Maryland New Directions
Maryland New Directions, Inc., (MND) is a private, nonprofit, career counseling and job placement agency that provides occupational skills training, including the Maritime Transportation Distribution and Logistics training program and the Commercial Transportation Careers training program. MCAT also provides other employment services, inlcuding computer literacy training, walk-in job search and application support, individual job coaching, and other personalized support services. Funding from Abell will support MND in assisting more than 300 job seekers in Baltimore.
Public Justice Center
In 2015, with support from the Abell Foundation, the Public Justice Center launched its Home Care Worker Initiative to address wage theft. Through this initiative, PJC works to enforce a new federal regulation that, for the first time, granted HCWs (who are mostly women and people of color) federal minimum wage and overtime protections. With this grant from Abell, PJC will educate 400 HCWs concerning workers’ rights and advancement opportunties, represent at least 20 HCWs and and other workers to recover at least $100,000 in lost wages, and advocate for state-level legislation that will benefit HCWs.
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.
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.
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.