Civic Works, Inc.
$200,000 / 2019 / Community Development
Civic Works’ Retrofit Baltimore program offers weatherization, home energy efficiency and health & safety improvements to low and moderate income households. Utilizing competitive Maryland Energy Administration funding and BGE utility rebates, the program expects to complete 100 energy audits, energy efficient weatherization improvements in 50 homes, and bedbug remediation in 50 homes and screen all households for property tax credits, water bill discounts and federal nutrition benefits. The grant covers expenses for staff to promote the program, screen applicants for benefits, establish scopes of work, manage contract implementation, and ensure quality control.
Food & Water Watch
$20,000 / 2019 / Community Development
Food & Water Watch will provide research, education and advocacy around issues of affordability of water and wastewater consumption in Baltimore City by low income customers. Grant funding will be used toward best practices information from a research consultant and expert on utility affordability, the production and distribution of educational and promotional materials, and staff costs of outreach, civic engagement and community education about water utility customer affordability issues.
Fund for Educational Excellence
$40,000 / 2019 / Education
Founded in 1984, the Fund for Educational Excellence (The Fund) is a Baltimore-based organization that supports public education through its fundraising and collaboration with Baltimore City Schools, convening and technical support to education non-profits. This operating grant enables The Fund to produce community-sourced education reports and then act upon recommendations, provide stewartship for over $20 million in philanthropic suport for innovative programs in City Schools, and convene diverse organizations and education partners to identify, facilitate and accelerate efforts to improve student achievement in Baltimore. Noteworthy are the Fund’s recent fundraising to support the City Sshools Blueprint, its grant awards to School Principals, and its operation of the successful Chicago Parents Program.
Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth
$38,440 / 2019 / Education
With a goal to close the persistent “excellence gap” between sub-groups of advanced learners, the Baltimore Emerging Scholars Program targets students in grades 2-4 who show potential for becoming academically advanced as well as the teachers who work with them. Run by the renowned Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, this program serves 600 students in 18 schools (identified without using a test) with weekly 90-minute enrichment lessons around an interdisciplinary theme. The Abell grant will enable Emerging Scholars to develop a 5th grade curriculum entitled “Recover, Repair, Rebuild,” and to train 5th grade teachers to use the curriculum reaching an additional 400 5th grade students. The project will follow the trajectories of participating students into middle school.
Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
$150,000 / 2019 / Community Development
The Baltimore Healthcare Innovator Retention Program fellowship stipends enable talented Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineering students to continue working on promising healthcare innovations after they complete their graduate studies. These teams of Fellows operative as virtual startups creating commercially viable products, seeking follow-on funding, and creating new companies. The program maximizes the translation of discovery and invention from the University biomedical program into income-generating companies which have the potential to generate local employment.
