Table 4 Themes and direct quotes from participants across five zip codes in the city of Baltimore

Sense of Pride

Just to say that my kids are still here, and they are here, live in the city of Baltimore I’m proud of, of course, I would like to see some change in Baltimore, we will all have to come like together as a whole

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

I was born and raised just a little bit I was born and raised in the time of Jim Crow. I’ve seen a lot of history and my family was involved in a lot of history like several magazines … a lot, a lot of good people who we look up to like Thurgood Marshall, I mean, it’s a lot of people know just about you know, being on an avenue and things, their lifestyle has taught me, that things they said we couldn’t do, we couldn’t be, we could be

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

I was born and raised here, and I'm proud of my city because they have like some great school for the kids and also as the part of our Baltimore recreation and parks we got a lot of programs to do for the kids so they don’t have to get involved in a lot of hustle activities

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

A sense of pride

A sense of accomplishment and historic value

A sense of belonging

Lack of community centers/

resources

I want to see some health resources, where there was no charge. Get the folks who have no transportation, take them to these different locations to participate in these different things

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

Because some places they got extra trains to get to it traveling, everybody don’t have transportation, everybody don’t have $5 and 50 cent or whatever it costs to get on the bus

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

In my community, I wish there were like stores or things closer to me that I can walk to you because I really like walking and exercise

 ~ Male Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

I went to school around here, when I was 17 I was in marching bands, they had rec centers, they had pools, play grounds, but they took all the main buildings away, like they took one of our community centers and turned it into a shelter, not saying that’s a bad thing, but nobody in the neighborhood had nowhere to go

 ~ Male Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

It is really nothing in the community to raise the kids. And see I grew up doing outreach, there is nothing to do like outreach. There is no stuff for young people

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

You don’t put a community health center in a broke community and then try to charge them. At least have some free services that people can use. Everybody ain’t got insurance, everybody can’t afford a copay

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

A sense of being overlooked

A sense of a lack of government consideration

A sense that the leadership does not care enough to invest in their communities

Lack of quality care and mental health services

Man they gave me some medicine that made me chipper, as fast as I passed it out, as fast as I threw it away

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

I got a whole lot of prescriptions at home stacked up in the drawer, and I know I can take that on the corner, and in a month or so after somebody take it … you know what I mean … no I ain’t gonna do that. I am just saying, there will be many more killings out there than there is now

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

That’s bad, the mental health … that’s bad … there’s people out here that you don’t know– the very person you walk by could have issues, be mentally unstable, you don’t know and a lot of things that’s going on a lot of things people are doing, mentally they’re not there. What are they going to do and what services are really offered for those people? The mental health situation in this city is bad

 ~ Female Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

From my doctor, the internet, 21,217 really don’t have no services no more. Everything they had turns into something else. They have a bunch of empty lots, junkies

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

I mean, having health insurance is a concern; I think violence being addressed, drugs and violence is a concern; I think … mental health needs need to be addressed because there is a lot going on and a lot of people are undiagnosed unless the drugs come in with the self-medication and all of that

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

Concern for excessive prescription drug use

Concern for rising mental health issues without access to mental health services

Food desert/

Lack of healthy food

In my community there used to be a market. I used to like it, I stayed in that market and would go shopping in a minute. When COVID came they shut it down

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

Places should have a food pantry, for people who can’t afford to get it for their kids and stuff … I feel like if they can make a big community center of everything that somebody needs in the community and have a good hand of people that works there

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

So, for me is eating healthier. Because these kids do not understand what good food is. The food that we get here now is this unhealthy food

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

The poor food habits, that would be something where they just don’t tell us but they actually show us

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

A sense of being excluded from healthier food access

Lack of quality food throughout the community

Concern for health consequences as a result of the lack of quality foods

No nutrition programs to create awareness about healthier lifestyles

Youth at risk

You see, you see a basketball court right here, but a lot of them have been torn down. So it's like it's not like kids can go … is there’s nowhere for them to go but outside. The swimming pool? No, they just saw open up some of the pools, you just got to follow the rules

 ~ Male Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

When I drop of my kids and I gotta go in there and remove a needle from the playground … and they’re getting them from hospitals, soon as they get the opportunity they go to the hospitals and get these syringes, going to sell them, going to use them

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

There is a whole bunch of stuff out here, this is stuff you get from a psychiatrist and most of them people) out here getting high, and most of the young kids that have died in the last couple of years, most of them if they didn’t get shot it was from overdoses from pills. Not from crack cocaine, dope, no it was mainly from pills. So they do a lot of pill usage, there are still people who are getting high but it is mostly the pills. I think they sell more pills than they sell anything

 ~ Female Participant (Bentalou Recreation Center)

I don't feel I don't feel too safe, but I just be aware of my surroundings. Because a lot of what's going on is beyond our control. What can you do?

 ~ Male Participant (Crispus Attuck Recreation Center)

The environment for youth is impacting the community, due to the lack of youth resources and programs

Lack of community resources increased the lack of youth programs and subsequent negative behaviors

Health care providers’ carelessness in prescribing drugs leads to too many prescribed pharmaceuticals becoming readily available on the streets