Civic Works, Inc.
The Center for Sustainable Careers (CSC) has built a multi-tiered green career “pathway out of poverty” by training and placing Baltimore City residents in the infrastructure remediation and residential energy-efficiency industries. Across its programs, CSC has maintained an average job placement rate of 88%. Since 2010, 80% of graduates have remained employed for at least one year. Last year, 83% of program participants had a significant history of arrest and conviction and over 63% were formerly incarcerated. Over the next year, with funding from the Abell Foundation, CSC will train 100 Baltimore City residents for entry-level positions as well as 24 incumbent workers.
Civic Works, Inc.
Civic Works’ Eviction Prevention Outreach program responds to the emerging need of Baltimore’s renters who are facing eviction after COVID-19 pandemic moratorium protections expire and are eligible for eviction prevention funding made available through federal stimulus dollars. Civic Works will deploy AmeriCorp workers for direct outreach to the highest risk households who are scheduled for court-ordered evictions. Civic Works is also currently partnering with the Baltimore City Health Department’s COVAX initiative to provide outreach to under-vaccinated populations. Because there is considerable overlap between communities experiencing low rates of vaccination and communities with residents at risk of eviction, the Eviction Prevention Outreach Initiative will work in coordination with the COVAX outreach activities within targeted zip codes. Trained Civic Works staff workers will assist renters to complete applications for eviction prevention funding to pay past-due rent and prevent evictions.
CASH Campaign of Maryland
The Baltimore CASH Campaign—Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope—was launched in 2001 to increase access to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a powerful work incentive and poverty-alleviation tool, lifting more families out of poverty than any other federal aid program. Now a program of the CASH Campaign of Maryland, Baltimore CASH plans to serve 7,500 Baltimore residents in 2022 by operating 11 free tax preparation sites.
Baltimore’s Promise, Fiscally Sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence
The Summer Funding Collaborative (SFC) is an aligned fund that directs resources to high-quality summer programs for low-income children in Baltimore City. In 2021, the SFC included 13 public and private funders that, collectively, distributed $3.46 million to 87 programs, funding a projected 9,500 seats. This grant includes funding for between 5-10 non-profit organizations providing summer experiences that will be determined in late winter 2022 alongside funding for high dosage tutoring programs to provide layered support to funded summer providers.
Baltimore Tree Trust
Baltimore Tree Trust’s Community Forester Corps program offers virtual, classroom, and hand-on training in tree planting and maintenance, urban forestry, and tree mapping and data management. The program creates viable pathways to employment opportunities for people who have been marginalized by lack of education, discrimination, and unavailability of jobs matching their skill sets. By planting and maintaining trees, trainees contribute to Baltimore City’s goal of increasing tree coverage from 26% to 40% by 2037. Expanding the urban tree canopy improves the health of residents and livability of neighborhoods, promotes environmental stewardship, addresses adverse climate change and extreme heat, and advances equity.