Civic Works, Inc.
Civic Works Baltimore Center for Green Careers (BCGC) has built a multi-tiered green career “pathway out of poverty” by training and placing Baltimore City residents in the brownfields remediation and residential energy-efficiency industries. During the five-week entry-level brownfields remediation training program, participants receive five industry-recognized certifications and conduct a hands-on practicum. The three-month, entry-level energy retrofit installer training program provides one month of classroom-based instruction and two months of on-the-job training through Civic Works’ social enterprise, known as EnergyReady. Graduates are placed into jobs earning $15.29 per hour.
Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap
In resource-strapped districts like Baltimore City, teachers spend an average of $600 of their own money each year for school supplies for their students. The Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap aims to lighten that burden by providing teachers with donated or surpassed supplies to support classroom learning. This grant supports the Swap’s Supply Mobile, which brings the most needed supplies directly to the teachers at their schools.
Youth Empowered Society
Opened in October 2012, the YES Center is the only drop-in center for unaccompanied homeless youth and young adults in Baltimore. The center serves youth ages 14 to 25, providing counseling, peer support, connections to resources, and a safe place for the youth to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, laundry facilities, and access to phones and computers, among other things. Services provided by YES staff members and partner agencies include employment readiness, job training, and job placement support; assistance accessing housing; case management; assistance in accessing public benefits; health care, including behavioral health; tutoring; and legal services. This grant supports the salaries of a case manager and peer intern who assist clients in addressing their needs.
Y of Central Maryland
The Y of Central Maryland, founded in 1853, provides services to children and adults of all demographic and economic backgrounds in Baltimore City and surrounding counties. The Y has partnered with St. Agnes Hospital to renovate and expand the site of the former Cardinal Gibbons High School in the Morrell Park/Violetville area of southwest Baltimore into their third full-service Family Center in the city. This project will culminate with the enrollment of 6,500 new Y members, the creation of 200 full-time and part-time jobs, and programming for at least 250 youth from the surrounding area.
WYPR – Your Public Radio Corporation
Baltimore and Maryland face critically important and increasingly difficult environmental issues and public health challenges while news organization coverage has shrunk dramatically over the last decade. WYPR, Baltimore’s local radio station, offers “The Environment in Focus,” a weekly program providing listeners with engaging and informative stories about the environment and environmental issues from air pollution, sea level rise, and endangered species to relevant federal rulings, state policy analysis and city actions. This grant pays the full production costs of the weekly radio program.