Maryland’s poultry industry produces more than 300 million chickens a year which generate roughly 650 million pounds (0.3 million tons) of poultry litter annually.  Most of the chicken waste is applied as fertilizer onto farm fields, but there is more of it than the fields can absorb.  Excess...

The Abell Foundation provided $73,100 to help establish the Pretrial Justice Clinic at the University of Baltimore.  The Pretrial Justice Clinic will focus on the “front end” of incarceration and seek to reform a broken bail system that wrongfully incarcerates thousands of people awaiting trial...

A study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse in March 2011 found that of nearly 1,000 pregnant, opioid-abusing women, almost nine of every 10 pregnancies were unintended. In light of these findings and understanding the importance of reducing barriers to reproductive health...

Betamore is a technology, entrepreneurship, and education-focused organization located in an 8,000 sq. foot campus in Federal Hill.  Its goal is to foster the growth of a technology community and a technology-savvy workforce in Baltimore City. Betamore’s focus on business incubation and ongoing...

In recent years, family homelessness has become an increasing concern, both in Baltimore and nationally.  In Baltimore, families with minor children comprise more than a quarter of the city’s homeless population.  Because of the unique needs of homeless families with children, homeless service...

Established in 1979 on the south bank of the Middle Branch Basin, the Baltimore Rowing Club is located between two of Baltimore’s highest poverty neighborhoods, Cherry Hill and Westport.  In 2011, the Rowing Club created a new after-school and summer program, called Reach High Baltimore, in an...

The 2012 Brookings Institution report, Building from Strength:  Creating Opportunity in Greater Baltimore’s Next Economy, argues that the manufacturing industry in Baltimore has long been recognized for offering good-paying jobs to those without a postsecondary education.  Once known for steel...

Benefits Data Trust (BDT) is a national organization founded in 2005 to help low-income individuals access state and federal aid programs, such as food stamps (SNAP benefits), Medical Assistance, and energy assistance programs. BDT’s model relies on partnerships with federal, state, and local...

For more than 50 years, Catholic Charities has been meeting the needs of Baltimore’s Latino community in East Baltimore.  Originally known as the Hispanic Apostolate, the immigrant support program began by teaching English to new immigrants.  Over the past half-century, the program has grown...

The Baltimore Community ToolBank provides tools to community-based nonprofit organizations, churches and other faith-based groups, schools, neighborhood associations, and other primarily volunteer-based efforts for community revitalization.  Projects can include, but are not limited to:...

For over 20 years, the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) has provided business development and lending services to the Latino and minority business community in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. LEDC is both a U.S. Department of the Treasury-certified Community Development...

The ACLU focuses on the “front end” of the criminal justice system—from policing to sentencing— seeking to end criminal justice policies that result in mass incarceration, over-criminalization, and racial injustice. Maryland’s prison population has nearly tripled in recent years, growing from 7,...

As part of the effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore City is required -- by federal mandate -- to restore 20 percent of the city’s impervious surface area within its five watersheds.  Increasing adoption of green infrastructure practices (“greening”) in residential neighborhoods is...

Reading Partners is a national nonprofit that recruits, trains, and supports community volunteers to increase the amount of time and personnel available during the school day to deliver data-driven, one-on-one tutoring to students in kindergarten through fifth grade.  With Abell Foundation start...

Despite the growing number of afterschool options in Baltimore, there are very few scholastic after-school activities that offer the benefits of encouraging teamwork, leadership, and problem solving, while buttressing in-school academic performance.  The Abell Foundation has invested in building...

The percentage of Baltimore City public high school graduates enrolling in college has been declining, and now hovers at 44 percent.  In addition, fewer students are choosing four-year colleges, and 75 percent of those who do enroll in college require remedial coursework. Generally, only 30...

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a powerful work incentive and poverty-alleviation tool, helping low-income working families to increase their earnings by as much as 40 percent.  Research indicates that the EITC has increased the employment and earnings of single women and female heads of...

Founded in 1968 by the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore, the Franciscan Center is an emergency outreach center that serves individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The Franciscan Center is located in the Charles Village neighborhood in central Baltimore, but...

With a start-up grant from the Abell Foundation and the New Schools Venture Fund, the Urban Teacher Center (UTC) was founded in September, 2009, creating a new model to train and certify highly effective teachers in Baltimore and Washington, DC.  UTC has developed and implemented an...

Research, most notably the work of Johns Hopkins researcher Karl Alexander (2001), has identified summer vacation as the culprit in widening the achievement gap in reading between low-income children and their wealthier peers. Termed “summer slide,” low-income children lose, on average, three...

In a high-needs urban public school district, the focus and resources are often directed toward lower-performing students. Baltimore City Public Schools has offered few rigorous academic programs for the high-achieving student beyond five selective admission high schools. Even those programs are...

Since 1994, the ACLU has been a champion of students’ rights to an adequate education in Baltimore City.  Its Education Reform project has been instrumental in advocating for increased statewide funding for Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) through the Bridge for Excellence...

Since February 2000, with support from the Abell Foundation, the Rose Street Community Center (Rose Street) has offered small weekly stipends (no more than $10 a day) to community residents in exchange for participating in daily community clean-ups, GED classes, or gang mediation meetings. Last...

Since 2000, crude oil has been extracted from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota through a process called hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).  Bakken crude oil, which is shipped by rail to port cities around the country for transport, is highly explosive.  Communities along rail lines...

In 2010, the Waterfront Partnership launched the Healthy Harbor Initiative, an education campaign to draw attention to the poor water quality of Baltimore’s harbor and to create a blueprint for action with the ambitious goal of making the harbor swimmable and fishable by 2020. The Baltimore...

The Emerging Technology Centers (ETC) launched the AccelerateBaltimore program in January, 2012, to advance rapid growth of start-up companies through a program of accelerated incubator services and investment funding.  Modeled after successful accelerator programs from across the country, such...

In 2010, Civic Works began building a farming operation for food production and access, workforce training, and education of Baltimore City school children on six acres in Clifton Park called Real Food Farm. Farm operations have grown to include seven production high tunnels (or hoop houses),...

Year Up provides low-income high school graduates and GED recipients, ages 18 to 24, with a year of information technology (IT) and Investment Operations training, leading to technical careers, with starting salaries of over $35,000. In 2006, Year Up opened an office in the Washington, DC area (...

In the spring of 1997, the Abell Foundation awarded Baltimore City Healthy Start a $250,000 grant to replicate in Baltimore the highly successful East Harlem job placement program called STRIVE. The East Harlem program has been in operation since 1985 and now has affiliate programs in ten other...