Baltimore Community Fellowships
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Photo: Bruce Weller for the Open Society Foundations
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Baltimore, Maryland
2010
With her first drop-in on a steep ramp, Stephanie Murdock fell in love with skateboarding. She was 21 and a student at Towson University, learning the sport in tiny Baltimore parks with much younger skaters. They’d talk to the Parkville native about all kinds of things—including their dreams of going to college.
But when she returned to the city years later, while pursuing a master’s degree in political management at George Washington University, Murdock was saddened to discover that some of her younger skater friends had stopped skating in their favorite parks and in some cases, had also stopped going to high school.
What they needed, she realized, was a mentor.
During her fellowship, Murdock will partner with The Parks and People Foundation to start “Skateboarding for Success,” an after-school, weekend and summer program for at-risk middle and high school students in the Baltimore neighborhood of Hampden. Skateboarding for Success will offer mentoring, beginner lessons, park clean-up efforts and contests for groups of young people.
“Skateboarding for Success is about keeping kids in school and keeping them in shape,” Murdock says, “which is possible through positive relationships and encouragement from those who know what it’s like growing up in a city like Baltimore.”
Murdock attended both county and city public schools and was exposed, she says, to the daily obstacles of inner-city students and a lack of role models to keep youth engaged in their communities. Growing up Murdock participated in after-school sports including soccer, track and lacrosse, where she saw the benefits of organized activities for young adults.
Despite persistent stereotypes, skateboarding is just as valid an athletic activity as basketball or track, she says. The problem is: “Baltimore’s youth presently have no one engaging them in this type of programming in a safe and sanctioned environment.”
Murdock will work with her program participants in Hampden’s Roosevelt Park. The park boasts a community garden and a new recreation center and swimming pool, but the 11,000-square foot asphalt pad built for skateboarders leaves much to be desired, Murdock says.
“The skaters had to build their own ramps,” Murdock says.
While in graduate school, Murdock started “Skatepark of Baltimore,” a nonprofit organization advocating for a new public, concrete skatepark in Hampden. The organization recently received $25,000 from The Abell Foundation to design the new space—approved by the city—in Roosevelt Park. Youth in Skateboarding for Success will participate in the design process for the new 25,000 square-foot park and will be involved in the development of the park by raising money and awareness in their communities, while sharpening their leadership and activism skills.
Murdock hopes that by providing a safe space for youth to skateboard, and creating solid partnerships with surrounding schools, youth will gain the important skills needed to graduate high school and continue on to college. Good school attendance, for example, is required to participate. And Murdock plans to create incentives to help kids stay in school, such as field trips and contests.
Murdock ultimately wants graduates from Skateboarding for Success to take what they’ve learned from the program, and become youth leaders and mentors to new participants.
“I learned more in the past six years working on the skatepark project than in my eight years in college and graduate school,” Murdock says, of her time skateboarding in southwest Baltimore’s Carroll Park. “We owe it to our youth to give them a safe space to recreate and develop into responsible, active members of their communities.”
