Another day, another recap of our great year! The first big project Rebuilding Together Baltimore took on this Fall was our Community Resource Fair. In early September, we invited over a dozen local organizations, government agencies, and businesses to join us for a resource fair on a beautiful Saturday in the Govans neighborhood. Our goal was to collect a wide variety of services available to the public all in one place, so community members could find out about organizations and institutions in their community that they may not have heard about.
We were so glad to be able to welcome organizations that could benefit members of the community like the Maryland Volunteer Lawyer Services, Fair Housing Action of Maryland, CivicWorks, Northern Community Action Center, the Loyola Clinical Centers and many more. But we weren’t all business! There were also so many great recreational activities for kids and adults alike, including face painting, a raffle for Orioles’ tickets, a professional massage provider, and a play area with lots of toys. Free lunches, children’s clothes, and small giveaways from vendors were also on offer.
The Community Resource Fair also provided a space to launch a new collaboration between Rebuilding Together Baltimore and the Loyola Clinical Centers which continued through the Fall. Rebuilding Together worked to recruit hard-of-hearing seniors from the Govans area for the Loyola Clinical Centers’ hearing health pilot study. This study is intended to determine whether there is a connection between hard-of-hearing seniors’ access to free, high-quality hearing aids and their overall social and mental wellbeing. All seniors who participated in the study were given high-quality hearing aids and batteries at no cost, on the condition that they return to the LCC for periodic check-ins to gauge any changes in their quality of life and mental health. This study is still ongoing, and we hope to report some preliminary results in the new year.
Overall, the Community Resource Fair was a great day! We’re so glad that so many in the community came out to participate, and hope that attendees benefitted from being connected with the resources present. Thanks to Loyola University Maryland for providing the space and logistical support for this event, and to all the vendors and community members for coming out!
You can check back tomorrow to hear more about our projects in Fall, including our Fall Rebuilding Day and several volunteer project days sponsored by our corporate supporters.