership that will provide a critical support network for Maryland youth and families by harnessing the resources of the Maryland state department of education, the governor’s office of crime prevention and youth and LinkedIn learning, KPMG, discourse analytics and e-care vault. The mission is to provide critical services to young people in need and to build post‑COVID resilience among Maryland youth, families and communities. Through project bounce back, we will expand the reach of the Maryland alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs to every single county in Maryland, prioritizing title one school districts as well as rural communities in order to reach 45,000 children across all jurisdictions and to provide youth development programs and positive mentorships as part of this expansion, we’re also creating a new partnership between the Maryland state police and the Maryland alliance of boys and girls clubs to create positive mentorships and to grow community and police relationships. In addition, the Maryland state department of education is launching six regional mental health crisis teams composed of counselors, psychologists, and experts to collaborate with local school systems in order to provide on the ground, crisis and technical assistance, finally, through project bounce back, we are working with private sector partners to provide an innovative, new technology platform that will enable non‑profits like the Boys and Girls Clubs to provide better services and job development skills to local youth. Early today, I signed an executive order to make Maryland a national leader in working to address adverse childhood experiences through project bounce back, we are leveraging the full weight of the government and the private sector to connect Maryland youth with the critical support services that they need.
Of course, the single most important thing our local school systems can do to help us get back on track is to utilize the more than $1.2 billion in funding that we have provided to local school districts to provide private tutoring, in person summer learning opportunities and full in person five days a week for every single child in Maryland. Last week the Maryland board of education voted unanimously to require in person schooling this fall for all schools in the state, and this is a key part of our recovery and a beacon of hope for young people all over Maryland. There are far too many kids struggling right now and I want each and every one of you to know that help is on the way, and I can think of no better place to launch this initiative than with our Boys and Girls Clubs, which have given more than 200,000 hours of support to youth throughout this pandemic.
And so on behalf a grateful state, we want to thank them for their efforts to provide hope and a safe, inclusive environment to so many young people. So at this time, I’m going to ask Lorraine Orr, the chief operations officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, to please come forward so that I can present her with a governor’s citation, I’ll put my mask back on in recognition of a partnership on this initiative and all of their incredible efforts on behalf children all across our state and across America. So …
GLENN FUESTON: Thank you very much governor and congratulations to Ms. Orr from the Boys and Girls Club, and we’ll be hearing from her just a little bit later. Our next speaker has diligently served Maryland as a lieutenant governor and chairs the commission to study mental health and behavioral health. Lieutenant Boyd Rutherford has helped combat the opioid crisis, and one of his greatest passions is connecting those who need help with those that can help, I want to welcome to the podium lieutenant governor Boyd Rutherford.
Thank you, Glenn. And good afternoon, everyone. Before I get started and before the next speaker comes up, I would like to remind everyone that May is mental health awareness month and to our fellow Marylanders who are suffering from mental health issues or are in crisis, you’re not alone and it’s okay to seek help. In the bottom line, it’s okay to not be okay. We need to make sure that mental health services are widely available, and if you need mental health resources, 211 Maryland can help connect with you the resources for mental and behavioral health needs. I’m here to introduce Principal Kimberly Hill who about six years ago, I attended a program that she puts on called doughnuts for dads, an event at an elementary school which is located in West Baltimore.
During the program and the presentation, she mentioned that since the end of the previous school year and the time that we were having the program, she was having the program, which I think was early November, four of the fathers of the school kids had been murdered in that short period of time, less than six months, and two of the parents had participated in the doughnuts for dads just a year before. So think about the impact that the kids in that school are feeling when they live in a community, they go to a school with classmates who have last a parent due to violence of the streets in such a short period, not just the children of the deceased but the classmates, the community members, they walk through this crime zone, crime scene, they may have seen what happened, and so, you know, it’s ‑‑ I’ve wanted to make sure that the principal came here to talk about that impact, these impacts, these adverse childhood experiences or trauma have occurred long before COVID. You know, COVID‑19 hit.
COVID‑19 exacerbated a lot of the challenges that we already face and I wanted her to come to talk about the experiences that her students are going through because she is on the front line dealing with the ramifications of these challenges as she educates and mentors innocent children experiencing trauma. Her students face, you know, many problems every day.
