Art with a Heart
$50,000 / 2019 / Workforce Development
Each year, 70 Art with a Heart teachers and assistants provide 14,500 engaging, educational, and interactive visual arts classes to vulnerable Baltimore children, youth, and adults in schools, group homes, shelters, community centers, recreation centers, senior facilities, and hospitals. Funding from the Abell Foundaiton will support HeARTworks, a workforce development program that uses art as a vehicle to teach job skills; HeARTwares, Art with a Heart’s social enterprise/retail store that sells HeARTworks participants’ artwork; and arts integration, Art with a Heart’s engaging visual arts programs that supplement academic curricula in 19 Baltimore elementary/middle schools.
The Ingenuity Project
$375,000 / 2019 / Education
The Abell Foundation launched The Ingenuity Project in 1994. Today, Ingenuity prepares and launches the next diverse generation of nationally competitive STEM leaders in Baltimore City, serving 750 students in grades 6-12. This grant will enable Ingenuity to expand and improve access to students of color and students living in concentrated poverty by opening a fourth middle school program at James McHenry School in West Baltimore and through the provision of tailored support and enrichment opportunities. Ingenuity will continue to serve as the exemplary accelerated math and science program that prepares Baltimore City students for selective colleges and STEM careers with its signature Practicum Research experience.
Urban Teachers
$100,000 / 2019 / Education
With Abell Foundation start-up funding, Urban Teachers launched a new model of teacher preparation in 2009, recruiting outstanding college graduates, training them in a year-long clinical preparation, and linking their certification to demonstration of effective teaching practices and student learning gains. Urban Teachers is currently training 100 new incoming Resident Teachers who co-teach with mentor teachers for the first year of a four-year commitment. With this grant, Urban Teachers will implement a new digital recruiting and marketing initiative that will more efficiently target talented and diverse candidates, with a focus on men, STEM majors, people of color, and speakers of multiple languages, for its teacher prep program.The goal of the project is to increase the number of highly effective, culturally competent teachers of color hired with no decline in the quality of candidates. As importantly, the new marketing approach is projected to cut the cost of recruitment by 40%, from a current baseline of $7,000 per hired candidate.
Public Justice Center, Inc.
$25,000 / 2019 / Health and Human Services
The Public Justice Center (PJC) is a nonprofit, legal services, and advocacy organization that addresses social justice, economic and race equity, and fundamental human rights for individuals in Maryland. With funding from the Abell Foundation, PJC has led a multi-year campaign to research and advocate for changes in laws and practices that limit tenants’ rights and deny due process in eviction cases in Baltimore City’s rent court. As a member of the Renters United Maryland coalition, PJC has been advocating for a legal right to counsel for tenants facing eviction. This grant will fund a study of the cost-effectiveness of providing counsel to tenants in eviction cases in Baltimore City.
Per Scholas
$150,000 / 2019 / Workforce Development
Founded in South Bronx, NY in 1994, Per Scholas has trained more than 9,000 individuals in Information Technology, producing impressive outcomes: 85 percent graduation, 80 percent certification, and 80 percent job-placement rates. Funding from the Abell Foundation will support Per Scholas’ expansion to Baltimore City, where Per Scholas plans to train 60 Baltimore City residents. Per Scholas expects that 85 percent will graduate, 80 percent will earn at least one industry-recognized credential, and 80 percent will secure employment within six months of training. TEKsystems, with its headquarters in Hanover, MD, has pledged to hire 40 program graduates.
