March 1, 2024 • 36 mins
Explore the transformative work happening at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) through the lens of EMBRACE — a civic engagement initiative led by executive director Kyla Liggett-Creel, PhD, LCSW-C, who is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Maryland Graduate School. Liggett-Creel shares her insights into creating pathways for community improvement and how EMBRACE facilitates connections among the University, nonprofits, and the communities they serve.
Listeners will get a peek into EMBRACE’s main areas. They include:
Healing Youth Alliance
• Training youth to become peer educators, advocates, trainers, and consultants focusing on mental health and resilience.
Youth Development
• Working with youth who have been arrested for nonviolent offenses to provide mentoring and case management to support prosocial behaviors.
Violence Reduction
• Partnering with credible messengers and people with lived experience providing conflict resolution, crime/violence prevention, and resource management.
Liggett-Creel also shares updates about the Eutaw Street Initiative, which is an innovative collaboration between UMB Police and Public Safety and social workers to support those in need on the streets. The initiative has a new home at the Embrace Resource Center at 55 N. Paca St.
Tune in to learn more about how the EMBRACE initiative is making significant strides in civic engagement, community service, and fostering a collaborative environment for positive change in Baltimore. Whether you’re a community member, student, faculty, or simply interested in social impact, this episode offers valuable insights into the power of collective action and the importance of embracing and empowering communities.
Links of interest from the show:
Opening of the Embrace Resource Center
Ways to Give to the Embrace Initiative
Email Liggett-Creel
Listen to The UMB Pulse on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you like to listen. The UMB Pulse is also now on YouTube.
Visit our website at umaryland.edu/pulse or email us at umbpulse@umaryland.edu.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Charles Schelle (00:00):
Dana, I don't wanna get too nerdy about the
(00:02):
details, but this situation theother day where I needed to know
how to do something, I knew thefirst steps and the end product,
the end result of what I neededto do, but I felt lost about all
the steps in between.
Like, have you ever experiencedsomething like that?
Dana Rampolla (00:21):
Yeah.
I feel like I have that happen alot of times, but but the I
about a year ago, maybe it's 6months ago, I was I was reading.
Everybody's talking aboutsourdough bread and making sour
you know, trying to get awayfrom so many preservatives, And
I thought it sounded like thisgreat idea.
I've been a bread maker, dabbledin it over the years.
So I thought, oh, I'm gonna dothis.
(00:42):
And, you know, you read it.
Sounds pretty simple.
And I know what the end productneeds to be.
I need to have a loaf of bread,but I don't I don't have you
ever done it?
Have you ever tried makingsourdough?
It's
Charles Schelle (00:53):
I've watched somebody do it before, but I
have not personally tried.
Dana Rampolla (00:58):
Well, it's this whole big process.
You know?
So it's a naturally fermentedsubstitute for yeast, but you
don't just whip it up and use itthe next day.
You have to make it, and thenyou have to feed it, they call
it each day.
Anyway, it's a whole longprocess.
And through through thatprocess, I kept thinking, like,
am I doing this right?
Am I headed in the rightdirection?
(01:18):
And I kinda wish, like, mygrandmother was still around
because she probably could haveset me straight.
But, anyway, sorry.
That was a long story.
Yes.
I do know what you mean.
Charles Schelle (01:28):
Good.
Good.
Because I was thinking about howa lot of people probably have
the expertise in something, butit's like, if I only knew that 1
thing, I could really go furtherand make a huge difference.
And so that really ties intowhat Kyla Liggett Creel is all
about.
We're gonna talk to, professorLiggett Creel, who is the
(01:50):
executive director of Embracetoday, And her job is really to
help create those connections.
Those pathways for people,nonprofits who need help in our
neighborhoods, uh, to improvetheir lives and others too.
Right?
She's going to talk aboutseveral of these projects and
and initiatives that sheoversees as part of her work
that was born out of her time atthe University of Maryland
(02:11):
School of Social Work as well asa sneak peek of some of her new
projects.
All of her work is neatlypackaged through what she calls
Embrace.
Dana Rampolla (02:21):
Yeah.
And she's in the provost'soffice for her Embrace work, and
she's on faculty at theUniversity of Maryland,
Baltimore Graduate School now,continuing that work, you know,
that you just described.
One of the latest developmentscame out of her work with the
UMB police, and that was calledthe Eutaw Street Initiative.
And it's where the police andsocial workers make connections
with folks who are out on thestreet needing assistance.
(02:44):
They might need some sort ofcase management, mediation, and
peer support, and that programnow has a new home.
We'll talk about it later on andjust get a little more details
then.
But, yeah, she's doing a lot ofgood work.
Charles Schelle (02:58):
Absolutely.
She's done a lot of work in thecity, like you just said,
especially with youth traumaintervention work, but there's
so much more that she does.
Dana Rampolla (03:07):
Well, I'm looking forward to learning more about
some of her research and herinitiatives and especially her
work with peer recoveryspecialists.
And what does she call them?
Credible messengers?
Yep.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, yeah, I wanna learn allabout that.
So let's jump right into ourconversation with doctor Kyla
Liggett Creel.
Jena Frick (03:29):
You're listening to the heartbeat of the University
of Maryland Baltimore, the UMBpulse.
Dana Rampolla (03:42):
Kyla, welcome to the UMB Pulse so you're in a new
position in the provost's officeas the executive director of
Embrace.
First of all, congratulations onthat.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (03:52):
I appreciate it.
I'm very excited.
Dana Rampolla (03:54):
We'll talk about what Embrace is as a teaser in a
bit as the program continues totake shape.
But first, you've spent about adozen years on the faculty of
the University of MarylandSchool of Social Work before
your current role.
So where tell us a little bitabout what you were focused in
at that time, violenceprevention, youth leadership
development, and you partneredwith grassroots nonprofits.
(04:16):
What did that look like for you?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (04:18):
I actually started here 15 years ago.
At first, I was in the theDepartment of Psychiatry working
at Center for Infant Studies,and I did mental health
consultation with Head Starts.
So really being out in thecommunity, talking to Head Start
teachers about how to bestsupport little ones' social,
emotional well-being andsupervising clinicians and
(04:40):
interns.
And then I came over to theSchool of Social Work.
I was a foster parent, and theywere running some groups for
foster parents.
So they asked me to come over tobe a person with lived
experience.
As a foster parent we wereworking towards adoption at the
time.
And so, and by that point, wehad been foster parents for
about 5 years, and it had 8children.
(05:03):
So we had done a lot aroundbehavior management and also
just helping with difficultthings around visiting birth
parents and going to court,dealing with lawyers who never
met the kid and met, you know,the kid at court and, you know,
just trying to figure out earlyintervention services and all of
that.
So I was asked to come to theSchool of Social Work to help
(05:23):
cofacilitate groups for fosterparents.
And then quickly was asked tostart developing parenting
programs for West Baltimore,specifically Upton Druid Heights
with place based initiativecalled Promise Heights.
And I worked with PromiseHeights for, I think about 12
years.
(05:43):
And my role there was reallydeveloping the parenting
programs, but also supervisingclinicians, helping kind of
build out the whole pipelinefrom birth to, you know, college
and career.
And I also was working withgrassroots and nonprofits in
West Baltimore, specificallyaround violence prevention and
trauma intervention and lovedjust adored that work and got to
(06:07):
really meet some phenomenalpeople who were specializing in
work in West Baltimore.
And then in March of 20 20 Istarted working with the
Baltimore City health departmentAround developing the violence
intervention and prevention planfor the city and also the
Healing City Initiative where wewere building trauma informed
(06:28):
training for all Baltimore Citystaff.
So it's been quite a journey.
I've loved being at theuniversity.
And then in July of 23 I movedover to the Provost's office to
be the executive director forEMBRACE.
Dana Rampolla (06:42):
Wow.
Out of all of those areas ofwork, what would you consider
your proudest work to have been?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (06:47):
Certainly partnering with the grassroots
and nonprofits and people withlived experience.
