In the wake of the unrest in Baltimore this April, officials at Johns Hopkins University announced they would hire 300 Baltimore youth—up from 100 the previous year—for the city’s annual summer jobs program. The youth, who range in age from 15 to 21, will work at the university, the university’s hospital and the university’s health system this summer.
Johns Hopkins has long been an active participant in the city’s summer employment program, which provides jobs to thousands of young people.
The summer jobs program is just one of many steps the university has taken to help the city in the long, arduous task of recovering from the tumult that was triggered by the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody last April.
Johns Hopkins is taking steps to expand partnerships with Baltimore schools. The university is also working with community partners to create more employment opportunities for ex-convicts under its ex-offender hiring program.
“We also recognize, and must acknowledge, the frustration felt in communities across this country, born of continuing racial disparities in education, employment, and criminal justice,” Johns Hopkins President Ronald Daniels said in an email to faculty, staff and students the day after the disturbances began. “ … Our university takes seriously the opportunity and obligation of our role as an anchor institution within Baltimore.
But as the events of the past week remind us, there is more to do.”
Mending the city
