good morning. the recent unrest in baltimore not only focused attention on the underlying issues that led to the violence there, it also spearheaded intensified efforts of collaboration among those determined to address the root issues in order to help the healing and the rebuilding in baltimore city. joining us this morning are groups working in the trenches to improve the quality of life for city residents. our guests dee layler co-owner of snapology teaching computer coding. willie flowers executive director of community health alliance. and glanise, project pay, and the smart steps learning center

children's center. welcome all of to you "viewpoint." mr. flowers, let's start with you. there's been much talk about baltimore's poverty rate 25%, unemployment 8.4% nearly doubled the national average. among african-american youth an unemployment rate over 16%. how do things get to this point? how to they get to be so bad in baltimore? >> it's very complex. it's hard to explain in details. the reality is there's break down in health and barriers, whether transportation unemployment education, we work very hard with food access and food security it's all just very challenging. how it got there is anyone's explanation but reality is that what we try to do is just search for solutions. we've kind of done that over the

years, what we do with our programming. >> dee, how would you answer that question? >> i'm not really from ball i'm someone new to the aemplt theto the area. first time i drove through looking at schools, i tried to offer free teachers bringing in my teachers programs all the materials and i was turned down. i was told again and again, that's not where we're going. that's not what we want the kids to learn. technology is required nowadays. kids need to learn computers, how to code how to program, so they can advance into areas not open to them now. >> your take on this? you grew up -- you were born and reared in baltimore? >> definitely and i love my city. i was pretty sad to see what happened through the city get their perspective, why they felt

they needed to express themselves this way. the real root will vary from family to family if you don't have people around you seeing successful primary employer in the neighborhood is a drug dealer and you don't see an opportunity to get out of it because you lack opportunity, feel like opportunity isn't available to you, things snowball to where they are now. as i talked to people this week they talked about moving forward. what things can we do now? how can we get our voice heard. they have an uprising in a way that's more effective that can get some real outcome. >> mr. flowers, portable access to real food healthy food has been a real problem in big cities. tell us about the work you're doing in the community health alliance. >> we are a partner with the enrollment program for the affordable care act. that's one. and like a lot of neighborhoods

in america, food desert, we're creating gardens, access to healthy organic food. food desert also a literary desert doesn't have a library. maybe five years ago, we installed disheveling and collected books and created access for families to come in either donate books in that format. even though the actual hard back book is a dated thing, we still produce it and a face for them to been fit and create access to learning and in some levels intellectual curiosity. >> miss laylor you talked about teaching coding and computer programming. tell us about your program. >> what we do is use different variations of legos, computers,

cameras to bring science, technology engineering and math to kids. a lot of these kids are underserved. they are not getting the programs you see in some of the fancier schools than columbia or clarksville. they need in order to further advance educationwise, once you get into the higher grades going into university you need technological programs behind you. we think coding. we start at five years old teaching the basics from scratch and move on from there. scratch is an easy code to learn. it's drag and drop. it gives them an option to see what it looks like. in the end start programming their own game building their own programs. >> of course children need computers. >> with our program we actually bring the computers with us. we bring software computers, so anybody can call us up. listen i would like to bring this program to my kids. how do we do it. let's get a date together bring it out, get the kids started and

we'll go electric there. >> okay. we're going to continue our talk in just a moment. these groups are working to rebuild life in baltimore. stay with us.

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welcome back. "viewpoint" we are talking to groups that are working in the trenches on the causes of frustration and unrest in baltimore. dee laylor snapology, ball, washington. we just talked to you about the computer program you started for children starting at 2 years old. but you actually have the kids she's teaching. >> correct. we have children between the ages of 2 and 13 in the after school program and preschool program, service 350 students per day. we realized we were not touching

