Baltimore’s Promsie
Launched by a diverse group of civic leaders in 2014, Baltimore’s Promise is a collaboration to create a cradle to career pipeline to success for youth in Baltimore City by coordinating strategy, identifying quality programs, establishing shared outcomes, building public will, and advancing good policy. In Year 5, the work will focus on the implementation of the Grads2Careers occupational training scholarships for 2018/2019 graduates from Baltimore City Public Schools and the development of an Integrated Data System.
Vehicles for Change, Inc.
Since 1999, the Abell Foundation has supported Vehicles for Change (VFC) in making low-cost cars available to low-income job seekers in Baltimore City. In 2015, with funding from Abell, VFC launched an automotive technician repair program. VFC hires men and women who have been recently released from prison or who have been granted work release (usually in small cohorts of seven to eight people). All program applicants have successfully completed the 600-hour Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Auto Maintenance and Light Repair training program while incarcerated. At VFC, they receive three to five months of paid work experience, earning $9 an hour. The on-the-job experience is designed to build the trainees’ resumes and overcome any reservations that employers have about hiring returning citizens. All trainees must pass at least four ASE certification tests. The program is working: of the 114 trainees who enrolled since the beginning of the program, only four have not completed because they were on work release and had to return to prison. All of the 110 graduates have been placed into employment, with an average starting hourly wage of $16 per hour. Funding from Abell will support the training and job placement of 12 Baltimore residents.
South Baltimore Partnership
Litter and debris in streets, alleys and stormdrains is a huge problem for many Baltimore neighborhoods and the waste degrades downstream waterways. The trash is polluting and demoralizing for residents, reducing the desirability of the neighborhood and discouraging investment. South Baltimore Partnership’s has conceived of and executed a homegrown program that extends the well-received street cleaning work of summer YouthWorkers throughout the year, employs community members part-time, and measures its progress.
Rebuilding Together Baltimore
For the past 30 years, Rebuilding Together has been assisting low-income homeowners with home repairs to enable them to remain safe and healthy in their homes; to help maintain the home as an asset, thereby building wealth in the family; and to contribute to neighborhood stabilization and revitalization. With Abell support toward a new staff new position, Rebuilding Together expects to be able to increase capacity by 20 percent and serve 48 low-income homeowners in 2019.
ReBuild Metro
For over a decade, Rebuild Metro (formerly TRF Development Partners) has been building market stabilizing affordable housing in East Baltimore to create opportunity and wealth for low-income residents. The organization renovates vacant houses and builds new product for rent and for sale through their partnership with BUILD and local churches, sustaining both local construction jobs and small contractor businesses. Abell grant funding will be used to complement city and private funds toward development of a market analysis and reinvestment plan for Johnston Square.