You know, really Getting to knowtheir programs, getting to know
them, their families, their lifestories, and then, you know,
honing in on the the work ofaccessing resources, removing
barriers, and addressing realworld problems.
Charles Schelle (07:09):
As we mentioned earlier, this is a civic minded
program that is under UMBprovost and executive vice
president Roger Ward's office.
So how does Embrace differ fromwhat's being done at the Office
of Community Engagement, theCenter for Violence Prevention
at UMB, and the Uplift Alliance,which is a program that acts as
a fiscal sponsor for nonprofits.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (07:30):
Absolutely.
And thank you for asking.
So this is a sneak peek.
EMBRACE is really about the workof civic engagement, civic
action.
And so what that means is thatlooking at how the university
partners with grassroots andnonprofits really is engaging
people with lived experience ina mutually beneficial way.
(07:52):
So, we do look at research.
So for example community membersnow can be part of the IRB
approved research team.
And so we have a specializedtraining for community members
so they don't have to go throughthe, You know, the longer
training that most faculty do.
And so they can go through a 1hour video training, upload
(08:12):
their certificate, and nowthey're part of the research
Team because we wanna doresearch with community, not on
community or for community.
We also work on academics.
So we have 3 curriculum programsthat are coming out.
1 is for young people To betrained as mental health
consultants in the community.
(08:32):
They can do consulting withorganizations, agency,
governmental agencies, Trainingsaround mental health and
resilience.
We have another certificateprogram for violence
intervention folks who are inthe community.
Usually, when there is a ashooting or a crisis that
happens, it's really thecommunity members who were
(08:53):
called in first.
And so it's the guys who aredown the street.
It's the trusted deacon at thechurch.
They're the ones who are calledin to do the work.
And so really making sure thatthey're receiving training, but
it's not a top down.
It's not a faculty trainingcommunity.
It is you know, the faculty forthe curriculum is actually 2
(09:17):
credible messengers who arereturning citizens pastor from
the community and then a lawyer,a social worker, a community
organizer.
So it's really about, again,doing with community offering
opportunities for people,Students to learn from credible
messengers and learn fromcommunity members.
(09:38):
So we have a trainingopportunity for interns who
wanna work on, you know, aroundLexington Market doing the
community engagement.
And they are learning from, youknow, 2 peer recovery
specialists and 2 and 10credible messengers about what
does it really look like to dowork in the community.
(09:58):
And then we have aimplementation arm of EMBRACE.
And so that implementation armis called the Collaborative.
And in the Collaborative, we do3 buckets of work.
1 is around youth development.
And so we We have a programwhere we have an apartment
building, 42 apartments forpreviously unhoused young
(10:19):
people.
And so These young people mayhave been in foster care.
They may be in DJS.
They may have been living on thestreets.
And so we offer mental healthsupports and social emotional
Supports and case managementthere.
We also have the Healing YouthAlliance where young people are
trained on mental health andresilience and doing training in
the community.
(10:39):
We also have some severalcurriculum programs where, like,
we're working with therapists onhow to work with young people
who have a lot of trauma.
Then we have the communityengagement, civic engagement
violence prevention work.
And so that's where some ofthose overlaps come in.
Right?
So we have a lot of violenceintervention work because we've
(11:01):
been doing it for, you know, 8years now.
And so we work with crediblemessengers.
And so we have some projectswhere We're working on around
Lexington Market.
We have 10 returning citizenswho do community outreach, 2
peer recovery specialists.
We've had over 4000 engagementsin the past 3 years.
(11:22):
Over 200 people have gotten jobsthrough that work.
We do some work on PennsylvaniaAvenue where we have 12 credible
messengers and 4 returningcitizens who are case managers.
And there, we are really doingthe work of trying to prevent
gun violence and also provideresources to community members.
And, again, it is with communityleaders.
(11:45):
It is, you know, with the Uptonplanning committee.
It is with community organizersthat is with no boundaries.
It is not, you know, us comingin and doing 2 or 4.
It really is doing withresidents of the community on
how do we want to try to preventsome of this violence and also
provide resources.
And then we also have some workwith DJS, with Department of
(12:09):
Juvenile Services.
We do a lot of removing barriersand accessing resources versus
with community nonprofits andgrassroots.
And so, we coordinate withUplift, which is the new fiscal
sponsor with the university Toyou know, when we know of their
that there's groups where theyreally are wanting to get larger
grants and contracts, Bypartnering with Uplift, it
(12:31):
allows them to do that becausenow they have a fiscal sponsor
who can, you know, handle all ofthe reporting and is a 5 0 1 c
3.
And then the last bucket underour civic engagement is around
training and technicalassistance.
And so we have lots of partnerswho have expertise like the
Black Mental Health Alliancewhere, you know, we may know of
(12:52):
a community group who reallywants some training around, you
know, healing or around yoga oraround mindfulness.
And so we might connect themwith another nonprofit like the
Black Mental Health Alliance tohelp get the word out around
that.
But, also, we work a lot withthe city and state.
So, you know, I was 1 of thefacilitators on the squeegee
(13:14):
collaborative.
We have worked with the mayor'soffice, the health department
with the Healing Cityinitiative.
We've worked with, you know,city council people.
We work with state leadersbecause we really know that For
the work of healing to be done,for the work of doing trauma
informed work in the city andstate, There has to be a civic
(13:36):
engagement component.
And so preparing students on howdo you engage the world of
politics and make policychanges.
So we've had an intern in themayor's office for the past 2
years because we wanna solidifythose partnerships.
And so lots and lots of workgoing on as you heard.
We have about 30 returningcitizens and credible messengers
(13:59):
who are working with us.
And then we have, you know, 4interns, and we have 6 staff,
and we're growing all of itfitting under this sort of
umbrella of EMBRACE where we arelooking at the research, the
academics civic engagement.
And the last thing mostimportant sometimes is the
(14:20):
administration.
And so looking at how can wemake policies more equitable at
the university when partneringwith grassroots and nonprofits.
So moving them to the front ofthe line when it comes to Paying
invoices having specialpaperwork so that it makes more
sense when we're doing solesource and not asking questions
that just don't work when you'retalking about community.
Charles Schelle (14:42):
So that is really all encompassing, and and
we'll get more into some ofthose in a bit.
But for people who aren'tfamiliar with the line of work
and research and the and thecommunity nonprofits that that
you work with.
I want you to define 3 terms forfor the audience, please.
1 is credible messenger, 1 isreturning citizen, and the third
1 is trauma informed care.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (15:03):
Great.
So credible messenger usually issomebody who is trusted.
They may have a shared lifeexperience as the population
that you're working with.
So a credible messenger could bea 16 year old who is going to
the same school as the kids thatyou wanna work with.
It could be a community healthworker who people know from the
(15:24):
neighborhood And they reallytrust, and they're the person
that they go to first when theyhave questions or they need
support.
So it's really just somebody whois trusted and may have some
shared life experience.
A returning citizen is somebodywho was incarcerated and has now
come out of prison.
And they're back in thecommunity many times that well,
(15:46):
the returning citizens that wework with are folks who, As they
say, they wanna come back and dosome of the healing from the
hurt that has happened in thepast.
And so They're both crediblemessengers and returning
citizens.
Right?
Because they have a sharedexperience.
People trust them.
They have credibility, And theyare coming out of prison.
(16:07):
They've done their time, andthey're coming out, and now
they're doing some really greatwork.
Trauma informed care, that is aa term that was coined by the
Substance Abuse and MentalHealth Services Administration,
SAMHSA and so what they saidwas, we really want, for Systems
not to cause further harm topeople who have experienced
(16:30):
trauma.
And to do that, we need to use atrauma informed Framework.
And so they have key principlesthat you have to keep in mind,
things like giving people voiceand choice, and so not forcing
people to do things, Consideringculture, gender identity, sexual
orientation, history as any partof any work that you do.
