Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Dr. Jeffrey Leek is a professor of Biostatistics and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also the co-creator of the Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization, a 10-course introduction to data science, taught completely online by Bloomberg School of Public Health professors. . Recognizing that many students cannot not afford the expensive laptops needed to complete the courses, Dr. Leek and his colleagues developed Chromebook Data Science (CBDS), an educational program to help historically underserved populations in Baltimore who can read, write, and use a computer to gain the skills needed to obtain entry-level data science jobs. With funding from Abell and Johns Hopkins, Dr. Leek and his colleagues are enrolling small cohorts of youth in CBDS. The youth are referred by and receive intensive case management from the Youth Opportunity program at the the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition in CBDS. Once the youth complete the two-month program, they receive paid on-the-job experience, working full-time at Dr. Leek’s startup data science company, earning $18 an hour for at least six months.
Center for Urban Families, Inc.
The mission of the Center for Urban Families (CFUF) is to strengthen urban communities by helping fathers and families achieve stability and economic succes. STRIVE Baltimore, the cornerstone of CFUF’s programming, emphasizes attitudinal training, job placement, and post-placement support, with a strict, demanding, three-week workshop that focuses on workplace behavior, appearance, and attitude. Upon completion of training, STRIVE graduates are placed in jobs, and are followed by STRIVE staff for two years. Last year,180 participants graduated from STRIVE Baltimore, with 93 graduates (or 52%) being placed into jobs; 104 graduates of other CFUF programs and 138 former graduates were also placed into jobs, bringing the total number of job placements to 335. STRIVE graduates placed in employment earned an average of $12.20 per hour, and 74% remained employed for at least six months.
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, 202 people were placed into jobs, earning an average wage of $14.50 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.
Year Up Baltimore, Inc.
Year Up Baltimore provides low-income Baltimore high school graduates and GED recipients, ages 18 to 24, with a year of information technology (IT) training, leading to technical careers with starting salaries of $30,000 or higher. During the first six months of the program, participants co-enroll into Baltimore City Community College and Year Up, and are paid weekly stipends to attend IT classes at BCCC’s Liberty Campus. During the second six months of the program, students are placed in paid internships with local partner companies to gain work experience in IT. At the completion of the training, Year Up students earn a BCCC IT Basic Skills Certificate, worth 16 college credits. Approximately 85 percent of graduates are placed into employment and/or continue their education. Over the next year, Year Up plans to increase the number of students served from 153 to 240.
The Work First Foundation
With funding from the Abell Foundation, in 2009, America Works (through its nonprofit Work First Foundation) launched the Baltimore Ex-Offender Reentry Employment Program. The program provides a two-week-long job-readiness workshop for cohorts of six to seven ex-offenders. The program targets ex-offenders under 40 years of age, and those who have been recently released from prison or jail. To date,1,123 ex-offenders have graduated from the two-week training course, with 663 being placed into jobs (a 59 percent job placement rate). Participants earned an average of $9.39 at placement, with 87 percent remaining employed for 30 days, 75 percent remaining employed for 90 days and 65 percent remaining employed for six months or more. Since June 2017, the Baltimore City court system has been referring low-income individuals to the program as they await trial, rather than jailing them because they cannot afford to pay bail. To date, 184 pretrial defendants have enrolled into the program. Of those, 156 have gone to trial, with 82 percent experiencing a positive outcome (they received an acquittal, nolle prosequi, or stet), and 76 being placed into employment.