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.
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.
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.
Adopt A Block, Inc.
The Adopt A Block Compassion Commission program teaches 300 young people ages 11 to 25 to look beyond their lives and be a positive influence to low-income inner-city children and adults. This is achieved through a weeklong series of activities focused in East Baltimore that provide an experience that fosters leadership, promotes volunteerism, and develops an interest in the welfare of others. Adopt A Block will acquire, renovate, and donate a formerly vacant Baltimore City home to a family led by a resident leader in the community in East Baltimore. This grant will support expenses associated with the renovation of the property.
Art with a Heart
Each year, Art with a Heart teachers and assistants provide engaging, educational, and interactive visual arts classes to vulnerable Baltimore children, youth, and adults. Funding from the Abell Foundaiton will support HeARTworks, a workforce development program that uses art as a vehicle to teach job skills; HeARTwares, Art with a Heart’s social enterprise/retail store that sells HeARTworks participants’ artwork; and arts integration, Art with a Heart’s engaging visual arts programs that supplement academic curricula in Baltimore elementary/middle schools.