January 2024 | Baltimore Beacon

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VOL.21, NO.1

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JANUARY 2024

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Self-taught artist’s commission PHOTO COURTESY OF MARYLAND CITIZENS FOR THE ARTS

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Villages can help neighbors age in place By Margaret Foster For those aging in their longtime home, tasks that used to be routine may over time become daunting. Driving at night and getting to medical appointments might become challenging, too. And for those who live alone, life can become, well, lonely. If you happen to live in northwest Baltimore, however, a volunteer group can be of help. Founded in 2012, Northwest Neighbors Connecting (NNC) has a mission to help older residents of the area remain safely in their homes for as long as possible, aiding with household tasks and providing ways for them to stay socially active and involved in life. For just $10 a month (or less, depending on financial situations), the group’s 130 members can get discounted rides, inhome technological assistance, help with household tasks like installing grab bars, and — perhaps most importantly — good company. “It is life-changing,” said Anne Shimanovich, program director of Aging in Community at Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. (CHAI), which partners with NNC. The organization hosts monthly meetups, art classes and bus trips, but it also keeps in touch with its members by phone. “We call our members at least once a week, so we check in and find out what they need,” she said. On the second Tuesday of every month, NNC hosts monthly get-togethers, often with a speaker, music and dancing at the Myerberg Center. These gatherings are free to anyone who’s interested. “People are welcome to come and see what we’re all about at no cost,” Shimanovich said.

What is a village? Northwest Neighbors Connecting is an

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example of a “village” that supports older neighbors. “It’s not a physical place; it’s a volunteer support group,” explained Caroline McKelden Wayner, the former executive director of Village at Home, an organization that helped older residents in 20 Baltimore neighborhoods before closing down during the pandemic. A village, Wayner said, “really does enable you to age at home for longer than you would normally be able to. It’s that extra support network when you just need a little bit of support to stay at home.” The first such “village” was formed in Boston 21 years ago. Longtime residents of Beacon Hill, a downtown neighborhood, didn’t want to move out, so they pitched in to hire a concierge to find and train volunteers to help with small tasks as they aged. That grew into Beacon Hill Village, and became so successful that it spawned a nationwide movement and even published a guide explaining how to form your own village. Today, a national organization called Village to Village Network helps support and professionalize more than 250 villages throughout the country.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHAI BALTIMORE.

By Laura Melamed Today, a former Baltimore mansion where enslaved people once toiled houses part of the Walters Art Museum. Inside, a huge mirror-and-ceramic mosaic honoring one of those workers has become part of the permanent collection. The Walters announced two major acquisitions last fall, one of which is this collaborative mosaic created by celebrated Baltimore artist Herbert Massie, 64. The three-part work consists of two massive ovals, each 10 feet across and five feet high, and a slightly smaller third oval. They are framed with an array of ceramic plates, each decorated by a different person and arranged by Massie. No two plates are alike, yet they all somehow fit together. The artwork, called Reflections of Sybby Grant, celebrates enslaved cook Sybby Grant, who once lived in the mansion at 1 West Mount Vernon Place. While doing research for the museum, students from the Baltimore School for the Arts found an 1861 letter from Grant addressed to her enslavers, the Thomas family. When the Walters discovered Grant’s letter, curators decided to honor the workers who had been enslaved by the Thomases. The museum approached Massie and commissioned the piece in 2018. “They wanted me to be the artist to do the work,” Massie said. “I’ve been known around the state and city as a community activist.” The completed piece is made largely of mirrors, stained glass and broken ceramic plates decorated by 400 members of the community. Massie facilitated the project over the course of a year, working at Jubilee Arts, the Walters and Baltimore City recreation centers and schools. “For me to work on a project like this

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Baltimore’s lack of villages Although there are dozens of such villages in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, Baltimore only has one or two. There are a few explanations why the village model hasn’t taken off here. “In Baltimore, many people still have relatives in town,” Wayner pointed out. Older adults often rely on younger family members to give them rides or help around the house. In addition, Baltimore has many thriving Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) or Life Plan communities. “We have a huge number of CCRC communities — they’re hugely popular in our area — so a lot of people who might use a

What to know about assisted living

Volunteers with Northwest Neighbors Connecting provide services aimed at helping older neighborhood residents remain in their homes as long as possible.

village” don’t need it, Wayner said. Often, the people who know what they need are the ones who form a village, as was the case in Beacon Hill. “The best kind of villages are the kind that pop up organically,” Wayner said.

Help from the state Sometimes, villages need a little more help and money to survive. The new Mary-

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land Secretary of Aging, Carmel Roques, has tasked the Maryland Department of Aging, which she leads, to find the best strategies to help Marylanders who want to start their own villages. “The main thing that we’re doing is to understand how to best provide support to help the villages,” Roques said. “There are See BALTIMORE VILLAGES, page B-3

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Herbert D. Massie, a self-taught artist, has taught art classes in the Baltimore area for most of his life. Massie’s work is now a permanent part of the Walters Art Museum collection, which calls him “a long-treasured gem of our local arts community.”

[with] all the aspiring young minds and older adults who wanted to be an artist — to actually work on something that would be shown in a museum, I thought would be a novel idea,” Massie said.

Welcome Home to Harmony

A Baltimore native Massie was born and raised in Baltimore, where he has lived his entire life.

Sc a n to G Ke ys to H e t You r a ppi ne ss

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Author’s new book about stained glass windows in Baltimore shines a light on the area’s ups and downs page 11

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