And initiatives to implement trauma‑informed policies create a pathway with technologies and infrastructure hopefully that can help them through this process. So Principal Kimberly Hill, please come up. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Hill, and I’m the principal of a school in West Baltimore. I would like to first thank governor Hogan and lieutenant governor Rutherford for their unwavering support towards reducing adverse childhood experiences. The children and families in our wonderful state desperately need them. I’m excited to know that married name is leading the charge through the groundbreaking public‑private partnership supported by multiple state agencies, private organizations that will help tens of thousands of children across Maryland. Throughout my 25 years as an educator, of our state, I have witnessed the need for extra support beyond academics in the classrooms that are preparing four scholars to be outstanding twenty‑first century leaders who are prepared to meet the rigorous demands of college and career success.
These initiatives are answer the urgent call for those supports, the equitable supports for our students across the state. My mission as an educator and administrator is to provide rigorous instruction and to meet and exceed the needs of diverse learners that normally is the goal of any educator across the country. Maryland is leading the charge to address the mental health crisis occurring within our scholars now as a response to COVID‑19. As I reflect on the past experiences that my scholars have received ten, 20 years ago, I came to the conclusion that the amount of adverse childhood experiences that our scholars have faced has a direct correlation to their future trajectory which I personally have categorized as the five Cs.
The letter C, that’s the teacher in me. [ Laughter ]. College, career ‑‑ as in jail cell.
Cemetery has positive outcomes which leads into the first two Cs, of having a successful college and career experience throughout my journey, many positive educational experiences have only led a small portion of my scholars, some of them advanced students exceeding the proficiency levels of students in other states.
There are houses with more than one adverse childhood experience of either drug abuse in the home, incarceration of a parent, and having a deceased parent. Or even traveling to schools just to get to a safe haven, passing the corner which is one of the Cs, their role models, because the only ones that they have are in the corner of our building, hoping for a new future, so that they are not headed towards those negative trajectories which are those other three Cs.
The corner, cemetery, or the cell, due to the lack of the supports of mental health and technology a powerful event that lieutenant governor Rutherford mentioned that we have every year is our annual doughnuts for dads. I have been a principal for eight years and I’ve been at schools where there’s been low participation of our males due to some of the Cs, and that led in the negative trajectories.
So every year, I am faced with explaining to a child that I am going to allow them to attend that event because they do not have a male figure or a mother figure to represent them. So our gym, which is filled similar to gym here, is filled with seats of parents and students with fun filled activities, with hope in their eyes, when you see them participate and then knowing that there are about four or five students a year who aren’t able to enjoy the fun so what I do each and every year, I have those students, and I dedicate the program to falling parents that we have lost to the sensitive violence in the city. One particular year, which lieutenant governor didn’t know because he only saw the academic piece and support, three out of the five students who were honored guests sitting with me at the podium, they and they still attend my school, they are actually the children of my former students that I ‑‑ who I provided those positive experiences for just like I did for their children now, they were actually there and I had to guide them and hold their hands and let them know the reasons why their parents were not there but they are [ laughter ]. So what I do every year, I have the audience.
We wrap our arms ‑‑ albeit virtually ‑‑ and we let them know that even though there is an absence of a parent, every adult in that room is here for you today. And so around the gym, you will see posters where we have those students decorate with maybe pictures of themselves with their fathers, they have a name a section in the gym, and I just ask the audience before they leave to leave one positive message of hope for those students, and that is their take away from the program, while others can get photos and souvenirs with their fathers. So with that being said, our students are experiencing a myriad of emotions which have a negative impact on their educational experiences, seeing them growing up, needing the mental health interventions, we began a partnership with Roberta house, and through that partnership, we were able to get grief counseling at our schools. So we were one of the first elementary schools in the city where I asked for that assistance because there was a need. And so today, our first layer of support is with the mental health in order for us to attack the mental health aspect of it that’s inside of them. I truly believe that every child is a genius and with that hope and with the support, we can further their education, so they will not end up in the negative trajectories of my 3Cs.
So with my message today, I hope that you remember those five Cs.
And realize that those adverse childhood experiences can definitely make a major impact on the path that our students will travel into the future.
As an educator and principal, I’m proud of my state, governor Hogan and our leadership to diligently address the ACEs with the collaboration of the agencies and partnerships. I am hopeful that our next generation of bright leadership will have a great future, just like most of us may have had in this audience. Thank you so much, well, thank you very much, Principal Kimberly Hill, and I want to congratulate you on the award you had just a few years ago. Thank you very much for your dedication.
