FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Tricia Ellis, LEADERship Baltimore (410.727.2820)
or Chris Ader-Soto, YMCA of Central Maryland (410.837.9622 x 242)
or Marianne Larned, Stone Soup Leadership Institute (508.696.8514)
email: soup4baltimore@hotmail.com or www.soup4world.com

• Interviews are available now with:
Co-chairs: Marsha Jews and Larry Walton; partners Lee Jensen and Jan Houbolt Leadership Institute faculty member from Baltimore: Joseph Jones
• Interviews with Marianne Larned and other Stone Soup Leadership Institute
faculty by phone: October 30-November 17 or in person: November 16-17, 2000

Press Release

Annette Williams is a living testament to the transformative power of helping others. A mother of six, she'd been on welfare for 10 years when Bette Midler hired her to help clean up the City's parks. Promoted to superviser at the New York Restoration Project, Annette now trains AmeriCorps staff and Welfare to Work folks to rebuild the parks -- and their own lives while working their way to financial independence.

Annette is coming to Baltimore to share her story and her ideas with teenagers and community leaders in the Stone Soup Leadership Institute/Baltimore. This two-year youth and community leadership initiative will prepare 100 future and emerging leaders to become change agents in their neighborhoods.

The Stone Soup Leadership Institute/Baltimore is unique collaboration with the GBC/LEADERship Baltimore, the YMCA of Central Maryland, the United Way of Central Maryland and the Safe and Sound Campaign. "This is the right time to launch this exciting youth and community leadership development initiative," says co-chair, Larry Walton, President, United Way of Central Maryland. "It will prepare emerging and future leaders to improve Baltimore, neighborhood by neighborhood."

The Leadership Institute is being launched on November 17-19 with an intensive training program at Morgan State University featuring outstanding faculty from the book, Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Kindness & Courageous Acts of Service. Other faculty include Will Morales who transformed his life from an illiterate 17 year-old gang leader to the founder of Boston's Youth Police Partnership and Hulas King, Director, Strategic Partnership Programs, EDS Unagraphics Solutions who serves as a loaned executive with Focus: HOPE in Detroit. "I'm especially excited that Focus: HOPE is part of the Leadership Institute," says Marsha Jews. "This state-of-the-art information technology program is one of the nation's most effective programs for bridging the digital divide."

Morgan State is a partner with Unagraphics' Academic Partnership Program with other Historically Black Colleges and Universities and a $250 million grant to increase technology opportunities for African Americans. "We should be proud that Morgan graduates the largest number of African American engineers in the country each year," says Ms. Jews.

At the upcoming intensive at Morgan, Baltimore's youth and community leaders will have the unique opportunity of working side-by-side these real-life heroes who've overcome similar challenges facing their communities -- from New York City to East St. Louis, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. They include crime prevention leader, Nane Alejandrez, founding director of Barrios Unidos; Nathan Gray, Chairman of Earth Train's youth leadership development and co-founder of Oxfam-America's Fast For World Harvest, Dr. Patrick Mendis from Sri Lanka and Judith Kurland was the architect of Healthy Boston, a coalition of 20 neighborhoods who worked together to pool their resources -- until the black infant mortality and teen pregnancy rates went down and immunization rates were the highest in the country.

Baltimore's own Joseph Jones, founding director of Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development is an esteemed Institute faculty member. Joe traveled to Jamaica, representing U.S. AID's Lessons Without Borders to study community policing programs to help reduce youth-related crime. "The Leadership Institute's faculty of African Americans, Latinos, Asian, Native American and Jewish -- will match the rich diversity in Baltimore so can celebrate our multiculturalism," says Marsha Jews. "Baltimore's youth will have an exciting opportunity to bridge the culture divide and build a stronger and better city."

Stone Soup for the World is a hands-on education curriculum which is being used in 120 communities across the country. It brings stories from this inspirational book to life by offering values-oriented discussion points, character-building reflection questions as well as direction for academic and community service activities for each of the 100 stories in the book. "The Stone Soup Leader's Guide is a terrific tool for teachers who want to shape the lives and characters of young people," says Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Lieutenant Governor, Maryland. "It is accessible, friendly and encourages thoughtful reflections on service that will move the whole field of service-learning forward."

"We're pleased the Institute will serve as the principle training ground for Baltimore's Youth Ambassasors, who -- 200 strong -- work through the Safe and Sound Campaign to promote increased opportunities for young people," says Executive Director, Hathaway Ferebee. "These Youth Ambassadors have recruited 7,000 Baltimore citizens to select priority goals for Baltimore's children and youth, facilitated the creation of neighborhood reading programs and teen centers and serve to remind the public on a daily basis that Baltimore's young people are intelligent, active and helping to ensure a bright future."

Other organizations involved in the Leadership Institute include the Baltimore Mentoring Partnership, the Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust, Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, Cities in School, the Mayor's Office and the YMCA of Central Maryland. The State Attorney's Office is sponsoring Operation Safe Neighborhood. The Governor's Commission on Service is sponsoring the Maryland Youth Service Action Committee. "The Leadership Institute will bring out the best in our young people and our community," says Lee Jensen, President and CEO, YMCA Central Maryland. "We need this kind of collaborative strategy to make Baltimore the best it can be."

Enthusiasm is building among young people and community leaders about the upcoming Institute. "We're fired up to create a positive youth and adult interaction," said one student. Participants make a year-long commitment and complete an application form describing their vision for a better Baltimore. "I envision a Baltimore where the positive stories, people and communities
would be the first ideas on people's minds," says Katrina Odom, The Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development. "In our community we are tutoring our peers but we need more adult support to reinforce positive ideas and hope," said one teenager. "We have an opportunity for our city to come together as one," stated a community worker.

Funders for the Stone Soup Leadership Institute/Baltimore include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, United Way of Central Maryland, the Fund for Populations at Risk at the Baltimore Community Foundation and Leadership Baltimore alumni including Ted Rouse, Stuever Brothers, Eccles & Rouse, Clinton Daley, 1st Union Securities, Peter and Lorraine Doo, the Knott Foundation and Scott Wilfong, SunTrust, MD.

Leadership Baltimore alumni are being invited to serve as Ambassadors to help sponsor deserving organizations and help Institute participants realize their goals of developing public-private partnerships that build a better Baltimore. "We can use this as the opportunity we've all been looking for -- to collectively work together to support the future leadership of Baltimore," says Peter Doo, (class of 1988), Principal, Grimm & Parker.

"We invite the Baltimore community to join with these "heroes in training" as they develop the courage and strength to work together and overcome obstacles in their neighborhoods," says Marianne Larned, Executive Director, Stone Soup Leadership Institute. "Like the Stone Soup traveler in the children's folktale, each one of us can help them to realize their dreams of creating a brighter future for us all."