Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service
The Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS) is the largest pro-bono legal services organization in Maryland and its small, paid staff leverages a large network of volunteer lawyers to provide free legal assistance to people who otherwise would not have access to an attorney. Funding from the Abell Foundation will support the rebuild of MVLS’ CLUE (Client Legal Uitlity Engine) data scraping tool. CLUE is owned by MVLS and used by many community partners to scrape public data from the Maryland Judiciary Case Search to support social justice reform. MVLS and its community partners have used CLUE to assist in areas such as identifying class action lawsuits, bail reform, consumer debt issues, and fine and fees related to court proceedings.
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.
Rose Street Community Center
Since February 2000, with support from the Abell Foundation, the Rose Street Community Center (Rose Street) has offered small weekly stipends (no more than $10 a day) to community residents in exchange for participation in daily community cleanups or gang mediation meetings. Last year, Rose Street served more than 120 people per week. Nearly 20% of those served each week (an average of 22 people) reside in Rose Street’s six transitional houses. Those residing in the houses participate daily in community cleanups. Once they have secured employment, Rose Street staff assists them in obtaining permanent housing. Over half of those served each week (approximately 70 people) are high-risk youth ages 15 to 24. Rose Street holds morning meetings with the youth where the youth identify and de-escalate disputes. Rose Street also connects the youth to programs and services available in the community.
The Baltimore Station
The Baltimore Station provides residential treatment for over 250 men annually. It operates out of two facilities in Baltimore City (South Baltimore and Sandtown-Winchester) providing 144 beds for men in recovery. Funding from the Abell Foundation will support start-up operations for an on-site Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program (PRP) to help its clients transition successfully to permanent housing.
The Maryland Book Bank, Inc.
With a goal to distribute 550,000 books in 2020, the Maryland Book Bank bridges the literacy gap through increased access to quality age-appropriate books in homes, school classrooms, and community program settings. Operating out of the new Baltimore Warehouse Collaborative in Clipper Mill, The Book Bank distributes new and donated books through two Bookmobiles, a Home Library program in 27 City schools, and open warehouse hours for families and educators. Its social enterprise that sells donated adult books of value and trains warehouse employees generates $80,000 of revenue annually.