Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance
Since its founding in 1992, Arts Education for Maryland Schools (AEMS) Alliance has worked to ensure that all of Maryland’s public schoolchildren have consistent and equitable access to high quality arts education. In Baltimore City, arts education is largely uncoordinated, with unevenly distributed resources and nonexistent or incomplete data. This grant will support a three-county pilot of the Artlook Data Map, a searchable database that provides information about arts courses at each school, the percentage of students enrolled, and the community arts partners who work there. Ultimately, Artlook will increase accountability and promote equitable opportunities for arts education in Maryland public schools.
The Urban Alliance Foundation, Inc.
Urban Alliance (UA), founded in 1996 in Washington, DC, is a national youth development non-profit that provides economically-disadvantaged young people with the exposure, opportunity, support and training needed to prepare them for lifelong economic self-sufficiency. Its core program matches high school seniors with paid, professional internships, jobs skills training, one-on-one mentoring, and ongoing post-program support. With previous Abell funding, Urban Alliance is now also placing career bound CTE 12th graders in internships and employment. This Abell grant will support strategic and implementation planning to expand Urban Alliance’s youth employment model into a systemic career readiness provider and workforce intermediary among Baltimore City Public Schools, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and employers.
Springboard Collaborative
Springboard Collaborative, initiated in Philadelphia in 2011, is designed to close the literacy gap by closing the gap between home and school. Now operating in 10 cities, Springboard offers summer, afterschool, and in-school programs that combine targeted reading instruction for PreK-3rd graders; weekly workshops training parents to teach reading at home; a rigorous coaching cycle for teachers; and an incentive structure that awards learning tools to families—from books to tablets—in proportion to their kids’ reading progress. Springboard’s Summer pilot in Baltimore increased reading levels for 330 students by 4.3 months in 6 weeks, and engaged 73% of parents in school and home literacy learning. This grant from Abell and funding from Baltimore City Schools will enable Springboard to launch its Afterschool Program in Spring 2019 for 900 low-performing K-3rd grade readers.
Southwest Partnership
Southwest Partnership is a partnership of seven neighborhoods and six anchor institutions formed to focus on community redevelopment while preserving the uniqueness of these communities. The former Lord Baltimore Theater, is an iconic building along the historic retail strip that SWP has targeted for redevelopment as a cultural arts/education center. This grant provided support for a consultant to develop financing structure for redevelopment of the Theater, and assist SWP with the establishment of a nonprofit organization to oversee the property.
Sisters Circle
Sisters Circle, founded in 2000, is a long-term mentoring program for girls, with a primary focus on young women of color. Participants enter the program in cohorts of 30 during their 6th grade from Commodore John Rodgers, Henderson Hopkins, and City Springs elementary schools, and are paired with a cadre of caring mentors who commit to a minimum of 10 years. Sisters Circle supports these students as they transition to several high schools, colleges, and job training/certification programs, and provides opportunities to engage in programs that consist of academic readiness, summer internships, college prep, and career exploration.