(16:51):
Making sure that your work issafe and that you're not causing
further harm by, you know,putting them in situations that
are not Safe emotionally orphysically.
So there's 6 key principles.
And so when you're doing thework offering opportunities for
collaboration, Offeringopportunities for peer support
that any work that we do, weshould have that trauma informed
(17:13):
approach with individuals, Butalso when working with
grassroots and nonprofits.
Charles Schelle (17:18):
Great.
Thank you.
Dana Rampolla (17:20):
Kyla, where is Embrace now in its startup
phase?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (17:24):
We have spent the past about 6 months
really first focusing on thechanges to administration.
We know that sometimes there arereal barriers to, you know,
grassroots and nonprofits beingable to get paid Or being able
to hire folks who, you know, arein the community, and maybe
their education is a little bitdifferent than traditional.
(17:46):
Maybe their resumes are a littledifferent than traditional.
And so we've done a lot aroundIRB, around invoicing, around
Purchase orders.
And I have to say theadministrative team has been
phenomenal in really being ableto say, Yes.
We see that's a barrier, and,yes, let's make some changes so
that it's no longer a barrier.
(18:07):
We've also been really helpingTo define what does it mean to
be EMBRACE.
And that's where those 4 bucketscome in that we have.
The research Needs to be lookedat.
The academics need to be lookedat.
Civic engagement needs to belooked at and administration.
And so, You know, that's wherewe are now.
We've made some really bigchanges already to the
(18:29):
administration and IRB process.
We have these curriculumprojects already up and going
and we've been working with, youknow, city leaders and state
leaders for years now.
And so as far as growth, wecontinue to build new
partnerships and really look atdifferent ways that the
university as an anchorinstitution Can engage with
(18:49):
grassroots, nonprofit, city,state leaders around addressing
real world issues.
And what that means is thatsometimes challenges exist.
Right?
And everybody you know, there isa we need to have all all hands
on deck.
We need everybody to Cometogether and say, okay.
Here's a challenge.
What is it that we need to do toaddress the challenge?
(19:11):
And so this is a Initiativewhere it brings the university
to the table and says, okay.
This this sometimes is aboutfacilitating or training or
developing or creating and so wewanna be part of that to support
that process.
Dana Rampolla (19:26):
One thing you've mentioned a couple of times that
I'm not sure people clearly knowwhat it is is something called
IRB.
Can you just tell us what thatacronym stands for?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (19:36):
Sure.
IRB is the internal reviewboard, and it really looks at
how to do research in an ethicalway to make sure that we are not
continuing to cause the harmthat has been done by many
research institutionshistorically and even currently.
So So making sure that, youknow, there's informed consent
that anybody who's involved inresearch knows what is it about.
(19:59):
What does it mean?
What's gonna happen?
What's gonna happen with thatinformation?
And so, you know, previously, ifyou wanted to have a community
member part of the IRB sort ofprotocol application team.
They would have to go through atraining that is really in-depth
and really important for facultyTo to know because we have to
(20:19):
make those decisions about theresearch.
But for community members,they're not making those type of
decisions that we have to betrained in.
They do need to have anunderstanding of what is
informed consent.
What you know, you can't tellsomebody you have to do this
research.
Can't do that.
Right?
So Now this means that they canbe on the research team, but the
(20:39):
burden of the amount of trainingthat was required before has
been lessened.
Charles Schelle (20:45):
That sounds like a really cool program with
with the citizens on on IRB thatthat you mentioned.
Is any other institution doingsimilar approaches as far as a
institution wide approach tohaving, their community members
on board?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (21:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's part of what we did.
We sort of look around and see,You know, who who else is doing
this, and what does that looklike?
So there are other universitiesthat are doing it.
I can't pull up the names rightnow but, you know, this is where
some of this unique training hascome in.
You know, there is a recognitionthat people with lived
experience have an expertisethat have an expertise that
(21:24):
cannot be replicated by readingarticles and doing studies.
It just can't.
Right?
And so having their voice aspart of the team is incredibly
important, and more and moreinstitutions are recognizing
that.
Charles Schelle (21:38):
So what's the limits of their participation as
far as what they're commentingon, what they're specifically
looking for, and that feedback?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (21:46):
Yeah.
So, you know, they can doeverything from helping design
what the study is.
So where are you doingRecruitment.
Who are you recruiting?
How are you recruiting?
Also sharing, sort of The therules of engagement with
research.
So meaning, you know, if you'retalking to other community
(22:07):
members, what kind ofdocumentation are you giving?
How is it written?
How are you sharing it?
Where are you sharing it?
And then even helping with doingthe interviews.
If you're doing qualitativestudy, they can help with
actually doing the interviews,which makes a lot of sense
because if they're trusted inthe community, Then you're much
more likely to recruit better,but also the information that
(22:28):
you gather when you're doingqualitative may be better
because it's somebody that theytrust.
They can also help design the inthe interview tool.
But, also, if you're doingquantitative, they can look at
some of the questions to see, Isthat language making sense?
Are you asking questions thatmake any sense, or is that just
not what's happening in thatcommunity?
(22:49):
So that the questions are alwaysgonna be no because that's not
what's actually happening.
They can also help with coding.
So looking if it's qualitative,they can say, okay.
Well, this is really what thismeans Because they have lived
experience that, you know,perhaps the other study team
members don't.
With quantitative, they can helpwith really interpreting.
What does that data mean?
(23:09):
If you have 85 percent of peoplesaying this.
What does that actually looklike in real life, and what are
some further questions that youmight wanna ask?
They can also be part of writingup the results so that it is
accessible, so that it reallymakes sense.
It is an accurate description.
And then in disseminating havingcommunity members actually be
(23:30):
part of any conferences havingtheir names on The actual
articles helping to writeproposals.
Their role is really integralthroughout the whole process.
You know, when you get intomedical research, obviously, you
have medical personnel that haveto do certain medical
interventions and all of that.
You know, they can't give Legaladvice.
(23:51):
They can't do, you know, nursingor medical care, you know, all
of that.
But they are really importantwhen coming to Patient education
or community, you know, informedconsent process, all of that.
That I mean, they're reallyintegral to the whole study.
Charles Schelle (24:06):
Yeah.
And a shout out to our friendsover at the University of
Maryland School of Pharmacy andthe PATIENTS program and the
Bridge podcast.
Hi, Rodney.
You do a lot of similar workwith with community members
where they're training the, youknow, faculty and the
researchers on how to do thatinteraction with the community.
So a lot of great synergy there.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (24:26):
Yep.
Yep.
Exactly.
And it is the respecting ofpeople with lived experience as
experts.
You know, there's differenttypes of knowledge.
And, yes, there's knowledgearound reading articles, reading
books, Going to conferences, andand that does not belittle that
knowledge at all.
There's also the knowledge ofI've lived this.
(24:47):
This is my daily life, andthere's no way to replicate that
knowledge in journals.
And so this this EMBRACE work isreally recognizing that and
centering people who have livedexperience and community members
As part of the solution ratherthan just recipients of
services.
Charles Schelle (25:08):
Revisiting the community initiatives that
you're working on, tell us aboutthe ribbon cutting at 55 North
Paca Street you participated,uh, back in January for the
Embrace Resource Center with,mayor Brandon Scott.
One of the interesting thingsthat mayor Scott mentioned was
how this resource center is anexample of doing programs the
right way and not the quick way.
(25:29):
Right?
So by way of these connectionsare made with the people who
need help.
So how does the resource centerdo that?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (25:37):
Yeah.
So the EMBRACE Resource Centerwas founded about 3 years ago.
And, really, it was werecognized that there was a Lot
of folks who had a lot of needson Eutaw Street.
There have been a lot ofinvestment around Lexington
Market.
The Hippodrome is there.
We have you know, this is partof Bromo.
(25:58):
This is part of a wonderful artsdistrict, and that We needed to
put equity at the center,meaning, you know, the Lexington
Market is majority owned byBlack store owners and women,
And so this needs to besuccessful.
