Parks & People Foundation
Parks & People Foundation offers a paid youth internship and environmental education after school and summer Youthworks program called ‘Branches’ to address two critical issues: the need for meaningful employment for economically disadvantaged youth and the need for a trained workforce caring for parks and green spaces in the City. Participants in the Branches program gain hands-on experience and skills designing and implementing projects that have a community impact while contributing to the areas where many of them live and attend school, including neighborhoods which have high levels of poverty and few opportunities for positive development of young people.
Office of the Public Defender
The Digital Forensics Lab will serve OPD clients who may have exonerating evidence or other valuable data on their mobile devices or social media accounts that are not available to or disclosed by the prosecution. In addition to potentially reducing outside expert fees for digital forensics analysis and testimony, this project will allow for an increasingly important avenue of investigations that is currently untapped. With support from the Abell Foundation, OPD can obtain the equipment, software, and training needed to conduct in-house data digital investigations, including: cell phone data extraction; internet, social media and cloud-based tracking and analysis; and mapping of digital data.
Neighbor to Family, Inc.
Neighbor To Family (NTF) provides high quality foster care to sibling groups so that siblings do not have to be separated when they are removed from their homes. NTF uses trained, professional foster families to provide temporary homes for sibling groups, while working closely with the biological family to address the issues that led to the children being removed from their home. The average NTF foster family takes in four siblings, with some taking in up to eight siblings at a time. This grant funds extracurricular, recreational and educational activities for children in NTF’s Baltimore program.
Maryland Sierra Club, Fiscally Sponsored by Sierra Club Foundation
The Maryland Sierra Club launched a “Clean Transportation Initiative” to focus on transportation priorities which directly affect climate change, public health and economic development. Over the next year with operational support from the Abell Foundation, Maryland Sierra Club proposes to publish a short report and build a broad coalition to advocate for increasing mass transit, electrifying the bus fleet, and accelerating adoption of low- and zero- emission vehicles in Baltimore City to exceed a statewide goal to reduce climate pollution 40% by 2030.
Made in Baltimore, Fiscally Sponsored by Baltimore Development Corporation
Made in Baltimore supports local makers and manufacturers through promotional and marketing events, a local brand-certification program, and business development support. The 12-week Home Run Accelerator program will provide intensive business development, marketing, and peer mentoring support for 15 selected home-based makers in targeted industries. MIB will track the growth/development of participants, including jobs created, revenue growth, and production space occupied will be tracked. This grant provided support for staff and program expenses associated with the Home Run Accelerator program.