BALTIMORE, MD (Wednesday, September 24, 2025) - Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott released data highlighting the outcomes of the Mayor's Office's BMore this Summer: Outside in '25 summer youth engagement strategy.

Similar to the previous two summers, this summer's approach was centered on providing productive and positive engagement opportunities for Baltimore's young people through events, opportunities, and resources that allow young people to enjoy themselves in a safe environment outside of school hours.

These programming opportunities were again combined with ground-level safety engagement in areas where Baltimore's young people commonly congregate on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as Sunday nights on holiday weekends, from early April through this past weekend.

"Baltimore's young people deserve opportunities to have fun and be safe--which is the ultimate goal of all of our summer youth engagement investments," said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. "Supporting our young people and encouraging safe behavior is an important part of our work to improve public safety outcomes for all Baltimoreans. This was truly a team effort, and I want to thank all of the partners and community members who gave their time and energy to make this strategy a success."

Safety Engagement

Deemphasizing the role of law enforcement in Baltimore's curfew engagement, Mayor Scott mobilized the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), Mayor's Office of African American Male Engagement (MOAAME), and community partners For My Kidz, Redesigning Minds, and the PEACE Team to lead proactive, ground-level engagement with young people in high foot-traffic areas. Staff emphasized relationship building with young people, de-escalated conflicts and prevented potential violence, and offered connections to wraparound services as needed.

Thanks to this increased presence, staff were able to coordinate with the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and Baltimore City Schools Police to ensure accountability when young people engaged in behaviors that put themselves or others in danger.

Building on previous summers' successes, ground-level safety engagement in 2025 started in April and continued through this past weekend, almost doubling the number of weekends partners were activated compared to last year.

Thanks to a new partnership with B-360, the City and outreach workers were able to utilize B-360's downtown location as a Youth Connection Center to convene and reconnect young people in need of additional support.

From the second weekend in April through last weekend, youth engagement staff had more than 977 positive interactions with young people in the areas they were deployed. As part of this engagement, staff documented 113 requests for services, including connection to critical resources, employment, housing assistance, and reconnection with their school communities.

Year-to-date, youth homicide victimizations are down 83.3% (2 in 2025 compared to 12 in 2024), aggravated assault victimizations are down 20.3% (274 in 2025 compared to 344 in 2024), robbery victimizations are down 30.9% (192 in 2025 compared to 278 in 2024). Youth shooting victimizations are up 17.4% (27 in 2025 compared to 23 in 2024) but are still down 63.5% from the 74 young people who were nonfatally shot in 2023.

BPD has made 629 juvenile arrests so far in 2025, down from 636 made during the same time period last year.

Programming Opportunities

The Mayor's Office and Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks (BCRP) partnered to deliver a comprehensive set of summer programming opportunities specifically designed for young people to enjoy.

Overall, thousands of young people were able to take advantage of these offerings including:

• 1,400 participants at the Mayor's Office Spring Break TeenFest;
• 1,313 young people attended at least one of three Splash Fest teen pool parties;
• 8,604 YouthWorks job offers across 697 participating employers;
• 3,204 young people who attended a BCRP summer camp at one of 43 locations;
• Over 2,138 backpacks and 800 hygiene kits distributed. 4,237 meals provided to young people and their families at the Mayor's Back to School Event.
• 1,792 attendees across six Rock the Block community block parties hosted by the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs' (MOCA).
• 223 young people participated in Midnight Basketball on Friday and Saturday evenings at the Dome in East Baltimore.
• Approximately 6,900 teens and young adults (ages 13-20) participated in Late Night Weekend Hype programming at one of the nine recreation centers listed below.

The following recreation centers operated under extended hours until 11pm every Friday and Saturday night from June 20 to August 16 and featured programming tailored to teens and young adults ages 13-20:

• Cahill, 4001 Clifton Ave, Baltimore, MD 21216;
• CC Jackson, 4910 Park Heights Ave, Baltimore, MD 21216;
• Edgewood/Lyndhurst, 835 Allendale St, Baltimore, MD 21229;
• Greenmount, 2304 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD 21218;
• Lakeland, 2921 Stranden Rd, Baltimore, MD 21230.
• Madison, 1401 E Biddle St, Baltimore, MD 21225;
• Middle Branch, 201 Reedbird Ave, Baltimore, MD 21225;
• Rita Church, 2101 St Lo Dr, Baltimore, MD 21213;
• Robert C Marshall, 1201 Pennsylvania Ave, Baltimore, MD 21217;

Additionally, this summer, Baltimore City Public Schools was able to offer 17,639 slots across 150 summer learning programs:

• 33 School-based programs
• 27 Springboard sites (school-based)
• 27 ESY sites (including 4 ESY/SALA)
• 18 District-run programs
• 5 District-run credit recovery sites
• 22 Partner-run programs
• 12 CTE/CCR Programs