Lexington Market is a jewel ofBaltimore City where, you know,
generations have gone there andhave wonderful memories of the
(26:19):
work There.
You know, historically, theapproach has been over policing,
mass incarceration and causing alot of harm.
So that is not something that weare going to be part of.
We we are not going to causefurther harm.
And so we had to do somethingwith Community to say, okay.
What needs to happen?
(26:39):
So we had meetings every month.
There was a Eutaw Streetinitiative where you had
business owners, you hadcommunity members, you had folks
who were stakeholders in thecommunity.
You had city leaders And saying,okay.
What do we need to do?
And so from conversations andengaging with community folks,
we said, okay.
(26:59):
So We need to provide services.
We need to partner with andreally bring the voices of
people with lived experience tothe top and say, okay.
What is it that needs to happen?
So the resource center was born,and, our first 2 people were
contracted were crediblemessengers, returning citizens
Who had been incarcerated, theygot out, and they had to go
(27:22):
through the struggles of how doyou get your birth certificate,
how do you get your state ID,How do you get a job when your
resume has a 30 year gap?
How do you get a job when youhave an eighth grade education?
And so, we contracted with them,paid, and said, okay.
What do you think needs tohappen?
And so they started talking withpeople in the community more,
(27:45):
And we really started to buildup.
You know, we need theseservices.
Here are the things that arereally barriers.
And so how do we remove thosebarriers?
We brought in interns.
We started hiring social workersso that they could be there.
For some of the social workstuff that has to be done, like,
you have to have a social workerto in supervise interns.
(28:05):
And, it built and it grew.
There was a lot of voice around.
Yes.
There are services, but we needmore messaging from people Who
perhaps used to be on thecorners and used to sell drugs.
And so we contracted with now 10returning citizens who, you
know, used To be involved indrug sales before they were
incarcerated.
(28:27):
Now they're out, and they'reable to have those conversations
and say, This isn't what we wantfor this community.
And, again, these are communitygroups that, you know, have
Frequented Eutaw Street, grew upgoing to Lexington Market.
Some of them may have sold onsome of those corners to really
say, this is what we want forthis Community.
(28:48):
And here are services to makesure that you're getting the
support.
Because you can't go to somebodyon the corner and say you need
to stop selling drugs.
Okay.
Well, how how are they gonnafeed their families?
We gotta address that.
Right?
And so this has grown.
So it went from 2 crediblemessengers to now we are at 14
and we have 2 interns, and wehave a full time social worker.
(29:12):
And we'll Continue to grow andmake sure that we're continuing
to do these services.
So, 10 days ago, we moved into55 North Paca.
This was done because we neededa location that was ground level
for accessibility purposes thatPeople could see in, and we
could see out because a lot ofour folks are walk ins who, you
(29:33):
know, see us and say, oh,actually, I do want some
Supports.
And that it was close toLexington Market.
So we have the Peace Team, whichis our partner where they have
10 credible messengers On EutawStreet doing the outreach.
And they can go to guys and say,hey.
If you're ready to get off thecorner, we can take you
somewhere, and they can justwalk 1 block up and say, here
(29:56):
are 2 peer recovery specialiststhat can work with you around
whatever services that you arethat you need.
So I think, you know, it's it'sa lot easier if you just say,
oh, we're gonna open up anoffice, and we're gonna hire 3
Social workers, and they'regonna do case management.
But that's not that's thathasn't been the most effective
(30:19):
way.
What has been effective andexplains the 30 percent decrease
in by in homicides in BaltimoreCity was the partnering with
credible messengers And andreally saying who is trusted?
Who knows how to do this workthe best?
So I think that that's whatMayor Scott was really referring
to Is it's not the quick way butit is the effective way.
(30:42):
And they've now labeled us aspart of the violence Prevention
ecosystem for the city.
Dana Rampolla (30:47):
What kind of success have your partners and
the UMB police had with thisoutreach?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (30:52):
So, really that's how I got involved was
that I was working with ChiefLeone, and he asked me to do
some Training for his policeofficers around trauma informed
care.
And as I did that, he said, oh,you know, there's this
initiative.
We'd love for you to be a partof it.
And as I got involved you couldhear just like the tale of 2
cities of Baltimore City.
(31:14):
There was the narrative, The 2narratives of this initiative.
There were people who reallywere going back to the days of
calling the police, haveeverybody arrested, you know, As
if that works.
There's no evidence that that'sworked.
It's never worked.
It's not gonna work.
Right?
It just causes further harm.
But then there was other peoplewho were saying, well, wait a
(31:35):
minute.
Maybe we need to do somethingdifferently.
And so UMBPD you know, they havethe COAST Team, which is the
Community Outreach and Supportteam.
And they recognize, along withthe chief, for decades, forever,
There has been over policing andunderserving, and they wanna do
something different.
So COAST was already building onEutaw Street.
(31:57):
They were already doing ahomeless outreach on MLK, and
they really wanted to make thatgo deeper.
So they originally had startedwith interns with the School of
Social Work where they weredoing some of the homeless
outreach.
And then when I got involved, wedid some transitions, and the
interns started working with usand with their credible
messengers around the servicefocus and really being able to
(32:21):
do some of that deeper casemanagement.
So COAST works very, veryclosely with us.
You know, the interns still goout every day with the coast
officers to do the homelessoutreach, that they can do Some
of the case management piece.
And COAST is, you know, on EutawStreet with us.
They Know all of the Peace Teammembers.
(32:43):
They know all of our peerrecovery specialists.
Whenever we do in interviews Forinterns, they are part of the
team.
And so this is really apartnership that is very unusual
when you think of a partnershipbetween credible messengers,
police officers, and socialworkers.
It's not it's not really doneother places.
Dana Rampolla (33:03):
How many employees do you actually have,
and what are their roles?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (33:06):
Right now, we have 6 staff.
We're hiring another 3 staff.
Credible messengers.
We have about 30 crediblemessengers that we work with
daily.
They're on the streets as wespeak.
And then we have about 15grassroots and nonprofits that
we work with daily but we'vecertainly interacted with about
(33:28):
60 grassroots and nonprofits,we've had contact with every
school at the university becausethere are community engaged
faculty at every school.
We've had contact with at least3 people at every school and
we're part of lots of differentmeetings We're, you know, we're
meeting with folks to try tolearn about what they're doing.
(33:49):
We coordinate with the ViolencePrevention Center.
We coordinate with the CommunityEngagement Center the Office of
Community Engagement all of thefinance and administration.
So lots and lots and lots ofpeople, but, I mean, that's what
EMBRACE is about is reallypulling people together to
collaborate, to, you know,reenvision what does the village
(34:10):
look like and bringing people tothe village who typically don't
share a space.
So lots and lots of people.
Dana Rampolla (34:18):
is there anything on the horizon where the
community can learn about how tobe involved or what we can do to
be involved?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (34:24):
So in April, we'll be having a big meeting
for all community engagedfaculty and staff at the
university Where we're gonnatalk about a toolkit pretty much
that we're creating so thatpeople can know how do you get
that IRB training to yourcommunity partners.
How can you help your communitypartners get set up as vendors
subawardees, all of that?
(34:46):
We'll have a toolkit.
We'll have templates.
We'll have sort of a decisionpathway for you.
So keep an eye out, and we'll bedoing that in April.
Dana Rampolla (34:54):
So we don't wanna give away too much about Embrace
as you'll be hearing a lot moreabout it in the upcoming months.
But in the meantime, if someonewants to give to Embrace and
support all of these greatcauses, you can visit u maryland
dot edu backslash philanthropywhere you will find links on
ways to give, or you can call 41 0 7 0 6 8 4 9 5.
(35:15):
Now, Kyla, if someone wants toconnect with you to learn more
about the program or getinvolved, how would they do
that?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (35:22):
Reach directly out to me.
