By Victoria Mejicanos
AFRO Staff Writer
vmejicanos@afro.com
Each year the King Center, the Atlanta-based nonprofit created to educate and support efforts to improve civil and human rights, sets the tone for Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations worldwide. The 2026 theme, “Mission Possible II: Building Community, Uniting a Nation the Nonviolent Way,” emphasizes nonviolence as both a principle and a practical approach.
Reflecting this theme, this week, the AFRO spoke with leaders who are doing the work of making Baltimore a safer place to live, work and play by teaching and promoting nonviolence in the community.
Tracee Ford, deputy director at Community Mediation Maryland, spends her days training residents and organizations how to resolve conflicts collaboratively, before they escalate. Ford shared that her understanding of non-violence comes from how violence is inflicted upon communities because of traits like ethnicity, gender, sexuality and ability.
“A lot of times we’re talking about physical violence, but much of how we’ve experienced violence in the United States has not necessarily been physical violence,” said Ford. “There’s financial and verbal violence, and there’s political violence, and much of how we’ve experienced it has been around policies and how policies that are created limit access to resources.”
Ford shared that one of the tools she gives to people and organizations is inclusive listening.
According to a study provided by Community Mediation Maryland, mediators use inclusive listening to reflect back feelings, values and topics to help build understanding between those involved in a conflict. They also use open-ended questions to gain clarity.
Ford shared an example of inclusive listening through what she calls “1-2-3 mediation.” After two women with children from the same man got into a physical altercation on a packed bus they found themselves in mediation sessions. Through mediation, they learned to communicate differently and discovered common ground: their children. Mediation changed the relationship between the two women and, in the end, they were making arrangements to have meals with each other every pay day.
Credit: Screenshot courtesy Youtube / Community Mediation Maryland
“Misogyny tells us that women who have children by the same man are not able to get along,” said Ford. “In a collaborative process like mediation, these women are able to overcome the misogynistic narratives that are told about themselves and told about their relationships with each other. They’re building a new dynamic for family, for themselves, in a collaborative way that’s going to create more stability for their children.”
While Ford’s work can transform individual lives, Stefanie Mavronis, director of Baltimore’s Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, oversees the city’s broader strategy to prevent violence at the community level.
Mavronis said that collaboration between local organizations and the city is vital to reducing violence. She highlighted partnerships with organizations such as Challenge 2 Change, We Our Us and Roca.
“These solutions have to be owned at the community level, and government plays a role in supporting and lifting them up. That’s really how we approach the challenge here,” said Mavronis. “People who are closest to the problem are also closest to the solution, and I think that’s what our comprehensive public safety strategy reflects.”