Baltimore Community Fellowships
Baltimore Community FellowshipsApplication Guidelines | Fellows & Grantees | Fellows Profiles
© Open Society Institute
|
Baltimore, Maryland
2008
Laurie Kendall always had a passion for helping women overcome adversity and long odds. She used her fellowship to establish the Spiral Dance Womyn’s Center in a barren, blighted neighborhood in East Baltimore. The center held classes, workshops, fairs and festivals with the goal of helping women develop the practical skills needed to become active and successful participants in their own lives, homes, businesses, and communities.
The center is a huge success. Hundreds of women have volunteered, been served or both.
But Kendall learned a tremendous amount during her fellowship about running such an involved operation. In particular, she discovered she suffered from “Founder’s Syndrome” – the perceived need to take on everything by herself, and all at once.
“My first big lesson was that I spent too much time on developing and perfecting programs at the center because I felt ultra responsible for producing something very visible for OSI to justify the faith they placed in me,” Kendall said. “My second lesson was that I should have started delegating responsibilities right from the beginning. I felt that because I was the OSI fellow, I was totally responsible to do everything.”
Luckily, Kendall was able to move forward by forging good partnerships with organizations, churches and others, such as the New Mount Zion Church of God in Christ, Towson Rotary Club, Baltimore Herb Festival and the Johns Hopkins Women's Network. Kendall also orchestrated a neighborhood tour with a liaison from the mayor’s office, a city councilman and several directors of various city departments.
“For the first time the folks in the neighborhood felt like someone from the city cared about their neighborhood,” Kendall said.
The Spiral Dance Center is thriving so well that Kendall is in the process of stepping back a little, to return to teaching – another passion.
“I have finally learned to delegate responsibilities and not feel responsible for every little thing. I'll still be very involved, but I am working to train others to do the things I have been doing,” she says.
Although she had already started the center before securing the fellowship, Kendall credits OSI with really helping to get it off the ground.
“Without the OSI fellowship, the Spiral Dance Womyn's Center would not have served 1,581 women with classes, workshops, and special events,” she says. “Without OSI's help, we would not have been able to provide the Oliver Street community with 1,285 pieces of clothing, 34 food boxes, 750 personal care items, 100 sidewalk gardens, 530 household items, 104 holiday food baskets, 43 children's gifts, and 114 school supply items. Because of OSI, the Spiral Dance Womyn's Center was able to grow in ways we never imagined.”
