The Harlem Park community has formed a coalition to push the neighborhood's application to become one of the "village centers" in Baltimore's $100 million empowerment zone program.
Baltimore's proposal calls for dividing the empowerment zones into village centers of no more than 9,000 residents. In each center, one school would provide morning, evening and weekend educational, recreational and cultural activities.
Delores Farmer, president of the new Coalition to Empower Harlem Park, said the village center designation could bring $6 million to lead revitalization efforts in the West Baltimore community. She said the group had hired a consultant, Gayle E. Holness of Anderson-Holness Inc., to help with its proposal.
"We believe we can be competitive, but we want to work with other neighborhood groups. The plan is to empower all of us," Ms. Farmer said. "We all have similar problems."
Ms. Farmer said several churches were contributing money and other assistance to the Harlem Park effort. They include Enon Baptist, Macedonia Baptist, St. John Methodist, Union Methodist, St. James Episcopal, Metropolitan Methodist, St. Pius V Catholic and Siloam Freewill Baptist.
"In five years I want to see teens and young black males no longer standing on the corner because they are not gainfully employed," Ms. Farmer said. "I also would like to see houses now vacant and dilapidated torn down and replaced."