older teens that needed services. so project pay is an arm in which we are assisting young people who have an interest in art and entrepreneurship and giving them information so they can support themselves and become entrepreneurures. when we talk about the unrest in baltimore, part of that people don't feel they have an opportunity to grow and learn. the programs we expose them to opportunities available for them. >> we're talking reading, we're talking math and science, we're talking computer coding and programming. mr. flowers, you're doing hands-on work with young people. one of the programs you alluded to earlier called henrietta reading room and book share program. first of all, who is this? >> a young lady who was a young mother who had some abdominal pain and went to johns hopkins

university hospital and essentially died there. while she was alive, they have been using them every since. the family is from the baltimore area. i read the story and i was blown away by it when it wasn't as popular as it is now. after it became popular and the book came out, and we invited them -- they allowed us to name our reading room after their mother. so we used that as a way to keep our message and image out where more people know about her now than did 20 years ago. >> what is the book share program? >> it's a place for families to come in children to come in. we do an after school program there. we also do yoga tai chi and other forms of meditation for children and other members of

the community. but the next phase of it particularly we're working on this before the unrest happened some people call the uprising happened. what the goal from here is to connect with glensie, both her childrens center and project pay and utilize the skills they bring to the table and teach them how to code. they can explain in more detail. the reality is a lack of people can actually code in the technology arena. the ability to reach them at two to five is a serious way of guiding them to employment. to get back surround everything we talk about with this energy that happened during the situation in baltimore and ferguson. it's all based on fear. it's all based on fear and

security. our goal is to replace that fear with love so that there can be a better understanding of the confidence that kids can have a supreme intellectual curiosity that give them the resources they need. that's what we're trying to do. technological arena is the next phase of the earlier they can figure out that and the confidence what they do the better. >> and your program actually runs from baltimore right down the 95 corridor. you have connections here in the washington area. >> we do a lot of home school. we'll take a program to the home school outside of the mainstream schooling system and we'll bring it in and do a science class with them a geography class, coding class, robotics pneumatics solar, depending what they are working on and their curriculum at the precise moment and we'll build bo our program. we can structure the program that fits their need. we're not a large cooperation. we're individual licensee so we

can basically do what we need to get the programming across. >> how does it help the children? >> children are sponges. if you give them -- they have the access and key in baltimore is access not a lot of resources available to them. other schools, everything they possibly want not using as much as they could. you go to baltimore they don't have the resources. you're not going to go into the large computer classes built with labs sd cards they can access through. we'll take all that through them. all we need is empty room and some kids and we can teach them. >> and you're teaching them. >> we are. >> we'll continue our discussion with these three groups right after this break.

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welcome back. glenise shahbaz of the children's center tell us about your parents and how involved they are for the children they bring to you? >> okay. the parents have a wide variety of backgrounds. some have limited education, some have lots of education. no matter what they are coming to us with a good parent wants the best for their child, have them involved in after school programs full day programs even teen program. their way of giving back and providing whatever they can for young people. >> so the key is to give them an opportunity, provide access. they are glad to get the help. >> always always. some parents come to the table and know they are lacking in some areas. they are looking to educate and support them through that. i think young people every day, young people and parents at the same time that are young mothers with multiple children

stretching to provide for their children's using social services to take a step up. as a mother myself of five i speak to my children and said i used benefits from the state and used that opportunity to build myself my future. they see that and do it on their own as well. >> can we talk for a second about rates. how do you think rates havece has impacted where the mayor, police chief are african-american many police officers are african-american. in the case of freddie gray three of the six police officers charged in connection with his death are african-american. >> there's a lot of stuff you just mentioned there. i think overall if you look at the history of what people call white flight or middle class flight from all cities wasn't just baltimore, it was all based on fear. until we break down the silo

that creates insecurity and fear the person next door to me and replace it with what i think is a simple solution of love we're all going to have that situation. you have it in washington, d.c. you have it in every major city. when they are with effort to collaborate different cultures you have it. now, when you get into the details of what you mentioned about the police their concern with policing period that concern was realized when we started doing mandatory minimums and tough on crime era. we're feeling the effect of that. the government empowered police officers and empowered the prosecutors. and so there had to be some effect. simultaneously we took resources out of the community specifically in baltimore city resources were taken from the library system from the recreation and parks. the kids who were throwing those rocks at the policeman, all i

