Growing up in East Baltimore's McElderry Park, Elijah Miles's identity was closely tied to his neighborhood. He'd seen older boys join gangs as a way to rep their block. It seemed like the natural path to take, despite others discouraging him from it.
"Even though I was in school, I still desired that," Miles says. "I wanted to be out there. I wanted to identify in that way and ride for the block."
Then, in seventh grade, Miles was put in Mr. Scott's class. His new teacher encouraged him to read books by Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Claude Brown, and Nathan McCall. Suddenly, Miles existed within a larger history, part of a Black community that stretched further than his neighborhood. He began to understand the systemic problems facing Baltimore and the role he could play in fixing them. Crime, drugs, and gang life didn't have to be the default. The paths toward his future seemed to multiply.
"It blew my mind," Miles says. "From there, I didn't know what I would do with my life; I didn't know if I was going to be a lawyer, a doctor, whatever. But I knew I was going to do something to contribute to my community."
This mission solidified when Miles's best friend was killed during high school.
"While I knew people that were going to try to go avenge his death, I knew that the culture that exists inside my community and communities like it is really what killed my friend," he says. "To hurt the person that did it, it wouldn't really solve the issue."
Video credit: Roy Henry / Johns Hopkins University
Today, Miles serves as chairman and founder of Tendea Family, a community nonprofit based in McElderry Park. While the physical footprint of Tendea Family remains focused, its efforts get broader every year. Their community patrols walk students home from school, connect drug users with resources, and intervene to stop potential violence. Their cadet program recruits teens and preteens to support the community. Their regular men's and women's dinners give neighbors a safe space to discuss contemporary issues. Their community cleanups have removed more than 45,000 pounds of trash from Baltimore's streets, their youth development programs have distributed more than $25,000 worth of books, and their COVID-19 grocery giveaway provided more than 900 families with emergency food.
The result, Miles says, is a neighborhood that's more invested in its own health, growth, and safety.
"It's a bunch of organizations doing this work, but we're part of the movement," Miles says. "The bare bones of it is that our neighborhoods, though they've still got some things that need to be solved, they're a lot, lot, lot less violent than they used to be. It's a lot less shooting and it's a lot less killing, and I think that's a win."
The statistics back him up: 2025 saw Baltimore's lowest homicide rate in nearly 50 years, and 2026 is on track to be even lower. According to a recent Johns Hopkins study, this decrease is in part thanks to community organizations that intervene in violence and offer resources before situations can escalate. Researchers found that, on average, Baltimore neighborhoods with the violence prevention program Safe Streets saw a 42% reduction in youth homicides (ages 15 to 24) and a 21% reduction in nonfatal youth shootings.
Tendea Family is one of several local violence prevention organizations that receive funding from the Johns Hopkins Innovation Fund for Community Safety. Launched in 2021, the fund has since distributed nearly $12 million to community-based nonprofits focused on violence prevention and intervention, workforce development, and improving community spaces in Baltimore.
"We share the same goals as our grantees: to make Baltimore safer, more economically stable, and more connected," says Maria Harris Tildon, vice president for government, community, and economic partnerships at Johns Hopkins. "Together we are advancing important work through solutions shaped by the communities we serve. This fund underscores the significance of working as a collective to address community safety."
The Innovation Fund has already made a tangible impact on organizations across Baltimore.
"The Innovation Fund is a big deal for us," Miles says. "That really stabilized the after-school patrol program and our patrols in general. It helped us to be able to do it on a more consistent basis with a larger crew of people paid."
One of these patrollers is violence interrupter Brotha Cook, who's grateful for the chance to do this work.
"I just don't want my kids seeing the same things that I've seen growing up," he says. "That's why we do this prevention program."
Hopkins leaders designed the Innovation Fund for Community Safety to align with Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott's current public safety efforts. Since taking office, Scott has encouraged local groups and government agencies to take a larger role in violence prevention, supporting initiatives beyond traditional policing.
According to Stefanie Mavronis, director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, violence prevention needs to be an interconnected effort.
"Baltimore has expanded the way we look at and think about public safety. Every institution, law enforcement agency, government apparatus, and community partner has a unique role to play in preventing violence," she says. "The Innovation Fund has helped expand and strengthen this ecosystem as, together, we continue to advance our shared vision for a better, safer Baltimore."
Adds Joseph Sakran, gun violence prevention advocate and director of emergency general surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital: "Gun violence is a public health problem. ... The reality is that there's no one person or one organization that's going to solve this problem. It requires us working together in an interconnected way."
According to Miles, grassroots organizations, including his own, have already embraced this mindset.
"The organizations that are in this neighborhood are working more closely together than we ever have been before," he says. "We're part of the movement that made it cool to uplift the community."
