“It is great knowing someone is on your side.”
This is the typical response of the 250 to 300 people a year assisted by the Rebuild, Overcome, and Rise (ROAR) Center at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Executive director Lydia Watts, JD, and her staff help crime survivors who fall through the cracks in Baltimore City.
While homicides and nonfatal shootings (158 and 307, respectively, through mid-June) catch the headlines, it is the people left behind by the carnage of violence whom ROAR assists. The mom whose son has been shot and is in danger of losing her job; the brother and sister who are scared to go to school; the victim who needs medical care but has no insurance or transportation; the witness to a crime who wants to flee but is locked into a lease.
ROAR’s “one-stop shop” of therapists, lawyers, social workers, case managers, intake specialists, and nurses jump into the fray, bringing a measure of stability to a life spiraling out of control.
And they do it in a humane way.
“Our clients are predominantly Black and low-income, and many systems don’t see them as fully human and deserving of respect,” said Watts, who started ROAR in January 2019 with a million-dollar grant from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services. “We’re determined to shift that narrative. We see their beauty. We see their strength. We return their phone calls. We have empathy. We sit with them. We try our best to answer their questions: ‘Why am I being interrogated? Why was my phone taken? What is happening with my murdered son’s case?’ ”
Read more about how ROAR fosters stability for victims, their families, and witnesses, in the July 2022 issue of SPOTLIGHT newsletter.