Hopkins researcher Richard Lofton teams with community organizer Larry Simmons for in-depth interviews of Baltimore families to discuss social issues most important to them
Then he asks young Baltimoreans about their experiences in the city, Richard Lofton inevitably hits on a theme: They feel excluded from the decisions that impact their lives most directly.
“One thing that always comes up is they say, nobody asked me about these policies, or nobody asked me about this curriculum—nobody asked my opinion,” says Lofton, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education.
That refrain—Nobody Asked Me—is now the name and motivation for a community research project Lofton heads that seeks to amplify the voices of families living in concentrated poverty in Baltimore. Through in-depth interviews with young people ages 14-25, along with their parents or caretakers, Lofton and his team are gathering insights they believe will be instructive for policymaking and community development.