Youth Empowered Society, Fiscally Sponsored by Maryland Philanthropy Network
The YES drop-in center serves homeless youth ages 14 – 25, providing counseling, peer support, connections to resources, and a safe place for youth to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, laundry facilities, and access to phones and computers, among other things. YES staff and partner agencies provide employment counseling and job placement support; housing assistance; case management; assistance accessing public benefits; access to health care; legal services; and leadership development opportunities. This grant will support the construction and relocation costs associated with the YES Center’s move to a new, larger building that will better meet the needs of the youth it serves.
WYPR-Your Public Radio Corporation
Baltimore and Maryland face critically important and increasingly difficult environmental issues and public health challenges while news organization coverage has shrunk dramatically over the last decade. WYPR, Baltimore’s local radio station, offers “The Environment in Focus,” a weekly program providing listeners with engaging and informative stories about the environment and environmental issues, from COVID and climate change, sea level rise, and endangered species to relevant federal rulings, state policy analysis and city actions. This grant pays the full production costs of the weekly radio program.
Vehicles for Change, Inc.
Since 1999, the Abell Foundation has supported Vehicles for Change in making low-cost cars available to low-income job seekers in Baltimore City. With funding from Abell, VfC plans to award 40 repaired and Maryland-inspected cars to Baltimore City residents referred by the following sponsoring agencies: Center for Urban Families, Humanim, Living Classrooms, JOTF’s Project Jumpstart, and the Biotechnical Institute of Maryland.
Up2Us Sports
Up2Us aims to engage, train and support sports coaches to transform youth, programs and communities. The organization partners with AmeriCorps to offer year-long coaching placements with schools and community programs as a service learning opportunity. This grant will help subsidize the cost-share for community-based programs that operate in-person programming so that they are able to hire a high-quality coach.
University of Baltimore Foundation
The University of Baltimore School of Law Truancy Court Program (TCP) identifies young people who are at risk for delinquency, substance use, gang involvement, and other behavioral problems linked to truancy and school disengagement. The primary goal of the TCP is to reduce truancy by reconnecting students and their families with their schools in order to break the school-to-prison pipeline. The holistic approach utilized by the TCP involves multiple components that include mentoring, continual and consistent follow-up and oversight, tutoring, social services referrals, legal guidance, and the powerful presence of a retired judge who leads the effort.