My email address iskliggettcreel@umaryland.edu Love
to hear from you, and there'slots of different ways to be
engaged.
And, again, our office is allabout civic action, addressing
real world problems and removingbarriers and accessing
resources.
So give us a call.
Dana Rampolla (35:43):
Terrific.
Well, thanks so much, Kyla, andwe'll put that email address in
the show notes as well.
Our show notes are gonna be jampacked for this episode.
We hope our listeners take apeek and just learn about all
the great things you're doingand figure out how to connect.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (35:57):
Awesome.
Thank you all so much for havingme.
I appreciate it.
Jena Frick (36:05):
The UMB Pulse with Charles Schelle and Dana
Rampolla is a UMB office ofcommunications and public
affairs production.
Edited by Charles Schelle,marketing by Dana Rampolla.
(36:26):
Of
Dana, I don't wanna get too nerdy about the
(00:02):
details, but this situation theother day where I needed to know
how to do something, I knew thefirst steps and the end product,
the end result of what I neededto do, but I felt lost about all
the steps in between.
Like, have you ever experiencedsomething like that?
Dana Rampolla (00:21):
Yeah.
I feel like I have that happen alot of times, but but the I
about a year ago, maybe it's 6months ago, I was I was reading.
Everybody's talking aboutsourdough bread and making sour
you know, trying to get awayfrom so many preservatives, And
I thought it sounded like thisgreat idea.
I've been a bread maker, dabbledin it over the years.
So I thought, oh, I'm gonna dothis.
(00:42):
And, you know, you read it.
Sounds pretty simple.
And I know what the end productneeds to be.
I need to have a loaf of bread,but I don't I don't have you
ever done it?
Have you ever tried makingsourdough?
It's
Charles Schelle (00:53):
I've watched somebody do it before, but I
have not personally tried.
Dana Rampolla (00:58):
Well, it's this whole big process.
You know?
So it's a naturally fermentedsubstitute for yeast, but you
don't just whip it up and use itthe next day.
You have to make it, and thenyou have to feed it, they call
it each day.
Anyway, it's a whole longprocess.
And through through thatprocess, I kept thinking, like,
am I doing this right?
Am I headed in the rightdirection?
(01:18):
And I kinda wish, like, mygrandmother was still around
because she probably could haveset me straight.
But, anyway, sorry.
That was a long story.
Yes.
I do know what you mean.
Charles Schelle (01:28):
Good.
Good.
Because I was thinking about howa lot of people probably have
the expertise in something, butit's like, if I only knew that 1
thing, I could really go furtherand make a huge difference.
And so that really ties intowhat Kyla Liggett Creel is all
about.
We're gonna talk to, professorLiggett Creel, who is the
(01:50):
executive director of Embracetoday, And her job is really to
help create those connections.
Those pathways for people,nonprofits who need help in our
neighborhoods, uh, to improvetheir lives and others too.
Right?
She's going to talk aboutseveral of these projects and
and initiatives that sheoversees as part of her work
that was born out of her time atthe University of Maryland
(02:11):
School of Social Work as well asa sneak peek of some of her new
projects.
All of her work is neatlypackaged through what she calls
Embrace.
Dana Rampolla (02:21):
Yeah.
And she's in the provost'soffice for her Embrace work, and
she's on faculty at theUniversity of Maryland,
Baltimore Graduate School now,continuing that work, you know,
that you just described.
One of the latest developmentscame out of her work with the
UMB police, and that was calledthe Eutaw Street Initiative.
And it's where the police andsocial workers make connections
with folks who are out on thestreet needing assistance.
(02:44):
They might need some sort ofcase management, mediation, and
peer support, and that programnow has a new home.
We'll talk about it later on andjust get a little more details
then.
But, yeah, she's doing a lot ofgood work.
Charles Schelle (02:58):
Absolutely.
She's done a lot of work in thecity, like you just said,
especially with youth traumaintervention work, but there's
so much more that she does.
Dana Rampolla (03:07):
Well, I'm looking forward to learning more about
some of her research and herinitiatives and especially her
work with peer recoveryspecialists.
And what does she call them?
Credible messengers?
Yep.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, yeah, I wanna learn allabout that.
So let's jump right into ourconversation with doctor Kyla
Liggett Creel.
Jena Frick (03:29):
You're listening to the heartbeat of the University
of Maryland Baltimore, the UMBpulse.
Dana Rampolla (03:42):
Kyla, welcome to the UMB Pulse so you're in a new
position in the provost's officeas the executive director of
Embrace.
First of all, congratulations onthat.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (03:52):
I appreciate it.
I'm very excited.
Dana Rampolla (03:54):
We'll talk about what Embrace is as a teaser in a
bit as the program continues totake shape.
But first, you've spent about adozen years on the faculty of
the University of MarylandSchool of Social Work before
your current role.
So where tell us a little bitabout what you were focused in
at that time, violenceprevention, youth leadership
development, and you partneredwith grassroots nonprofits.
(04:16):
What did that look like for you?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (04:18):
I actually started here 15 years ago.
At first, I was in the theDepartment of Psychiatry working
at Center for Infant Studies,and I did mental health
consultation with Head Starts.
So really being out in thecommunity, talking to Head Start
teachers about how to bestsupport little ones' social,
emotional well-being andsupervising clinicians and
(04:40):
interns.
And then I came over to theSchool of Social Work.
I was a foster parent, and theywere running some groups for
foster parents.
So they asked me to come over tobe a person with lived
experience.
As a foster parent we wereworking towards adoption at the
time.
And so, and by that point, wehad been foster parents for
about 5 years, and it had 8children.
(05:03):
So we had done a lot aroundbehavior management and also
just helping with difficultthings around visiting birth
parents and going to court,dealing with lawyers who never
met the kid and met, you know,the kid at court and, you know,
just trying to figure out earlyintervention services and all of
that.
So I was asked to come to theSchool of Social Work to help
(05:23):
cofacilitate groups for fosterparents.
And then quickly was asked tostart developing parenting
programs for West Baltimore,specifically Upton Druid Heights
with place based initiativecalled Promise Heights.
And I worked with PromiseHeights for, I think about 12
years.
(05:43):
And my role there was reallydeveloping the parenting
programs, but also supervisingclinicians, helping kind of
build out the whole pipelinefrom birth to, you know, college
and career.
And I also was working withgrassroots and nonprofits in
West Baltimore, specificallyaround violence prevention and
trauma intervention and lovedjust adored that work and got to
(06:07):
really meet some phenomenalpeople who were specializing in
work in West Baltimore.
And then in March of 20 20 Istarted working with the
Baltimore City health departmentAround developing the violence
intervention and prevention planfor the city and also the
Healing City Initiative where wewere building trauma informed
(06:28):
training for all Baltimore Citystaff.
So it's been quite a journey.
I've loved being at theuniversity.
And then in July of 23 I movedover to the Provost's office to
be the executive director forEMBRACE.
Dana Rampolla (06:42):
Wow.
Out of all of those areas ofwork, what would you consider
your proudest work to have been?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (06:47):
Certainly partnering with the grassroots
and nonprofits and people withlived experience.
You know, really Getting to knowtheir programs, getting to know
them, their families, their lifestories, and then, you know,
honing in on the the work ofaccessing resources, removing
barriers, and addressing realworld problems.
Charles Schelle (07:09):
As we mentioned earlier, this is a civic minded
program that is under UMBprovost and executive vice
president Roger Ward's office.
So how does Embrace differ fromwhat's being done at the Office
of Community Engagement, theCenter for Violence Prevention
at UMB, and the Uplift Alliance,which is a program that acts as
a fiscal sponsor for nonprofits.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (07:30):
Absolutely.
And thank you for asking.
So this is a sneak peek.
EMBRACE is really about the workof civic engagement, civic
action.
And so what that means is thatlooking at how the university
partners with grassroots andnonprofits really is engaging
people with lived experience ina mutually beneficial way.
