The Last Word

HEALING CHILDREN AND CREATING COMMUNITY: Harriette Wimms

“If not now, when?” asks Hillel in Pirkei Avot 1:14. It’s a quote that, according to Harriette Wimms’ friend, Justin Fair, encapsulates Wimms.

“Harriette perfectly harnesses this energy and gives with [it] a message of light, of perseverance, of the promise of relief and humor,” Fair said.

Wimms, 52, was born in California but grew up in a Christian home in St. Mary’s County in Southern Maryland. “When I was six, I told my mother I did not believe in organized religion,” Wimms said. “I had my own ideas, I was into alternative music and I was always in the library learning.”

She loved to read about Judaism, but it wouldn’t be until much later that Wimms would feel welcome to convert.

Wimms eventually earned a full ride to Towson State University to study English.

“Honestly, it saved my life. I had internalized a lot of racism and sexism and classism from St. Mary’s County, where I just did not fit in,” Wimms said. “But English gave me a way to externalize it.”

After graduation, Wimms helped youth with disabilities and taught creative writing. She continued her education at Johns Hopkins University to study psychology so that she could give the kids she worked with a better context for their development.

“I saw a difference between the kids in the city and county but I didn’t have the words for

Harriette Wimms (left) and her family their trauma before,” she said. Wimms to a service at Chizuk

A mentor suggested to her Amuno Congregation. “I don’t that she should go further, so on know if I can even describe the a whim, Wimms applied to the experience. It was like speaking medical school at the University a language I had always known. of Maryland, Baltimore County. It was like coming home. Among hundreds of applicants, Judaism is me!” she and just five others were Wimms dove into the accepted. There, she studied Jewish community. She had a philosophy and psychology. bat mitzvah, learned Hebrew,

Wimms continued to employ joined Hinenu: The Baltimore her writing skills in creative and Justice Shtiebl’s board and clinical outlets. For example, developed new spaces and when she worked at the Mt. programs such as Baltimore’s Washington Pediatric Hospital, Jews of Color chavurot and she used writing to help youth the national Jews of Color through social and emotional Shabbaton this December. difficulties. When she’s not celebrating

Around that time, Wimms Judaism, Wimms devotes met her current partner and herself to social justice and found out that he was Jewish. professional development.

“I told him I always wanted Wimms created Mt. to be Jewish but that I had felt I Washington’s first adolescent couldn’t be because I’m Black,” behavioral program, which she said. “I can still remember tripled its projected clientele the look on his face. He thought within a year. She also designed I was joking.” He welcomed curriculum for Baltimore Montessori, Inc., and worked with other schools to initiate new services.

Today, she commits almost every workday hour to her own practice, The Village Family Support Center of Baltimore. She also currently works for the Loyola Clinical Centers and Itineris, a program to help individuals on the autism spectrum. And she’s not done.

“I will forever advocate that money should not impact access to mental health care,” she said. Wimms does so by providing free services to community members in need and trains community agencies about mental health awareness, issues of diversity, trauma on child development and neurodiversity.

Most recently, Wimms co-organized “Jews of Color, Jewish Institutions and Jewish Community in the Age of Black Lives Matter,” which started Oct. 18. Wimms also recently organized a theatrical event, “Here’s What Jewish People of Color Need You To Know,” which shows Nov. 14.

Even with her busy professional life, Wimms makes time to cook for her family, which includes her ex-wife/ co-parent, her partner and their three 16-year-old sons. On Fridays, Wimms davens, cleans, attends services and prepares her home for Shabbat.

“I make a really mean challah,” she joked.