Grants

Fostering Change Network Foundation

Fostering Change Network (FCN) provides mentoring, training, coaching and networking opportunities to young adults who are or were in foster care to help them achieve personal and professional success.  This grant funds FCN’s Support Our Foster Youth program, which provides support to foster youth who are attending college, to help them achieve their educational and career goals.  FCN is developing partnerships with Baltimore City Community College, University of Baltimore, and University of Maryland College Park to address the needs of current and former foster youth attending those institutions and provide the support they need to complete their degrees.  FCN is working to change the odds for youth in foster care, few of whom attend college, and when they do, they have very low rates of college completion.   

The Family Tree, Inc.

The Family Tree reaches over 20,000 people a year with parenting and caregiving programs and supports.  This grant provided support for the Family Tree to increase its capacity to provide Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), an evidence-based parenitng intervention for caregivers of infants and toddlers who have experienced early adversity.   

Emerging Technology Centers, Inc.

In 2020, the Emerging Technology Center will competitively select up to five companies to participate in the ninth cohort of Accelerate Baltimore. The technology and innovation incubation program includes 13-weeks of hands-on instruction and workshops, access to mentors, connections to potential partners and investors, and free office space at the ETC in East Baltimore to help entrepreneurs overcome technical issues, navigate changing markets and address financial challenges to boost commercialization of new products and services. The grant supports administrative costs and initial seed funding of $50,000 to each team judged to have the greatest potential for growth.

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children in Baltimore, Inc.

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Baltimore provides support and advocacy for children in abuse and neglect cases in Baltimore City’s Juvenile Court.  CASA recruits and trains lay volunteers who work closely with children referred by the Juvenile Court to assess their needs and make recommendations to the Court regarding the child’s placement and needed services.  Research on the CASA model suggests that children with CASA volunteers are more likely to be placed in permanent homes and less likely to re-enter foster care after they achieve permanancy than children without CASA volunteers.  This grant supports a new volunteer recruitment campaign, with a particular focus on increasing the number of African American CASA volunteers.

Civil Justice, Inc.

Civil Justice expands legal services to clients of low and moderate income while promoting a network of solo, small and community-based lawyers who share a common commitment to increasing access to justice. It is a common practice that, after evicting tenants who fall behind on rent, landlords will later sue those same tenants for prospective rent and alleged damages, as well as unlwafully withhold security deposits. These suits result in millions of dollars in judgments against tenants each year in Baltimore City and further destabilize tenant households. With Abell funding, Civil Justice will increase its capacity to address aggressive landlord debt collection suits against tenants, serving 50 households in the first year either through in-house counsel or through their referral network.