Govans Ecumenical Development Corporation (GEDCO)
The Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. (GEDCO) operates the CARES food pantry and drop-in center in the Govans neighborhood in North-Central Baltimore City. CARES provides food, emergency financial assistance and employment counseling to more than 4,000 individuals each year. Among other resources, CARES provides eviction prevention funds to approximately 200 households per year, although the demand for eviction prevention assistance far exceeds the resources that CARES has available. To better address this need, CARES developed a new project to assist individuals who are threatened with eviction to access federally-funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) funds. This grant supports a part-time CARES staff person who assists clients to complete ERAP applications and monitors those applications to ensure clients are able to obtain the funds needed to avoid eviction. The grant also provides eviction prevention funds for households that do not qualify to receive ERAP assistance.
Franciscan Center, Inc.
Founded in 1968, the Franciscan Center is an emergency outreach and drop-in center that serves individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The center serves a hot, mid-day meal five days a week, dinners twice a week, counseling, case management, flexible financial assistance, and related services. When the pandemic arrived in March 2020, the center significantly increased its meal production to meet the needs of the many Baltimore residents who had lost their jobs and needed assistance, shifted to an outdoor meal service, and partnered with over two dozen organizations to deliver food to people in need throughout the City. During 2020, the center served approximately 350,000 meals, nearly three times the previous annual average. The center also increased its focus on conducting outreach to the city’s homeless population, and hired a community navigator to assist individuals living in homeless encampments to access housing. This grant provides general support for the Franciscan Center’s operations.
Drink at The Well – Hon’s Honey Social Enterprise
Drink at the Well operates a drop-in center that serves vulnerable women in the Curtis Bay community in South Baltimore. The center offers case management, mentoring, financial literacy education, food, clothing and flexible financial assistance in a community that has few resources. In 2018, Drink at the Well launched a social enterprise known as Hon’s Honey, which sells locally-sourced honey and honey-based skin care products and provides employment opportunities for women in The Well’s mentoring program. This grant provides operating support for Hon’s Honey.
Asylee Women Enterprise
Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE) provides asylum seekers, particularly women and children with comprehensive services and community. This two-year grant supports AWE’s partnership with Luminus, which is a legal services organization that has been accredited by the Department of Justice, to provide comprehensive legal services to 40 AWE clients that reside in Baltimore City per year over two years.
University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation
Since 2009, Promise Heights has anchored one of B’more for Healthy Babies’ (BHB) place-based initiatives to improve birth outcomes and family well-being in West Baltimore. Promise Heights has long supported parents after the birth of their children, including providing breastfeeding support, family planning, research-based parenting classes and early literacy opportunities.
This grant supports the Teen Parenting Success Program (TiPS), which bring this continuum of services to pregnant and parenting teens at Renaissance Academy and Frederick Douglass High School. The two Community Hub Leaders in this program will ensure all pregnant and parenting teens are connected to Health Care Access Maryland as well as provide individual case management to set and achieve individual goals for health and wellness, education/vocation, as well as family planning. The Community Hub Leaders will also hold group programming in the high schools to build social support among young parents and their families.