(07:52):
So, we do look at research.
So for example community membersnow can be part of the IRB
approved research team.
And so we have a specializedtraining for community members
so they don't have to go throughthe, You know, the longer
training that most faculty do.
And so they can go through a 1hour video training, upload
(08:12):
their certificate, and nowthey're part of the research
Team because we wanna doresearch with community, not on
community or for community.
We also work on academics.
So we have 3 curriculum programsthat are coming out.
1 is for young people To betrained as mental health
consultants in the community.
(08:32):
They can do consulting withorganizations, agency,
governmental agencies, Trainingsaround mental health and
resilience.
We have another certificateprogram for violence
intervention folks who are inthe community.
Usually, when there is a ashooting or a crisis that
happens, it's really thecommunity members who were
(08:53):
called in first.
And so it's the guys who aredown the street.
It's the trusted deacon at thechurch.
They're the ones who are calledin to do the work.
And so really making sure thatthey're receiving training, but
it's not a top down.
It's not a faculty trainingcommunity.
It is you know, the faculty forthe curriculum is actually 2
(09:17):
credible messengers who arereturning citizens pastor from
the community and then a lawyer,a social worker, a community
organizer.
So it's really about, again,doing with community offering
opportunities for people,Students to learn from credible
messengers and learn fromcommunity members.
(09:38):
So we have a trainingopportunity for interns who
wanna work on, you know, aroundLexington Market doing the
community engagement.
And they are learning from, youknow, 2 peer recovery
specialists and 2 and 10credible messengers about what
does it really look like to dowork in the community.
(09:58):
And then we have aimplementation arm of EMBRACE.
And so that implementation armis called the Collaborative.
And in the Collaborative, we do3 buckets of work.
1 is around youth development.
And so we We have a programwhere we have an apartment
building, 42 apartments forpreviously unhoused young
(10:19):
people.
And so These young people mayhave been in foster care.
They may be in DJS.
They may have been living on thestreets.
And so we offer mental healthsupports and social emotional
Supports and case managementthere.
We also have the Healing YouthAlliance where young people are
trained on mental health andresilience and doing training in
the community.
(10:39):
We also have some severalcurriculum programs where, like,
we're working with therapists onhow to work with young people
who have a lot of trauma.
Then we have the communityengagement, civic engagement
violence prevention work.
And so that's where some ofthose overlaps come in.
Right?
So we have a lot of violenceintervention work because we've
(11:01):
been doing it for, you know, 8years now.
And so we work with crediblemessengers.
And so we have some projectswhere We're working on around
Lexington Market.
We have 10 returning citizenswho do community outreach, 2
peer recovery specialists.
We've had over 4000 engagementsin the past 3 years.
(11:22):
Over 200 people have gotten jobsthrough that work.
We do some work on PennsylvaniaAvenue where we have 12 credible
messengers and 4 returningcitizens who are case managers.
And there, we are really doingthe work of trying to prevent
gun violence and also provideresources to community members.
And, again, it is with communityleaders.
(11:45):
It is, you know, with the Uptonplanning committee.
It is with community organizersthat is with no boundaries.
It is not, you know, us comingin and doing 2 or 4.
It really is doing withresidents of the community on
how do we want to try to preventsome of this violence and also
provide resources.
And then we also have some workwith DJS, with Department of
(12:09):
Juvenile Services.
We do a lot of removing barriersand accessing resources versus
with community nonprofits andgrassroots.
And so, we coordinate withUplift, which is the new fiscal
sponsor with the university Toyou know, when we know of their
that there's groups where theyreally are wanting to get larger
grants and contracts, Bypartnering with Uplift, it
(12:31):
allows them to do that becausenow they have a fiscal sponsor
who can, you know, handle all ofthe reporting and is a 5 0 1 c
3.
And then the last bucket underour civic engagement is around
training and technicalassistance.
And so we have lots of partnerswho have expertise like the
Black Mental Health Alliancewhere, you know, we may know of
(12:52):
a community group who reallywants some training around, you
know, healing or around yoga oraround mindfulness.
And so we might connect themwith another nonprofit like the
Black Mental Health Alliance tohelp get the word out around
that.
But, also, we work a lot withthe city and state.
So, you know, I was 1 of thefacilitators on the squeegee
(13:14):
collaborative.
We have worked with the mayor'soffice, the health department
with the Healing Cityinitiative.
We've worked with, you know,city council people.
We work with state leadersbecause we really know that For
the work of healing to be done,for the work of doing trauma
informed work in the city andstate, There has to be a civic
(13:36):
engagement component.
And so preparing students on howdo you engage the world of
politics and make policychanges.
So we've had an intern in themayor's office for the past 2
years because we wanna solidifythose partnerships.
And so lots and lots of workgoing on as you heard.
We have about 30 returningcitizens and credible messengers
(13:59):
who are working with us.
And then we have, you know, 4interns, and we have 6 staff,
and we're growing all of itfitting under this sort of
umbrella of EMBRACE where we arelooking at the research, the
academics civic engagement.
And the last thing mostimportant sometimes is the
(14:20):
administration.
And so looking at how can wemake policies more equitable at
the university when partneringwith grassroots and nonprofits.
So moving them to the front ofthe line when it comes to Paying
invoices having specialpaperwork so that it makes more
sense when we're doing solesource and not asking questions
that just don't work when you'retalking about community.
Charles Schelle (14:42):
So that is really all encompassing, and and
we'll get more into some ofthose in a bit.
But for people who aren'tfamiliar with the line of work
and research and the and thecommunity nonprofits that that
you work with.
I want you to define 3 terms forfor the audience, please.
1 is credible messenger, 1 isreturning citizen, and the third
1 is trauma informed care.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (15:03):
Great.
So credible messenger usually issomebody who is trusted.
They may have a shared lifeexperience as the population
that you're working with.
So a credible messenger could bea 16 year old who is going to
the same school as the kids thatyou wanna work with.
It could be a community healthworker who people know from the
(15:24):
neighborhood And they reallytrust, and they're the person
that they go to first when theyhave questions or they need
support.
So it's really just somebody whois trusted and may have some
shared life experience.
A returning citizen is somebodywho was incarcerated and has now
come out of prison.
And they're back in thecommunity many times that well,
(15:46):
the returning citizens that wework with are folks who, As they
say, they wanna come back and dosome of the healing from the
hurt that has happened in thepast.
And so They're both crediblemessengers and returning
citizens.
Right?
Because they have a sharedexperience.
People trust them.
They have credibility, And theyare coming out of prison.
(16:07):
They've done their time, andthey're coming out, and now
they're doing some really greatwork.
Trauma informed care, that is aa term that was coined by the
Substance Abuse and MentalHealth Services Administration,
SAMHSA and so what they saidwas, we really want, for Systems
not to cause further harm topeople who have experienced
(16:30):
trauma.
And to do that, we need to use atrauma informed Framework.
And so they have key principlesthat you have to keep in mind,
things like giving people voiceand choice, and so not forcing
people to do things, Consideringculture, gender identity, sexual
orientation, history as any partof any work that you do.
(16:51):
Making sure that your work issafe and that you're not causing
further harm by, you know,putting them in situations that
are not Safe emotionally orphysically.
So there's 6 key principles.
And so when you're doing thework offering opportunities for
collaboration, Offeringopportunities for peer support
that any work that we do, weshould have that trauma informed
(17:13):
approach with individuals, Butalso when working with
grassroots and nonprofits.
Charles Schelle (17:18):
Great.
Thank you.
Dana Rampolla (17:20):
Kyla, where is Embrace now in its startup
phase?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (17:24):
We have spent the past about 6 months
really first focusing on thechanges to administration.
We know that sometimes there arereal barriers to, you know,
grassroots and nonprofits beingable to get paid Or being able
to hire folks who, you know, arein the community, and maybe
their education is a little bitdifferent than traditional.
(17:46):
Maybe their resumes are a littledifferent than traditional.
