Job Opportunities Task Force
The Job Opportunities Task Force (JOTF) works to develop and advocate policies and programs to increase the skills, job opportunities, and incomes of low-skill, low-income Maryland workers and to dismantle the criminalization of poverty. Funding from the Abell Foundation will support JOTF’s management of a Community Bail Fund to release individuals being held on an unaffordable bail from the Baltimore City Detention Center and to ensure their appearance for court. In addition, JOTF case managers will provide supportive services to assist clients with successful reentry.
University of Maryland Medical System Foundation
In 1998, Dr. Carnell Cooper created the Violence Prevention Program (VPP), after repeatedly treating victims and perpetrators of violence admitted into the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The VPP is a hospital-based violence-intervention program that assists victims of violent injuries to reduce recidivism and hospital costs. Victims receive immediate assessment at the bedside from a social worker and/or caseworker, who assists with linkage to necessary resources and social support. Funding from the Abell Foundation will support the on-going expansion of the VPP program to the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) Emergency Departments at the Downtown and Midtown campuses.
Baltimore Police Department
Funding from the Abell Foundation will assist the Baltimore Police Department and the City of Baltimore in reducing homicides and nonfatal shootings through the planning, implementation, evaluation and institutionalization of focused deterrence. Focused deterrance is a strategy based on an intensive partnership of law enforcement, community members and social service providers, who collectively engage with the small and active number of people involved in violent street groups. It pairs a credible message against violence and prior notice about the consequences of further violence with a genuine offer of help to those who want it.
Morgan State University Foundation
Funding from the Abell Foundation will support Morgan State University’s evaluation of the pilot aerial surveillance program implemented by the Baltimore Police Department. The purpose of this program evaluation is to provide an objective, evidence-based evaluation analysis as to the effectiveness of aerial surveillance in support of crime and violence reduction in Baltimore City.
Second Chance for Women, Fiscally Sponsored by Fusion Partnerships, Inc.
Second Chance for Women (SCW) operates in the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) and was founded in 2009 by Mary Joel Davis. Currently, Second Chance helps women prepare for their parole hearings on a one to one basis. This one on one support and mentoring is obviously ideal, but it does not scale. Funding from the Abell Foundation will support SCW to create an accessible and user friendly parole handbook to expand their outreach in the prison system through distribution of the handbook in the prison libraries and in workshops conducted by Second chance and other reentry providers in the facilities.