BUILD
Turnaround Tuesdays is a BUILD jobs initiative in which residents meet at Zion Baptist Church on Tuesday mornings from 9 am to 11 am to receive help in finding employment. Over 125 people participate in Turnaround Tuesdays each week, completing a 10-week leadership training curriculum that focuses the skills needed to sustain employment. The jobs movement is working: last year, 181 people were placed into jobs, earning an average wage of $15 per hour. According to BUILD, 74% of those placed have remained employed at least a year. Retention is higher (84%) at anchor institutions such as Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical System. BUILD is establishing an employment pipeline to “good paying jobs” at these and other long-standing large, anchor institution employers, encouraging them to hire people with criminal records.
Baltimore Urban Debate League
The Baltimore Urban Debate League (BUDL), a national initiative, has reintroduced debate into Baltimore’s public school classrooms over the last two decades as a strategy to engage and inspire students from our city’s most under-resourced schools. BUDL has reached thousands of students from 4th grade to 12th grade, and changed their personal and academic trajectories by helping them discover their voice and reach their potential through debate. This grant will support the expansion of the Debate League to 53 schools (including 11 high schools) and serve over 8,500 students in the 2019-2020 school year.
Baltimore Corps
Relaunched in 2019, the Baltimore City Mayoral Fellowship recruits a cohort of 10-15 graduate and undergraduate interns to work on executive-level projects in City agencies and departments over 10 weeks during the summer. Baltimore Corps, in partnership with the Mayor’s Chief of Staff’s office, selects, places and oversees programming for the Fellowship, including weekly speaker sessions, community service and a final symposium. The Fellows program aims for 100% completion, 90% level of satisfaction, and hiring of 3 candidates within a year of program completion. Fellows will reflect the demographics of Baltimore City.
Baltimore Community Lending, Inc.
In 2018, Baltimore Community Lending created Baltimore Business Lending to assist in the creation and growth of small businesses in Baltimore City. Securing capital and business assistance remain the greatest challenges for Baltimore City entrepreneurs looking to start and grow new businesses, especially among those who have been disenfranchised historically. An Abell grant for business lending operations and marketing, as well as a partial guarantee of loan losses will enable Baltimore Business Lending to loan $1.25 million and create and retain jobs.
Paul’s Place, Inc.
For more than 35 years, Paul’s Place has been providing services to meet the basic needs of the residents of Pigtown and other Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods including nutritious hot meals, comprehensive emergency assistance, adult literacy, health services, and case management. Fundng from the Abell Foundation will help Paul’s Place sustain its Access to Healthy Food Program which includes the hot lunch program (serving 150-200 guests daily) and acting as a distribution site for the Department of Social Services emergency food program providing 3-5 days of shelf stable food for individuals and families.