Baltimore Community Fellowships

Baltimore Community Fellowships

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© Open Society Institute

Patrice Hutton
Baltimore, Maryland
2008

Patrice Hutton established the Writers in Baltimore Schools program at Margaret Brent Elementary-Middle and Barclay Middle, inner-city schools where many students thought of writing “as a burden.”  To spark a love of writing, Hutton tapped Johns Hopkins undergraduate writing students to provide in-class, after-school and summer creative writing workshops, in addition to literary events throughout the schools’ surrounding neighborhoods.

She quickly learned that she had to work to change the students’ ideas about writing. “They hear the word writing, they think it’s rote and formulaic, and it’s a big challenge because they have never ever done anything creative,” Hutton said. “I now know I’m going to be battling with this with every new group of students we work with.”

Hutton also learned later in her project just how important it is to develop partnerships and sources of outside funding. About partnerships with such places as Johns Hopkins University, The Village Learning Place, Fusion – a fiscal sponsor organization – and the city schools, she says: “They were everything. They comprised the whole project.”

And she admits to lacking savvy about bringing in financial resources.

“I would tell any new fellow, ‘Start applying for funding from day one,’” Hutton says. “If I had done that a year ago, when the fellowship started, I could have been in a better position than I am now.”

Hutton now is planning a summer reading studio for motivated students and wants to expand the writing program into more city schools.

She feels more confident about her program, especially after spending 18 months working with other fellows. “I left every monthly fellows gathering really refreshed and re-energized to get back to my work and make more things happen,” Hutton says. “Hearing from other fellows about how they overcame obstacles and frustrations was extremely helpful. It’s an amazing network of people to have available.”

With the OSI fellowship under her belt, Hutton thinks expansion will be easier.

“Without OSI’s support I would have felt a lot less legitimate trying to do this program in Baltimore,” Hutton said. “Having that OSI-Baltimore stamp makes people take you more seriously.”