One of the most enduring themes of Pope Francis’ pontificate has been the promotion of a culture of encounter, which has been challenged by COVID-19.
Our bubbles of isolation became more a necessity than a trend. Our need for one another was sidelined, and alienation deepened. Institutions that have long served as hubs of community connection – theaters, restaurants, churches – were shuttered, some never to re-open.
Pope Francis isn’t the only one fighting that current. Since 2003, in Baltimore, the organization Thread has worked to build relationships that transcend differences – across socioeconomic, racial and other barriers – to build families defined not by DNA, but by encounter.
Thread began with an epiphany by Sarah Hemminger. On the way to her graduate school classes at Johns Hopkins University, she passed a high school and was struck by the stark differences in resources between it and her school. Her husband, Ryan, had grown up in a family touched by poverty and addiction, and was blessed to know the support of a network of teachers who helped guide him through what his biological family hadn’t been able to, and she saw a model.
Since 2004 Thread has connected Baltimore public school students with volunteer mentors from Johns Hopkins. Rather than a 1-to-1 relationship, the idea was to surround students with a family, which can offer the student different talents and multiple volunteers.
Nobody who has closely watched the hive of students in a densely packed university can miss the epidemic of loneliness on campus. And for that reason, they were ideal early recruits for Hemminger when Thread started. Since then, the volunteer base has expanded to include community members, young professionals, grandparents – and now, parishioners from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Hemminger has met with Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, who expressed excitement for Thread’s work. The archdiocese has thus far sponsored two information sessions for potential volunteers. Discussions are also underway for how Thread might help to support the efforts of the archdiocesan racism initiative to encourage dialogue and relationship building across racial and cultural divides.
Thread relationships start with high schools, which identify students testing in the bottom 25 percent. They are matched with a group of up to five volunteers – an extended family that provides the student with a customized support system aimed at his or her unique needs. This might include packing lunches, rides to school, tutoring, connections with community resources, as well as material support (clothing, furniture or appliance donations).
Thread notes that 84 percent of the students it works with graduate high school within six years. Thread formally supports its students for as long as 10 years, going well beyond their high school years.
“I’ve been in the military for 24 years. I’m always in execution mode,” said Carl Gilbert, a Thread family member who supports Millano. “But I’ve learned a lot from Millano – how to be patient, how to stop and breathe. He reminds me a lot of myself at the age of 15.”
Thread’s 40 employees include many former family members who share stories of the students who have been a part of their lives, such as the 21-year-old who hadn’t been in school in three years, but had two credits left and wanted to graduate alongside her younger sisters, or the young man who finished his coursework because a family member drove him every day to summer school. That young man did his homework back at the Thread offices.
Thread has been just the sort of agency a city such as Baltimore has needed during a lockdown. Existing relationships have helped solve food insecurity, as well as provide technology to students for whom virtual learning is undermined by lack of hardware, Internet connectivity, or even electricity.
To learn more about volunteering, visit thread.org/get-involved/volunteer/
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