Activism

Mental healthcare and the treatments, supports, and interventions that improve quality of life for affected individuals and their families are sorely lacking in our state. Even the best private insurance plans offer small to moderate coverage of mental health interventions, and inpatient treatment options are too few or out of reach financially for most people. Wrap around and/or supportive services for caretakers and guardians experiencing mental health issues are almost non-existent. Too often mental health treatment options only become available after a crisis or tragedy, instead of preventative care.

Safe and adequate housing is either unaffordable and unavailable for too many people in Maryland. While areas like Montgomery, Harford, Baltimore, and Anne Arundel Counties are known for having housing issues, Charles County and Southern Maryland are similarly affected. The increasing population of people experiencing homelessness or who lack consistent housing in Charles County alone is a bleak indicator of how dire this situation is.

Within Charles County, but also throughout the state of Maryland, exist communities that have been intentionally denied basic human rights like running water, sewage, trash removal, and flood control. These primarily rural, Black communities have been systematically been denied services and assistance given to other non-Black, wealthy neighborhoods.

Waterfront properties are often discussed when the impact of the climate crisis in Maryland is discussed. But thousands of communities across the state experience the devastation of increasingly violent and volatile weather patterns that produce flooding, storm surges, wind damage, and storm-borne water and air pollution but receive little to no assistance, remediation funds, or even acknowledgement of their struggles.