Caroline Better Together

FEDERALSBURG – A sea of supporters of Federalsburg Better Together, created through Maryland’s ENOUGH initiative, were present at the Federalsburg Town Council meeting on  February 3, 2026. An informative video on what Federalsburg Better Together is and aims to do was shown to the Council, and those involved spoke more in-depth about the work.

The Caroline Human Services Council backs Caroline Better Together and Federalsburg Better Together. “The idea behind both of these is really about, how do we bring our communities together to be better together, and how do we support each other?” said Kat Stork Blaher of Shore Strategies LLC. She said that while there is an “active core” of about 20 partners, about 100 people total have signed up to help where they can. “The state has been very impressed with the work and the relationships that are happening within Federalsburg,” she said. 

The video that was shown to the Federalsburg Town Council was created by the Governor’s Office for Children and focused on the idea of an “asset walk”, which was a series of walks that Federalsburg Better Together supporters did throughout the town to identify existing positive assets in the community. Stork calls these “hidden treasures.”

In the video, Federalsburg resident Danielle Brodka said that she enjoys the Federalsburg Better Together asset walks because she has lived in the community since 2018, but was not aware of all it had to offer. Heather Harding, another Federalsburg resident and Judy Center Coordinator, said, “I think it's important to look at things from a strength-based approach. What do we have here that working well, and then to think about what isn't working well?”

“The ENOUGH Act builds on something called collective impact,” said Mathew Peters, Director of the Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center, “It really is thinking outside of your organization, thinking outside of your business, thinking outside of your institution.”

After the video concluded, Federalsburg’s Mayor and Council asked questions and heard more from the crowd of partners about Federalsburg Better Together’s current progress and plans for the future. Right now, Federalsburg Better Together is seeking more community members to take part in the effort and have their voice heard. The goal, Harding explained, is to be “multifaceted” – “we really wanted to decide and determine what those needs really are, and then target where we need to build the capacity to make sure that everybody has what they need to rise up.” This includes supporting economic mobility, workforce opportunities, resources for children and their parents, transportation, and more.

“Thank you for the great work,” said Mayor Kim Abner.