And so we've done a lot aroundIRB, around invoicing, around
Purchase orders.
And I have to say theadministrative team has been
phenomenal in really being ableto say, Yes.
We see that's a barrier, and,yes, let's make some changes so
that it's no longer a barrier.
(18:07):
We've also been really helpingTo define what does it mean to
be EMBRACE.
And that's where those 4 bucketscome in that we have.
The research Needs to be lookedat.
The academics need to be lookedat.
Civic engagement needs to belooked at and administration.
And so, You know, that's wherewe are now.
We've made some really bigchanges already to the
(18:29):
administration and IRB process.
We have these curriculumprojects already up and going
and we've been working with, youknow, city leaders and state
leaders for years now.
And so as far as growth, wecontinue to build new
partnerships and really look atdifferent ways that the
university as an anchorinstitution Can engage with
(18:49):
grassroots, nonprofit, city,state leaders around addressing
real world issues.
And what that means is thatsometimes challenges exist.
Right?
And everybody you know, there isa we need to have all all hands
on deck.
We need everybody to Cometogether and say, okay.
Here's a challenge.
What is it that we need to do toaddress the challenge?
(19:11):
And so this is a Initiativewhere it brings the university
to the table and says, okay.
This this sometimes is aboutfacilitating or training or
developing or creating and so wewanna be part of that to support
that process.
Dana Rampolla (19:26):
One thing you've mentioned a couple of times that
I'm not sure people clearly knowwhat it is is something called
IRB.
Can you just tell us what thatacronym stands for?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (19:36):
Sure.
IRB is the internal reviewboard, and it really looks at
how to do research in an ethicalway to make sure that we are not
continuing to cause the harmthat has been done by many
research institutionshistorically and even currently.
So So making sure that, youknow, there's informed consent
that anybody who's involved inresearch knows what is it about.
(19:59):
What does it mean?
What's gonna happen?
What's gonna happen with thatinformation?
And so, you know, previously, ifyou wanted to have a community
member part of the IRB sort ofprotocol application team.
They would have to go through atraining that is really in-depth
and really important for facultyTo to know because we have to
(20:19):
make those decisions about theresearch.
But for community members,they're not making those type of
decisions that we have to betrained in.
They do need to have anunderstanding of what is
informed consent.
What you know, you can't tellsomebody you have to do this
research.
Can't do that.
Right?
So Now this means that they canbe on the research team, but the
(20:39):
burden of the amount of trainingthat was required before has
been lessened.
Charles Schelle (20:45):
That sounds like a really cool program with
with the citizens on on IRB thatthat you mentioned.
Is any other institution doingsimilar approaches as far as a
institution wide approach tohaving, their community members
on board?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (21:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's part of what we did.
We sort of look around and see,You know, who who else is doing
this, and what does that looklike?
So there are other universitiesthat are doing it.
I can't pull up the names rightnow but, you know, this is where
some of this unique training hascome in.
You know, there is a recognitionthat people with lived
experience have an expertisethat have an expertise that
(21:24):
cannot be replicated by readingarticles and doing studies.
It just can't.
Right?
And so having their voice aspart of the team is incredibly
important, and more and moreinstitutions are recognizing
that.
Charles Schelle (21:38):
So what's the limits of their participation as
far as what they're commentingon, what they're specifically
looking for, and that feedback?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (21:46):
Yeah.
So, you know, they can doeverything from helping design
what the study is.
So where are you doingRecruitment.
Who are you recruiting?
How are you recruiting?
Also sharing, sort of The therules of engagement with
research.
So meaning, you know, if you'retalking to other community
(22:07):
members, what kind ofdocumentation are you giving?
How is it written?
How are you sharing it?
Where are you sharing it?
And then even helping with doingthe interviews.
If you're doing qualitativestudy, they can help with
actually doing the interviews,which makes a lot of sense
because if they're trusted inthe community, Then you're much
more likely to recruit better,but also the information that
(22:28):
you gather when you're doingqualitative may be better
because it's somebody that theytrust.
They can also help design the inthe interview tool.
But, also, if you're doingquantitative, they can look at
some of the questions to see, Isthat language making sense?
Are you asking questions thatmake any sense, or is that just
not what's happening in thatcommunity?
(22:49):
So that the questions are alwaysgonna be no because that's not
what's actually happening.
They can also help with coding.
So looking if it's qualitative,they can say, okay.
Well, this is really what thismeans Because they have lived
experience that, you know,perhaps the other study team
members don't.
With quantitative, they can helpwith really interpreting.
What does that data mean?
(23:09):
If you have 85 percent of peoplesaying this.
What does that actually looklike in real life, and what are
some further questions that youmight wanna ask?
They can also be part of writingup the results so that it is
accessible, so that it reallymakes sense.
It is an accurate description.
And then in disseminating havingcommunity members actually be
(23:30):
part of any conferences havingtheir names on The actual
articles helping to writeproposals.
Their role is really integralthroughout the whole process.
You know, when you get intomedical research, obviously, you
have medical personnel that haveto do certain medical
interventions and all of that.
You know, they can't give Legaladvice.
(23:51):
They can't do, you know, nursingor medical care, you know, all
of that.
But they are really importantwhen coming to Patient education
or community, you know, informedconsent process, all of that.
That I mean, they're reallyintegral to the whole study.
Charles Schelle (24:06):
Yeah.
And a shout out to our friendsover at the University of
Maryland School of Pharmacy andthe PATIENTS program and the
Bridge podcast.
Hi, Rodney.
You do a lot of similar workwith with community members
where they're training the, youknow, faculty and the
researchers on how to do thatinteraction with the community.
So a lot of great synergy there.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (24:26):
Yep.
Yep.
Exactly.
And it is the respecting ofpeople with lived experience as
experts.
You know, there's differenttypes of knowledge.
And, yes, there's knowledgearound reading articles, reading
books, Going to conferences, andand that does not belittle that
knowledge at all.
There's also the knowledge ofI've lived this.
(24:47):
This is my daily life, andthere's no way to replicate that
knowledge in journals.
And so this this EMBRACE work isreally recognizing that and
centering people who have livedexperience and community members
As part of the solution ratherthan just recipients of
services.
Charles Schelle (25:08):
Revisiting the community initiatives that
you're working on, tell us aboutthe ribbon cutting at 55 North
Paca Street you participated,uh, back in January for the
Embrace Resource Center with,mayor Brandon Scott.
One of the interesting thingsthat mayor Scott mentioned was
how this resource center is anexample of doing programs the
right way and not the quick way.
(25:29):
Right?
So by way of these connectionsare made with the people who
need help.
So how does the resource centerdo that?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (25:37):
Yeah.
So the EMBRACE Resource Centerwas founded about 3 years ago.
And, really, it was werecognized that there was a Lot
of folks who had a lot of needson Eutaw Street.
There have been a lot ofinvestment around Lexington
Market.
The Hippodrome is there.
We have you know, this is partof Bromo.
(25:58):
This is part of a wonderful artsdistrict, and that We needed to
put equity at the center,meaning, you know, the Lexington
Market is majority owned byBlack store owners and women,
And so this needs to besuccessful.
Lexington Market is a jewel ofBaltimore City where, you know,
generations have gone there andhave wonderful memories of the
(26:19):
work There.
You know, historically, theapproach has been over policing,
mass incarceration and causing alot of harm.
So that is not something that weare going to be part of.
We we are not going to causefurther harm.
And so we had to do somethingwith Community to say, okay.
What needs to happen?
(26:39):
So we had meetings every month.
There was a Eutaw Streetinitiative where you had
business owners, you hadcommunity members, you had folks
who were stakeholders in thecommunity.
You had city leaders And saying,okay.
What do we need to do?
And so from conversations andengaging with community folks,
we said, okay.
(26:59):
So We need to provide services.
We need to partner with andreally bring the voices of
people with lived experience tothe top and say, okay.
What is it that needs to happen?