saw were curve balls, so it's baseball season. had they had access to a quality baseball program like you have in d.c. called home run d.c. then they would have been on the baseball field tath of the day. they would not have been in a place where they could break the law. however, it made them feel they would have been able to strike somebody out, rather than being on cnn. >> miss laylor do you agree that race is not necessarily the underlying issue here? >> i'm actually not from baltimore, so i look at baltimore with maybe a different set of eyes. i find with baltimore with races, people are poor you're poor no matter what color you are. institutionalized against poor people is horrible.

when you take the resources and people who dearly need it the most you're causing the cycle to continue and then become generational. if your mother didn't have the resources, and she has no way, no access to get the resources to help you out, then how are you going to ever be able to get yourself out if you have access to nothing. you can't make nothing out of nothing. you need something. when i first moved here and i saw -- i went to ball got lost. i was going to a meeting. i went to get a bottle of water. seems very simple. where i come from you pull over to the nearest store. i pulled up to a lady sitting on her stoop. i asked if

there was a grocery store nearby and she laughed at me and said you must not be from around here. that's a problem that needs to be sort. >> i think there's so many different solutions, i met with somebody met with them about what did they see. why didn't they leave, go to the mall. one of my students work there. this is how i make my living for myself. she's 20 wants to be a fashion designer. for her to go to the mall is recessing the dream. it's not just about race playing, a small part it will has to do with self-esteem, opportunity, whether or not you see a way out. talk about black people breaking out windows in their community, if half the houses are boarded up what's one more house boarded up on this block. more than race, it's socioeconomic. it's hope believing something can happen for you in the future. it's so many different things but starts with us grabbing young people as union as we

probably can and showing them love. it's about working together and i listened everybody on the corner where were they last week? we didn't know about it. >> got to take a break. as we take a break, we'd like to direct your attention to the screen where we will put west side for park heights community health alliance. if you can help this organization they noticed your help. log on and help them. we'll be right back.

welcome back. as we continue our discussion we saw members of the clergy and various religious leaders front and center during the unrest. what do you believe they and the faith community play in the rebuilding and the healing of baltimore city. >> i don't think they play any more of a substantial role than the lady up the street. i do think, you know, they have

an audience to speak to and it's good they are involved in this reaction. but i don't think we should place a lot of expectations on what they can deliver. human services who are in the street every day. there's a large theater community that is consistent with talking about altering how we view anger, how we embrace our response to violence consistently. a larger group of people doing this type of work but i don't think anybody should have any major expectations because ministers are gathering now doesn't mean jesus is coming back tomorrow. >> do you agree or disagree. >> i think they have always been there. now people are focusing the cameras are there now. people are seeing what we're seeing on the street. it's not new. >> what role should they play.

>> they should play more roles. >> what role should safe play. >> if you believe in someone greater than you, it changes your whole perspective on life and movement in general. in baltimore city there's a church on every corner and there's a liquor store on every corner. a church community, even more than what they are doing now. i have to admit project pay actually partnered with holy nativity st. johns corporation these are church that got together to work alongside. we can all do more. >> all right. thank you for the work you're doing. again, if you can help the park heights community health alliance logon to the website and make a donation. it will go a long way. thank you for being with us on "viewpoint." "news 4 today" is next.

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"news 4 today" starts now. >> right now on "news 4 today," a manhunt for a cop killer in the south. new details overnight about the deadly shooting of two officers plus how police say a cruiser ended up in the suspect's hands. >> what prince just released in hopes of fueling baltimore ahead of his concert. >> looking at storm team 4 radar, rain showers expected. we're learning when they will clear out for a nice warm sunshiny mother's day. good morning. welcome to "news 4 today." before we start, happy mother's day. >> thank you so much. thank your wife as well. >> if you're awake, happy mother's day. for all the moms i hope you're having a great one. >> another morning where it looks like we're