This summer Dew More Baltimore is bringing Free Verse workshops to Hearts & Homes for Youth’s Marys Mount Manor Group Home for Girls! Free Verse is an art-based program geared toward developing youth emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Free Verse is modeled after best practices for positive youth development and designed to meet the needs and goals of Hearts & Homes for Youth. Dew More Baltimore teaching artists create a safe space, facilitate thought provoking discussions, teach fun and challenging workshops, and provide platforms for youth to share their ideas, thoughts, and work.

Dew More Baltimore is a community-based organization dedicated to using art and community organizing as tools to increase community engagement in the greater Baltimore Community. The summer program is facilitated by a grant from the Research Associates Foundation.

Through the Free Verse workshops, we want the youth to walk away with:

• A clear sense of what poetry means to them
• Quality writing skills
• Memorization skills
• The ability to write creatively when prompted
• Performance skills
• Emotional development: Dew More Baltimore creates a space for youth to process the internal and external stress they often face. The space provide youth with opportunities to share their stories, ask questions, and build analysis free of judgment.
• Cognitive development: Dew More Baltimore leads workshops to help youth build the skills to be effective storytellers such as writing, reading, listening, critical thinking, research, public speaking, performance, memorization, and teamwork. These skills are easily transferable to other components of the youth’s lives.
• Social development: Dew More Baltimore provides students with opportunities to use their stories to connect with their larger community. Through sharing stories, students learn how their words and stories impact, influence, and inspire others. Youth learn, through discussion and performance, their role in the larger community.

Marys Mount Manor Group Home for Girls is located in a semi-rural community setting in Anne Arundel County. The shelter was established and specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of adolescent girls. The therapeutic, structured program provides a nurturing, home-like atmosphere where residents have the opportunity to learn appropriate coping techniques and essential life skills. Girls in the group home range in age between 13 and 17 years old and hail from all parts of Maryland. They typically reside at Marys Mount between 9 and 15 months.

Our young women at Marys Mount attend community schools. They are encouraged to utilize the extensive resources that both the program and the community offer. Our professional staff provides 24-hour supervision and the necessary support to help our young women resolve long-standing issues and build appropriate life skills that will ensure a successful transition into adulthood.

Marys Mount Manor offers the following benefits:

• Individual, family, group therapy, and art therapy targeted to building a strong personal identity, pride, self-esteem and confidence
• On-site psychiatric evaluation and on-going medication evaluation
• Educational advocacy and support, tutoring and college preparation
• Case management and coordination for health services, substance abuse treatment, and additional necessary services
• Therapeutic recreation and constructive use of leisure time
• Life skills training to support self-sufficiency and independent living
• Anger management training and support services
• Community service work opportunities

Marys Mount is run by Ms. Rhonda Outen and Ms. Juantale Cook who have been part of the Hearts & Homes family for a number of years. They are dedicated to every young person who comes through our doors.

Hearts & Homes for Youth is glad to be working with Dew More Baltimore, which shares our belief that young people need and deserve a supportive community and opportunities to grow and succeed. We are looking forward to seeing the impact of Dew More Baltimore’s program on the development of the young women in our care.