B. Strong for Baltimore County

I’m running because when, six years ago, we opened our home and hearts to children in need as certified foster parents, we came face to face with the darker side of the county – the opioid crisis, poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, a broken criminal justice system, and crumbling schools.

You see. I was lucky. I grew up comfortable – wanting for nothing. I had all the advantages life could present – and I didn’t do anything to earn them. I was simply born to the right people, at the right time in the right place. Others aren’t so fortunate. Their childhoods are fraught with challenges and obstacles that make it extremely difficult to keep pace in the race of life.

Life isn’t fair. It’s a lesson we learn early in life. It’s a lesson we teach our kids. Yet, instead of being an accepted norm, perhaps it should be a clarion call. Because It’s hard to pull yourself up from the bootstraps, when you haven’t got any boots.

My work as a Peace Corps Volunteer, an environmental scientist and educator, non-profit manager, educational advocate, and for the past six years, a certified foster parent is my attempt small, fragile, and often vain to pay it forward – to in some small way balance the scales of equity. My campaign, with a platform focused on upstream solutions designed to save money and lives, is an extension of this goal.

Because foster care, jail, emergency repairs to water main breaks, and short-sighted limited school renovations are all downstream solutions. They’re great in emergencies – but are ineffective long-term solutions – and expensive to boot.

Everyone can agree that jails are a necessary part of society, but when 50% of inmates have mental illness, 65% a substance abuse problem, and 75% are functionally illiterate, then we have to ask, is incarceration in its traditional form an effective solution when a year in jail costs tax payers more than a year of mental health, substance abuse, and educational services – combined?

Or what about at a child growing up in a family where $500 means the difference between a night in their own bed or a stint in a shelter, or good food and a good night’s sleep is not a guarantee, or whose parents working two jobs don’t have time to help with homework. If she doesn’t read on level by the end of fourth grade, she is likely to end up incarcerated – costing herself a future and society more in downstream expenses than upstream solutions like healthy meals, universal pre-K, free tutoring, and counseling services would have.

And why put a band-aid on a school well-past its expiration date – when new construction can pay itself back with energy efficiencies – and increased property values – and more importantly is designed to be safer for our students?

You see, when our children look back at us from a time far in the future, I believe that we will be judged by poverty rates, homelessness rates, overdose and incarceration rates. In Baltimore County – those trend lines are not going in the right direction.

The status quo isn’t working. So let’s trade it in for something new – an upstream plan designed to leave this tiny corner of the world better, kinder, greener, healthier, and safer for ALL residents.

Join me. B. Strong for Baltimore County.

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