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Tony Spencer, Director of Youth and Community Affairs in the mayor’s office, learned about a funding opportunity through the Million Dollar Roundtable Foundation which would help bring the Kids at Hope youth development strategy to Annapolis. With the support of Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer, Spencer immediately seized the moment. Kids at Hope replaces the youth at risk paradigm with a belief system that states and demonstrates that, all kids can succeed, No Exceptions.

“If you’re an educator and you don’t believe a child can learn, you’re in the wrong profession,” he says. “We want to move from narrowing the achievement gap to eliminating the achievement gap. You have to believe that all kids can learn, and you have to find a way to make that happen.” 

Spencer, Reverend Sheryl Menendez from Light of the World Church, and Debbie Wood from the Chesapeake Children’s Museum attended National Youth Development Master’s Institute sponsored by Kids at Hope and Arizona State University in Phoenix last year; and Spencer didn’t even wait until he got back to start rallying support from the school system.

“Tony Spencer called me from Arizona. He was so excited about Kids at Hope that he wanted me to speak with [Kids at Hope founder] Rick Miller right then and there,” says Carlesa Finney, Director of Equity Assurance and Human Relations in the office of the superintendent of the Anne Arundel County Public Schools. “I said this sounds great, but I had to cut to the chase. How much is it going to cost, how is it going to impact my community, and what kind of results has he gotten from multigenerational families in public housing who have welfare dependency?” 

Miller’s explanation that Kids at Hope was a mindset and a belief system for an entire community rather just a program that piqued Finney’s interest. 

“His enthusiasm was evident and genuine. I knew the other two people who attended the training with Tony, and that added another bit of credibility.  I was intrigued.” 

When the three Community leaders returned from the training, they held a public Kids at Hope presentation at City Hall, which was well attended by educators, city council members, parents, and other community members. Not only did the speakers express their passion for the model, but Reverend Menendez also linked the Kids at Hope belief system to her community walk to stop violence, which she had organized in response to recent shootings. 

Shortly thereafter, Kids at Hope was in Annapolis to do a training for a great mix of educators and youth service leaders as well as those who worked directly with the kids. 

“I was hoping to get one school interested, but the whole feeder system is interested!” says Spencer. “We didn’t have enough space for everyone who wanted to come for the training.”

Finney adds that, “Like many in the community, we were desperate for an answer to ‘How are we going to help our kids?’ The four-hour introduction to Kids at Hope is so powerful because you can leave there with the whole model in mind. You get a bunch of people who leave with a common language and a common understanding, and it makes it easier to say ‘we’re a community that practices Kids at Hope.’” 

Kids at Hope identifies Treasure Hunters as caring adults who search beneath the surface to discover the talents and intelligence that exist in all children. And now Annapolis has its own population of Treasure Hunters who are moving the community through the Kids at Hope implementation stage.  They are planning a Hopeology Day to bring the Kids at Hope model to a coalition of churches that are working with Hispanic and African American youth. Finney is spearheading the process of introducing the model throughout the school system. 

The Kids at Hope Universal Truths state that “Kids succeed when they have meaningful, sustainable relationships with caring adults, and when they are surrounded by adults who believe they can succeed, no exceptions,” and Finney sees firsthand that community members have already begun to let those truths change their way of thinking.

“My husband is the coordinator of a computer learning center in a public housing and low income community. It’s across the street from the Stanton Community Center and there are three or four guys who are all talking to each other and reminding each other about Kids at Hope.  They’re having a very different conversation about how to support kids. It’s not that helpless, hopeless conversation.”

Spencer, Finney, Mendendez and Wood were among the first in Annapolis to embrace the Kids at Hope belief system, and they remain convinced that spreading those beliefs and principles holds the key to creating brighter futures for the youngest members of their community. 

“You know the African proverb that says, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’” says Finney. “If the village is not of one mind, there are fractured messages passed on to the children. My idea is that if everyone has that mindset, that’s what embraces the child and that’s what heals the village.” mec

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