Community Partner: Baltimore City Health Department
Peer Mentor: Victoria Aysola
Site Supervisor: Sonia Sarkar
What is the Baltimore City Health Department?
The mission of the department is to advocate, lead, and provide services of the highest quality in order to
promote and protect the health and well‐being of all of Baltimore’s residents to achieve healthcare equity
Through working with the policy team at the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), I was able to get
a glimpse of how changemaking looks from within local government. It takes persistence, creativity, and
collaboration. Most of my work over the summer was researching other states’ and jurisdictions’
legislation, especially around violence prevention. Instead of detailing each policy’s specifics, I focused
around the coalition of organizations that championed the legislation to help consider which specific
organizations here in Maryland could collaborate in support of a specific initiative. At every community
event and meeting I attended, it was clear that a coalition of agencies and community members must
come together to make things happen.
I was excited to find an atmosphere of innovation at BCHD. For example, BCHD is currently supporting a
bill in City Council that would require warning labels about the health risks of sugar‐sweetened
beverages to be posted anywhere these drinks are sold or advertised, because sugary drinks are major
contributors to childhood obesity. Only one U.S. city currently has a policy like this. To help push back
against the beverage lobby’s efforts, another intern and I drove through local neighborhoods to
demonstrate that advertising of sugary drinks are disproportionately targeted towards Baltimoreans of
lower socioeconomic status. Taking pictures of corner stores plastered with ads for sugary treats, energy
drinks, and alcohol was an eye‐opening reminder of yet another way neighborhoods impact health. I also
enjoyed the environment at BCHD. The other interns around me worked on the city's comprehensive
Zika campaign, the next Healthy Baltimore strategic plan, and social media for the agency. It was an
absolute privilege to spend this summer at BCHD, working among remarkable people dedicated to a
healthier and more social‐justice‐minded Baltimore. ‐ Victoria
Tasks:
● Researched existing policies in other states for the Health Commissioner's next state legislative agenda
● Wrote posts about the Division of Aging and CARE Services for the BCHD blog
● Tracked current federal legislation related to health
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