Imagine that you are DeAndre Chase...
DeAndre, who just turned 16, has lived in the Gilmor Homes public housing complex with his mother and brother for over 9 years. The development of 571 units in the Sandtown-Winchester community is surrounded by lots of cement and many vacant, boarded-up properties. With sirens wailing day and night, loud helicopters hovering above searching for shooters in the latest episode of gun violence in Baltimore, DeAndre has seen some things, heard some things.
BRANCHES is an innovative year-round green job training program for Baltimore youth ages 14 to 21 and the program offers an unique chance. The “Green Teams” are paid to beautify and maintain green spaces throughout the city including the Gilmor and the Perkins Homes. Young DeAndre Chase (pictured above receiving his Junior Urban Forester Certificate with proud Parks & People staff), just 14 when he started with the program, took to BRANCHES like a branch reaching for sunlight.
With your financial support, we can bring this innovative job training program to more young people in Baltimore. You will also be supporting thousands of children in SuperKids, Read to Succeed summer camps and middle school sports leagues. In addition, you will help community gardens grow, green more vacant lots, plant thousands of trees and restore watersheds that help clean the harbor and the Bay.
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