- The Red Desk Project is a functional public art campaign
- 111 school desks will be painted with red hard-shell coating
- Each desk represents one child slain in the last 6+ years in Baltimore
- The project will launch Thursday, April 29, 2021 at Sinai Hospital for April, National Child Abuse Prevention Month
- The desks will be displayed on the corner of Greenspring Avenue & Northern Parkway where 75,000 cars pass each day.
- We hope in future phases that the desks will be displayed throughout the community and be able to also be a drop point for donations of school supplies.
- The purpose of the campaign is to raise both awareness and funds to address child homicide in Baltimore
- New desks will be added for any additional child victims of homicide recorded in Baltimore City.
This is a 33% increase from the prior 6 year period
3 additional child homicides have already occurred in 2021.
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Child homicides have a great impact on our community - we must begin to recognize and act upon this significant issue impacting youth.
- Among the significant challenges presented with child homicides is the lack of recognition, and often lack of action, over its impact on surviving children and witnesses.
- Each child homicide also affects surviving siblings, friends, and witnesses with varying degrees of post traumatic stress, anxiety, health issues, and a dramatic increase in the likelihood that surviving parties become a perpetrator or a victim of future violence.
- Through mentorship, counseling, treatment, and recognition of pain we can prevent future adverse outcomes from impacting children.
Desks will not only memorialize each child victim turning a statistic into a real person, but also provide access to resources via a QR code, phone number, and web address.
- The hope is that the Red Desk Project raises not only outrage over the large number of recent child homicides, but also draws attention to the need to protect children from becomes victims themselves, or falling victim to the traumas that a child homicide inflicts on an entire community.
- LifeBridge Health’s Center for Hope (formerly Baltimore Child Abuse Center) has targeted child homicide as a key strategy in our approach to reducing child abuse and future trauma.
- More than 60 percent of kids in the U.S. have been exposed to crime, abuse, and violence – many in their own homes. Repeated exposure to trauma and violence can disrupt brain development and increase the risk of serious illness, psychological issues, and dangerous behavior later in life.
- Many child fatalities reviewed by the Baltimore City CFR team had prior significant exposures to violence.
- At Center for Hope, children we connect with who have been impacted by homicides are provided with comprehensive case management, counseling, and support.
- Center for Hope continues to partner with Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit and Child Fatality Review to find solutions for children who have witnessed homicide to prevent them from becoming a future statistic, including intensive case management with our Baltimore Links program.
- Our 2019 #youcanbethedifference social media campaign reached over 439,000 citizens - including youth professionals and was targeted to connect with communities where homicides occurred. Campaign resulted in increased resource distribution and ultimately action on behalf of those who care for children impacted by violence and homicide.
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Phase 1 begins at LifeBridge Health, the home of Center for Hope.
- The desks will be displayed on the corner of Greenspring Avenue & Northern Parkway where 75,000 cars pass each day.
- Aside from being Center for Hope’s home, the corner of Greenspring & Northern represents a “dividing line” where the homicide mortality rate is 0.6 in Coldspring / Mt. Washington & 9.3 in Pimlico / Arlington.
- Support Center For Hope’s initiatives to address child homicide
- Find out about volunteer opportunities at Center For Hope
- Learn more about Center For Hope’s programs designed to break the cycle of violence and its lifelong impact for victims of all races, ethnicities and religions, from the cradle to old age.