Venture For America
Venture for America (VFA) strengthens entrepreneurship, business formation, and economic growth by attracting top talent college graduates to work in start-up and early-stage companies. Since 2013, VFA has matched 148 Fellows with full-time employment in nearly 60 high-growth companies and startups in Baltimore. Additionally they have supported the launch of 16 Fellow-founded companies in Baltimore. Of the 209 Fellows selected nationally for company matches in 14 cities in 2021, 57% identify as people of color, 52% are female or gender nonconforming, and 24% are first generation college students. VFA expects 21 Fellows to begin two-year fellowships in start-up companies in Baltimore in fall 2021.
University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation
Since 2009, Promise Heights has anchored one of B’more for Healthy Babies’ (BHB) place-based initiatives to improve birth outcomes and family well-being in West Baltimore. Promise Heights has long supported parents after the birth of their children, including providing breastfeeding support, family planning, research-based parenting classes and early literacy opportunities.
This grant supports the Teen Parenting Success Program (TiPS), which bring this continuum of services to pregnant and parenting teens at Renaissance Academy and Frederick Douglass High School. The two Community Hub Leaders in this program will ensure all pregnant and parenting teens are connected to Health Care Access Maryland as well as provide individual case management to set and achieve individual goals for health and wellness, education/vocation, as well as family planning. The Community Hub Leaders will also hold group programming in the high schools to build social support among young parents and their families.
Towson University
The University Supported Middle School Tutoring Pilot is a project connecting Towson University and Morgan State University students with middle school students at AFYA public charter school in a tutoring relationship designed to boost literacy skills. The program will enable 20-30 college students to serve as university tutors that will be matched with two middle school students each for whom to providing literacy tutoring throughout the year.
Success for All Foundation, Inc.
The Success For All Foundation, based out of the Johns Hopkins School of Education is developing a new middle school tutoring initiative, entitled ThemeReads. Summer of 2021 would be targeted for the research and development of the main program components of this middle school tutoring initiative. The implementation phase of ThemeReads will be paired with a matched evaluation of the program, comparing gains from pre-test to post-test for students participating in the intervention.
St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, Inc.
Launched in 2014, St. Vincent de Paul’s Front Door program provides short-term rent subsidies coupled with housing search assistance, intensive case management, and employment support to homeless families and single adults in Baltimore. The program serves 160 households per year and has had significant success supporting people to move from homelessness to stable housing. Of those who exited the program in FY2020, 97% remained in permanent housing six months later, and none had re-entered the shelter system a year after exiting the program. In addition, 69% of those who exited the program in 2020 were employed at the time of exit, and received support from navigators who assist clients to find and sustain employment. St. Vincent de Paul tailors services to the needs of each household to ensure that clients achieve stability and are able to remain housed. While the housing costs are covered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Abell funds are used to pay for furniture, moving expenses, and miscellaneous expenses related to removing employment barriers.