So the resource center was born,and, our first 2 people were
contracted were crediblemessengers, returning citizens
Who had been incarcerated, theygot out, and they had to go
(27:22):
through the struggles of how doyou get your birth certificate,
how do you get your state ID,How do you get a job when your
resume has a 30 year gap?
How do you get a job when youhave an eighth grade education?
And so, we contracted with them,paid, and said, okay.
What do you think needs tohappen?
And so they started talking withpeople in the community more,
(27:45):
And we really started to buildup.
You know, we need theseservices.
Here are the things that arereally barriers.
And so how do we remove thosebarriers?
We brought in interns.
We started hiring social workersso that they could be there.
For some of the social workstuff that has to be done, like,
you have to have a social workerto in supervise interns.
(28:05):
And, it built and it grew.
There was a lot of voice around.
Yes.
There are services, but we needmore messaging from people Who
perhaps used to be on thecorners and used to sell drugs.
And so we contracted with now 10returning citizens who, you
know, used To be involved indrug sales before they were
incarcerated.
(28:27):
Now they're out, and they'reable to have those conversations
and say, This isn't what we wantfor this community.
And, again, these are communitygroups that, you know, have
Frequented Eutaw Street, grew upgoing to Lexington Market.
Some of them may have sold onsome of those corners to really
say, this is what we want forthis Community.
(28:48):
And here are services to makesure that you're getting the
support.
Because you can't go to somebodyon the corner and say you need
to stop selling drugs.
Okay.
Well, how how are they gonnafeed their families?
We gotta address that.
Right?
And so this has grown.
So it went from 2 crediblemessengers to now we are at 14
and we have 2 interns, and wehave a full time social worker.
(29:12):
And we'll Continue to grow andmake sure that we're continuing
to do these services.
So, 10 days ago, we moved into55 North Paca.
This was done because we neededa location that was ground level
for accessibility purposes thatPeople could see in, and we
could see out because a lot ofour folks are walk ins who, you
(29:33):
know, see us and say, oh,actually, I do want some
Supports.
And that it was close toLexington Market.
So we have the Peace Team, whichis our partner where they have
10 credible messengers On EutawStreet doing the outreach.
And they can go to guys and say,hey.
If you're ready to get off thecorner, we can take you
somewhere, and they can justwalk 1 block up and say, here
(29:56):
are 2 peer recovery specialiststhat can work with you around
whatever services that you arethat you need.
So I think, you know, it's it'sa lot easier if you just say,
oh, we're gonna open up anoffice, and we're gonna hire 3
Social workers, and they'regonna do case management.
But that's not that's thathasn't been the most effective
(30:19):
way.
What has been effective andexplains the 30 percent decrease
in by in homicides in BaltimoreCity was the partnering with
credible messengers And andreally saying who is trusted?
Who knows how to do this workthe best?
So I think that that's whatMayor Scott was really referring
to Is it's not the quick way butit is the effective way.
(30:42):
And they've now labeled us aspart of the violence Prevention
ecosystem for the city.
Dana Rampolla (30:47):
What kind of success have your partners and
the UMB police had with thisoutreach?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (30:52):
So, really that's how I got involved was
that I was working with ChiefLeone, and he asked me to do
some Training for his policeofficers around trauma informed
care.
And as I did that, he said, oh,you know, there's this
initiative.
We'd love for you to be a partof it.
And as I got involved you couldhear just like the tale of 2
cities of Baltimore City.
(31:14):
There was the narrative, The 2narratives of this initiative.
There were people who reallywere going back to the days of
calling the police, haveeverybody arrested, you know, As
if that works.
There's no evidence that that'sworked.
It's never worked.
It's not gonna work.
Right?
It just causes further harm.
But then there was other peoplewho were saying, well, wait a
(31:35):
minute.
Maybe we need to do somethingdifferently.
And so UMBPD you know, they havethe COAST Team, which is the
Community Outreach and Supportteam.
And they recognize, along withthe chief, for decades, forever,
There has been over policing andunderserving, and they wanna do
something different.
So COAST was already building onEutaw Street.
(31:57):
They were already doing ahomeless outreach on MLK, and
they really wanted to make thatgo deeper.
So they originally had startedwith interns with the School of
Social Work where they weredoing some of the homeless
outreach.
And then when I got involved, wedid some transitions, and the
interns started working with usand with their credible
messengers around the servicefocus and really being able to
(32:21):
do some of that deeper casemanagement.
So COAST works very, veryclosely with us.
You know, the interns still goout every day with the coast
officers to do the homelessoutreach, that they can do Some
of the case management piece.
And COAST is, you know, on EutawStreet with us.
They Know all of the Peace Teammembers.
(32:43):
They know all of our peerrecovery specialists.
Whenever we do in interviews Forinterns, they are part of the
team.
And so this is really apartnership that is very unusual
when you think of a partnershipbetween credible messengers,
police officers, and socialworkers.
It's not it's not really doneother places.
Dana Rampolla (33:03):
How many employees do you actually have,
and what are their roles?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (33:06):
Right now, we have 6 staff.
We're hiring another 3 staff.
Credible messengers.
We have about 30 crediblemessengers that we work with
daily.
They're on the streets as wespeak.
And then we have about 15grassroots and nonprofits that
we work with daily but we'vecertainly interacted with about
(33:28):
60 grassroots and nonprofits,we've had contact with every
school at the university becausethere are community engaged
faculty at every school.
We've had contact with at least3 people at every school and
we're part of lots of differentmeetings We're, you know, we're
meeting with folks to try tolearn about what they're doing.
(33:49):
We coordinate with the ViolencePrevention Center.
We coordinate with the CommunityEngagement Center the Office of
Community Engagement all of thefinance and administration.
So lots and lots and lots ofpeople, but, I mean, that's what
EMBRACE is about is reallypulling people together to
collaborate, to, you know,reenvision what does the village
(34:10):
look like and bringing people tothe village who typically don't
share a space.
So lots and lots of people.
Dana Rampolla (34:18):
is there anything on the horizon where the
community can learn about how tobe involved or what we can do to
be involved?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (34:24):
So in April, we'll be having a big meeting
for all community engagedfaculty and staff at the
university Where we're gonnatalk about a toolkit pretty much
that we're creating so thatpeople can know how do you get
that IRB training to yourcommunity partners.
How can you help your communitypartners get set up as vendors
subawardees, all of that?
(34:46):
We'll have a toolkit.
We'll have templates.
We'll have sort of a decisionpathway for you.
So keep an eye out, and we'll bedoing that in April.
Dana Rampolla (34:54):
So we don't wanna give away too much about Embrace
as you'll be hearing a lot moreabout it in the upcoming months.
But in the meantime, if someonewants to give to Embrace and
support all of these greatcauses, you can visit u maryland
dot edu backslash philanthropywhere you will find links on
ways to give, or you can call 41 0 7 0 6 8 4 9 5.
(35:15):
Now, Kyla, if someone wants toconnect with you to learn more
about the program or getinvolved, how would they do
that?
Kyla Liggett-Creel (35:22):
Reach directly out to me.
My email address iskliggettcreel@umaryland.edu Love
to hear from you, and there'slots of different ways to be
engaged.
And, again, our office is allabout civic action, addressing
real world problems and removingbarriers and accessing
resources.
So give us a call.
Dana Rampolla (35:43):
Terrific.
Well, thanks so much, Kyla, andwe'll put that email address in
the show notes as well.
Our show notes are gonna be jampacked for this episode.
We hope our listeners take apeek and just learn about all
the great things you're doingand figure out how to connect.
Kyla Liggett-Creel (35:57):
Awesome.
Thank you all so much for havingme.
I appreciate it.
Jena Frick (36:05):
The UMB Pulse with Charles Schelle and Dana
Rampolla is a UMB office ofcommunications and public
affairs production.
Edited by Charles Schelle,marketing by Dana Rampolla.
(36:26):
Of
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