Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski today announced that Baltimore County’s multi-departmental, place-based revitalization initiative in the Essex community, now known as Essex Reimagined, will host a spring kickoff at a Community Connections Resource Fair on Saturday, May 6 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Deep Creek Middle School (1000 S Marlyn Ave, Essex, MD 21221).
This first-of-its-kind Community Connections Resource Fair, hosted jointly with Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) Community Schools in the Chesapeake High School Feeder Pattern, is the latest effort from the County’s Essex Reimagined initiative and will offer health resources and other community resources in addition to student performances, free arts and crafts activities, and other family-friendly entertainment.
“We remain fully committed to the successful revitalization and reimagining of the Essex community and this resource fair is another step forward in helping make that vision a reality,” Olszewski said. “Baltimore County’s Essex Reimagined initiative will continue to leverage dedicated resources and countywide coordination in the months and years ahead so that we can empower residents, address systemic disparities, and strengthen quality of life across Essex.”
In June 2021, Olszewski announced plans to develop Baltimore County’s first place-based initiative to support the Essex community’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic while also combatting longstanding historical challenges, including public safety, code enforcement, access to recreational spaces, as well as other social and economic disparities.
The Olszewski administration is actively leveraging over $3 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to support this ongoing initiative which, to date, has included efforts such as:
- Initiating a commercial revitalization effortthrough the Chesapeake Gateway Chamber of Commerce focused on the Eastern Boulevard commercial corridor;
- Introducing a pilot program to distribute high-quality trash carts for residential trash pickup to improve quality of life for residents and expand vermin abatement efforts;
- Launching a pilot partnership with Roca Baltimore to expand the organization’s youth violence intervention efforts into Baltimore County, beginning with the Essex community;
- Supporting the Community Assistance Network’s Community Choice Food Pantry in Eastpoint and Franklin Square Hospital’s FoodRx program;
- Hiring a Domestic Violence Specialist in HHS and a Social Worker at BCPL-Essex;
- Announcing streetscaping and roadway improvements along Eastern Boulevard .and to support planning and design for a multi-year bridge and sidewalk project; and
- Supporting a new Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation Youth Development Park at Essex’s Fields at Renaissance Park — the nonprofit’s first Baltimore County project.
