Behavioral Health Leadership Institute, Inc.
The Behavioral Health Leadership Institute operates low-barrier substance abuse and mental health treatment programs in communities throughout Baltimore City. A grant from the Abell Foundation will provide on-going support for its mobile treatment van operating outside of the Baltimore City Detention Center. The mobile van offers health screenings, buprenorphine and mental health treatment on-site, and referrals to other community-based services to individuals leaving the detention center.
Strong Schools Maryland, fiscally sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence
Strong Schools Maryland, founded in Spring 2017, is a time-bounded advocacy initiative with a goal for an adequately-funded education system in which virtually all Maryland students graduate on time from high school. At stake are the education funding and policy recommendations put forward by the mandated Kirwan Commission in 2019. Strong Schools will continue its grassroots statewide advocacy through the 2020 Legislative Session to educate the public and state decision-makers using its successful organizing strategy of Teams of Ten; a monthly education and action meeting of over 188 community-based teams engaging 2,000 individuals in all of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions. The outcome of the advocacy is to pass the Kirwan Commission educational funding and policy recommendations in the 2020 session.
Baltimore Education Research Consortium
Launched by the Abell Foundation and Open Society Foundation in 2007, the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) at Johns Hopkins University pursues long- and short-term educational data analysis and research, and subsequently interprets and shares the findings with Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools), community, and stakeholder leaders. Over the next two and one-half years, BERC will expand its work and support for youth in Baltimore by building a sustainable research and practice community that is open to any university or college in Maryland interested in working with Baltimore City Public Schools.
The new governance structure, with several Councils and Research Boards, will increase opportunities to partner, disseminate findings, and translate research findings into action steps in Baltimore City. By December 2021, BERC will transition to a new revenue model that relies primarily on research grant awards to fund BERC’s ongoing operation.
Baltimore Curriculum Project, Inc.
In 2017, Baltimore Curriculum Project was named the Lead Education Partner in the $30 million Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant to redevelop the Perkins Homes neighborhood in East Baltimore. The overall goal of the five-year City Springs College and Career Readiness (CCR) Program is to prepare City Springs students to graduate from high school successfully prepared to pursue careers of choice via successful completion of college or other post-secondary training. Targeting 230 middle school students, City Springs will focus in Year I on bolstering academic readiness and career exploration by providing: Individual Academic Counseling/high school planning; Accelerated Middle School Math & Science performance/Deepening English Instruction for High Performers; College and Career Resource Class/College & Career Exploration; Parent education and engagement in College and Career Readiness; Participation in Mentoring Programs.
Baltimore Community ToolBank
Baltimore Community ToolBank provides member organizations with access to tools and other items for use in community clean-ups, festivals, and other projects for a nominal fee. The ToolBank’s Environmental Education project will develop a formal curriculum and educational programming for visitors. It will highlight the ToolBank’s use of 600,000 gallons of stormwater runoff collected annually in water cisterns and use of native plants and landscaping at its warehouse. he programming will educate visitors and inspire them to undertake similar stormwater management projects.