Safe Streets opens new Cherry Hill office as leaders tout success against violence

William McCarthy Jr. insists it’s not a matter of opinion that a public health program known as “Safe Streets” helps reduce violence in Baltimore City. The longtime executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore called it a statistical fact.

Speaking at a May 31 ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new office for Safe Streets’ Cherry Hill location, McCarthy said the Cherry Hill area served by Safe Streets has twice gone more than a year without a death by gunfire. The area served by the program’s Penn-North location has marked more than 500 days without a death by gunfire, he said.

Catholic Charities operates both Safe Streets locations, in addition to Safe Streets offices in Brooklyn and Sandtown-Winchester. LifeBridge Health operates six other locations in the city.

The new Cherry Hill office is located in a completely refurbished anchor building of the Cherry Hill Town Center. The Safe Streets’ Cherry Hill office was previously headquartered not far away in a former school building.

“First and foremost, Safe Streets is helping to make our community safer, and this move will make staff even more accessible and visible to residents,” McCarthy said.

Safe Streets, which launched in 2007, trains people from the community in conflict mediation in some of the most troubled areas of the city. McCarthy cited recent observations by Greg Marshburn, leader of Catholic Charities’ Safe Streets operations, who noted that even the most heated disagreements can be defused.

“There can be win-win outcomes where everyone walks away feeling seen and heard and respected,” McCarthy said. “This is Safe Streets’ specialty: providing informed and neutral mediation to help people achieve peaceful resolutions.”

According to Catholic Charities, Cherry Hill Safe Streets’ staff mediated “well more” than 200 conflicts that had a high chance of ending in violence in the last 12 months. In that same timeframe, Safe Streets distributed more than 9,000 pieces of educational materials in the South Baltimore community.

Catholic Charities has had a long presence in Cherry Hill.

Working with the Josephites of nearby St. Veronica Church, the nonprofit organization began operating a Head Start program at the parish in 1966. Nearly three decades ago, Catholic Charities acquired and redeveloped the Cherry Hill Town Center in an ongoing effort to promote local business ownership, healthy food options and community resources.

McCarthy estimated that it cost approximately $200,000 to refurbish the new Safe Streets’ Cherry Hill office building, a former fast-food restaurant. JPMorgan Chase, which operates a bank branch at the Cherry Hill Town Center, donated $150,000 toward the effort.

Sporting a Safe Streets t-shirt moments before helping cut a bright orange ribbon inaugurating the new office, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the program a “vital part” of a broader approach to address violence as a public health issue.

“Community violence intervention works because it centers our communities, our neighborhoods and our shared mission to build a better and safer Baltimore,” he said. “Despite being relatively small in number, they are very mighty and our Safe Streets family is making an enormous impact in neighborhoods throughout Baltimore that have witnessed too much violence and suffered too much loss throughout the years.”

The mayor echoed McCarthy in pointing to statistics showing reductions in violence in areas served by Safe Streets. He cited a study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that showed that during the first four years of the program’s implementation across five longer-running sites, Safe Streets was associated with an average reduction in homicides of 32 percent. Non-fatal shootings declined 23 percent in all of the sites evaluated, the study said.

“We know that a number of our Safe Streets locations throughout the city are experiencing extended periods of peace that we haven’t seen in generations,” Scott said. 

Among the other speakers at the dedication was Maryland State Senate President William C. Ferguson IV, who said the “beauty” of Safe Streets is that it brings people together when they “aren’t at their best,” showing them alternative paths to violence. Baltimore City Council President Nick J. Mosby called for continuing support of the program, noting that it won’t be time to “pat ourselves on the back” until the number of deaths by gun violence is zero.

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

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