Next, Dr. Salmon has served as her state superintendent of schools since 2016. With more than 45 years of experience as an educator, Dr. Salmon’s constant focus on being ‑‑ to ensure equity and excellence in the education experience for all children of Maryland. Over the last year, she has led the state’s education response during the COVID‑19 pandemic, spearheading Maryland’s together, Maryland’s recovery plan for education, which is one of the first of its kind in the country. Welcome, Dr. Salmon.
DR. SALMON: Thank you, Glenn, you’re a great partner to work with, and I’ve enjoyed our work this year, and I also want to say thank you to the governor. I don’t know where we would be without him. He has led our state in a time of incredible crisis, in a very positive and proactive way, and he has been a total supporter of our children and our education program, so I thank you so much, governor, it’s been my pleasure to work with you over the last few years. I appreciate your diligence and your proactive association with the need for mental health in our state, and I’m hoping we can do you proud as we put these programs together in the future.
It’s also good to be here with our community partners today, especially the Boys and Girls Club of America. We are so looking forward to your expansion across Maryland. Maryland and the state department of education is very eager to collaborate with this partnership in the project bounce back, to help prevent adverse childhood experiences that were too well described by our principal. Students in Maryland and across the country are suffering. They have been impacted by the pandemic, academically, physically, socially, and emotionally. We know that too many students have been exposed to trauma, disruptions in learning, physical isolation, and disengagement from school and peers.
Many students who once excelled are now failing. Children are overwhelmed, anxious and depressed. The most immediate ready solution to protect children is to return them to schools for full, in‑person learning as soon as possible.
Sadly, too many students have yet to access a normal classroom learning experience based on our latest data, state‑wise less than half, approximately 43 percent of pre‑K through 12 students are receiving any in person instruction. Said another way, almost 500,000 of our students are not receiving any in person instruction.
In school in person instruction is the only way to ensure equitable instruction for our students. The state board passed a resolution calling for the return of full‑time in person instruction next fall.
By providing this resolution, the state department of education is prepared to support all systems in removing obstacles and bringing students back and teachers to the classroom.
At MSTE, our mission is children.
And our children she their school communities.
When we do reopen this fall, we want to make sure that schools are fully equipped to address learning needs. To do so, we must help schools and school systems to provide physically, emotional, and mentally safe learning environments. To deliver these supports, we are establishing six new regional crisis teams across the state.
These teams will provide crisis and technical assistance to local school systems for ‑‑ advisory committee consisting of a cross‑section of professionals in the student services team, including two students here today, Ian and Nia, stand up again! These are great people. Since February, the task force is building this network of regional teams composed of counselors, psychologists, substance abuse coordinators and counselors, nurses, and a consulting psychiatrist.
As well as a family navigator, who will enrich and enhance, not replace, the work of site‑based student support personnel in our school systems. These teams will extend the reach of current intervention resources and provide targeted school‑based services that might prevent the need for future crisis intervention. They will provide boots on the ground direct student care as well as professional development for educators. With May serving as mental health awareness month as a lieutenant governor announced this week is recognizing teacher appreciation week. It’s a compelling reminder of the very strong ‑‑ ‑‑ current intervention resources and provide targeted school‑based services that might prevent the need for future crisis intervention. They will provide boots on the ground direct student care as well as professional development for educators.
With May serving as mental health awareness month as lieutenant governor announced and this week is recognizing teacher appreciation, it’s a compelling reminder of the very strong link between educators and the emotional ‑‑ assistance needed.
My sincere thanks to our educators, school staff, and community partners who continue to put children first. To our teachers, thanks for keeping Maryland’s students engaged, physically, mentally, healthy, and safe. As I close, just a reminder, if you have a concern about the mental well‑being of a student, a classmate, or a friend, please use our Maryland center for school safety hotline, 1‑833‑Maryland‑BE‑SAFE, or visit safe schools, where you can download an app and complete a fast form. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of children and together we can fully recover and bounce back from this pandemic. Thank you very much. (Applause).
GLENN FUESTON: Thank you, Dr. Salmon. When we first met the governor’s most recent citation recipient, Lorraine Orr serves as chief operations officer of the Boys and Girls Club of America, she leads many activities there, handling child safety and protection strategies and overseeing leadership development for staff. Lorraine’s leadership and commitment to the youth have been both recognized locally and nationally, including the coveted others award and the Boys and Girls Club of America national service award among others. Please welcome Lorraine Orr.
