The Baltimore City Police Department is using fitness as a tool to connect with inner-city kids, through an intense workout designed to break down the barriers.

Every Sunday at around 9:30 a.m., a group of 15 teenagers from Patterson High School meet at the Baltimore City Police Southeast District to work out.

Two months after Destiny Harrison, a 21-year-old mother, and businessman, was gunned down in her McElderry Park beauty salon, a city councilman has announced plans to start a scholarship fund in her name.

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen hopes to raise $20,000 for the fund, which will help recipients pay fees and expenses at the cosmetology program at Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School (MERVO), a public school where Harrison graduated in 2016.

More than 56% of children in Baltimore have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives. These young people may have a tough time concentrating in school, and people of all ages who have had such experiences may have difficulty keeping their emotions in check. In turn, they may lash out and appear erratic. This trauma often spans generations, making it hard for parents with untreated trauma to help their children — and the cycle just continues.

City Councilman Zeke Cohen — realizing the root causes of the city’s social problems need to be addressed if we want to see an end to poverty, violent crime and other issues — wants to transform Baltimore into a trauma-responsive city.

“An empathetic approach seems to be the roadmap for a new way of caring for victims of trauma in Baltimore City -- and it recently got a big boost from City Hall with the adoption of the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act.

It's an all-hands-on-deck call for agencies across the city to be given tools in identifying and responding to trauma. Zeke Cohen, the City Council member who authored the bill, and Bryonna Harris, a senior at Frederick Douglass High School, join us to talk about the new measure.”

Two months after Destiny Harrison, a 21-year-old mother and businessman, was gunned down in her McElderry Park beauty salon, a city councilman has announced plans to start a scholarship fund in her name.

Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen hopes to raise $20,000 for the fund, which will help recipients pay fees and expenses at the cosmetology program at Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School (MERVO), a public school where Harrison graduated in 2016.

On Thursday the newly formed Baltimore Health Committee hosted a hearing on Councilmember Zeke Cohen’s Baltimore Trauma Responsive Care Act.

“The message that we the council were left with from the young people, was that we were not doing enough as a city to support their needs, and to support their well-being,” said Councilmember Cohen.

Members of the newly formed Health Committee got input on how to meet the needs of city youth during a public hearing.

City Councilman Zeke Cohen, the bill's sponsor, said this is about making sure Baltimore is a city where young people can not only survive, but thrive.

Listening to and working with the residents, DOT and City Councilman Zeke Cohen came up with the idea of the beacon.

Cohen said he was thrilled to see the project come full circle and observed that he had “lost track” of the number of accidents in the area. “This is how Baltimore gets better: government and community working side-by-side,” he said, in his address at the event.

The legislation was sponsored by Council member Zeke Cohen. “A few months ago, the City Council passed a resolution in support of [Baltimore] City Schools policy JBB,” said Cohen. “That policy was passed by the School Board of Commissioners. When we introduced that resolution, we said that we would not ask the Baltimore City Schools to do something we wouldn’t do ourselves as a city.”  Cohen said this bill—making all publicly accessible, single occupancy restrooms in the City of Baltimore –gender inclusive is one step closer to fulfilling that commitment.

Zeke Cohen, the lead sponsor of the bill, says hearing of experiences like Jolicoeur’s and of many other trans Baltimoreans are part of what led him to introduce the bill.

“I think it is critically important that we, as legislators, listen to people who have been marginalized within our city,” Cohen said, “particularly our transgender and gender nonconforming communities who have often been victims of violence.”

First District City Councilman Zeke Cohen, who is co-sponsoring the new legislation, said the gender-neutral, single-stall bathroom bill is an effort to extend the same bathroom accessibility now a part of the school system to all of Baltimore. “This is about creating a more welcoming, inclusive city in our public accommodations, particularly for our transgender community and our gender non-binary community,” Cohen said.

In the aftermath, the neighborhood’s council representative, Councilman Zeke Cohen (1st District), said he and community leaders sought something to lift families’ spirits, if even for a day, and bring the neighborhood together. What they’ve come up with is a block party as unique as any in Baltimore, with a cookout, snowballs and games for the kids–and world-class orchestral musicians as the headlining entertainment.

Councilman Zeke Cohen, the bill’s sponsor, said his proposal is “about creating a more welcoming, inclusive city in our public accommodations, particularly for our trans community, our gender non-binary community—folks who would not feel welcome in either a male or female restroom.”

The resolution — introduced by councilmen Zeke Cohen, Isaac Schleifer, Robert Stokes, Sr. and Ex-officio Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young — is similar to efforts at other state legislatures and municipal governments to recognize the historic impact of systemic violence.

Councilman Zeke Cohen asked questions regarding the availability and effectiveness of school psychologists and mental health officials, calling on officials to examine whether the city’s worst schools “need more than one school psychologist” and to provide data about the current racial makeup of those officials.

“Too many of our kids … do not receive the mental health services they need,” Cohen said.

City Councilman Zeke Cohen (1st District), the sponsor of the resolution, said on the floor that he met with both a transgender teacher and student who described a climate of harassment.

Cohen said the student contemplated suicide, and told him, “Councilman, we just want to be seen.”

“This policy is a step in the right direction toward letting our LGBTQ brothers, sisters, and siblings know that they are not only seen, but loved,” Cohen said.