Part of the change Catholic Charities has sought to bring about in the past year has focused on their direct work and service in Baltimore, as well as how different religious communities can work together in order to have a greater impact on the lives of people in the city.
McCarthy explained that after last year's riots, Catholic Charities took a step back to reflect on how they can 'up their game' in fighting poverty and unemployment in the area.
The result was a plan focused on the four key areas of sustenance, work, violence, and youth, he said, noting that currently much of West Baltimore "is in food deficit."
With the demand placed on the area's three food pantries jumping from 60 to 500 families a week, the organization decided to expand the pantries, opening new ones and allocating fresh resources to keep them replenished.
In addition to a few new, strategically placed pantries, case managers were also placed inside each, because the ultimate goal "is that people don't need the pantries," McCarthy said.
So far the case managers have intervened in 150 cases regarding issues of employment, healthcare, and safe housing.
McCarthy explained that as part of their goal of increasing the employment rate, Catholic Charities has teamed up with several local groups in opening a new workforce development center. Additionally, they have formed partnerships in a cohort providing automobile technical training.
"There are jobs out there, there's a dearth of mechanics in a community, and (it) pays a living wage," he said, explaining that the goal for the first year was to train 70 men and women in the field, "and we already have jobs lined up for the first 50."
The workforce development center also does job placements, soft skills training and employment retention work in order to make sure that once placed in work, people stay, he said.
In order to fight the high rates of violence and killings in the city – in 2015 there was on average more than one murder a day, according to McCarthy – Catholic Charities Baltimore has begun working with the health department and the No Boundaries coalition as well as other organizations in the Sandtown community to create a Safe Streets program.
McCarthy described the program as "an evidence-based practice of violence interruption" which treats violence as a public-health issue. The first official Safe Streets program went into effect Dec. 1, 2015.
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While the issue of violence and murder in Baltimore has been generally "avoided or ignored" in the past, McCarthy explained that even if unemployment and poverty are overcome, "if we don't address the violence and if we don't address the killings in the community, then we're just building something on a foundation of sand."
Dr. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr., Senior Pastor of Union Baptist Church of Baltimore, joined in the pilgrimage to Rome. He told CNA that his community has been very active in the same areas, and has teamed up with other religious communities to make sure families in the West Baltimore area have access to basic needs, as well as basic technologies.
One of the problems lower-income families in areas such as West Baltimore face is that they don't have access to the internet, Hathaway said, explaining that in today's day and age, "that is very discriminatory."
As both ecumenical leaders and as a local community, the group has been working hard "to bridge the gap between the police department and youth in that community," he said.
Union Baptist Church caught part of Freddie Gray's flight on its surveillance camera the night of his arrest. The tape was then used as part of the official investigation of the incident by the state attorney's office, as well as by the Baltimore City Police Department.
"So we were right there," he said, noting that one of the things each of the religious leaders in the area saw after the incident was that "families were under severe stress, and that people were feeling severe trauma."