Good afternoon. I will tell you, sitting here, I’ve just been in awe of the comments and what the leadership here of the state of Maryland is doing for Boys and Girls Club. For over 160 years, I like to call Boys and Girls Clubs a part of the institution, a part of the legacy of this nation so for over 160 years, we have, in fact, so many difficult times and times of crisis but clubs have always showed up and to make sure that young people are safe rebuke our kids, our tweens and our teens.
And today, I will tell you and you can see it in the eyes of the leadership of Boys and Girls Clubs across the state that we are committed now more than ever before to do whatever it takes to make sure that our kids, their families, and whole communities are better.
And you’ve heard it said in a lot of different ways, this past year has been really difficult for us all.
Not only young people, but us all in our ability to take care of, and the responsibility to take care of the emotional well‑being and health of young people is paramount. So to governor Hogan and all of the staff here of Boys and Girls Clubs and the leadership of the state, thank you for your unwavering support to young people and as I said, this has been a difficult time but having access to technology and positive mentors and the guidance and food accessibility, you know, all of those things that are so important to the positive development of young people, you know, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a lot of states in the last year, and I will tell you, what you all have announced here today in terms of Project Bounce Back, I haven’t heard of anything quite as innovative. And it is so appreciated from the leaders of Boys and Girls Clubs of America but even more so for these hundreds and thousands of staff that have showed up in the darkest times to take care of our young people. What we know is the right support in hard times can build resiliency in young people. I will say to you, across the front row, I see resiliency, of young people who have taken advantage of their Boys and Girls Clubs that are showing up in the spaces for education in doing those things but we know that there are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of young people across this great state that need access. And I may be a little bit biased, but I say they need access to our Boys and Girls Club [ laughter ] because I have seen over the last 35 years of my work in this organization the difference that it can make through the programs that they have that teach life skills, social and emotional skills, academic support.
I will tell you that these young people here that you see in front of you in the tens of thousands ‑‑ and the tens of thousands of others, when they leave the Boys and Girls Clubs, they will be ready for the future. It’s what they bring to us and what we give to them. When they graduate from a high school on time, they will be ready for the workforce. We need children and kids and teens that are ready to join the workforce.
They will be ready to go on to college and some will choose to serve in the United States Armed Services, all of which will make our nation better.
You know, you’ve heard of a few comments around, you know, mental health, mental health has always been a focus of Boys and Girls Clubs and, you know, the impacts of trauma that you have heard folks talk about today, it can be devastating. But with the right supports again I’m so excited about what’s happening here in this state and I will be one governor that will walk to other states and say, you’ve got to replicate what’s happening in the state of Maryland. We are here to help build skills in the state of Maryland. Help them be ‑‑ from this pandemic and beyond. I cannot, again, say how grateful I am as a leader in the youth development space but more grateful for these folks here that have not left the front lines in the last year and I’ve seen it and heard the stories.
And honored to stand in front of these youth of the year who, you know, are here that show us all what it really is about, growing up in the great state of Maryland but also growing up in the United States of America. So, again, governor, thank you. Lieutenant governor Rutherford, thank you. Executive director Houston on, thank you. And superintendent salmon, thank you. It was my privilege to be here today, and I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all my colleagues at the boys something girls’ clubs who have been there every day. So thank you so much.
GLENN FUESTON: This is an incredible event. The excitement has been here through the roof. You see the level of commitment that you have at all levels throughout the state and I hope you’re as excited as I. In closing, under governor Hogan’s leadership, project bounce back has come to fruition, and it will reduce adverse childhood experiences while supporting the needs of youth coming out of this pandemic, and I want to thank everybody here, especially the Webster Kendrick Boys and Girls Club for hosting this thing, and all the staff that went to pull this together, my team, and everybody else, I just want to say thank you for supporting us for this event and many others. I also wanted to invite you to join the governor, lieutenant governor Dr. Salmon and I along with colonel Jones. We’re going to do some stem activities in the room next door. I will warn you, though, that my friends from Baltimore city, please, and I have done these before, so we’re experts, so I wanted to reach out and say thank you, Baltimore center, we’re going to do some work with 3D printers and also going to do some work with conductive Play‑Doh to learn about electrical currents. I think I’m going to stay around the air plane with the 3D printing while you guys do the electricity. I want to say thank you. This is such an amazing event to the leadership, everybody from the state, everybody from the Boys and Girls Club with everybody who has come together to bring this together, thank you. This is going to be a great event for the state of Maryland and I can’t wait to do more work for the children. So thank you very much.