Public Justice Center, Inc.
The Public Justice Center’s Health and Benefits Rights project works to improve access to crtical services for vulnerable individuals throughout the state, through a combination of research, education, advocacy,and litigation. Over the coming year, the project will focus on three key priorities: 1) reducing maternal mortality, with a specific focus on reducing racial disparities in maternal mortality; 2) monitoring and enforcing state and federal laws requiring Maryland to pay for treatment of Hepatitis C for individuals on Medicaid; and 3) ensuring that state agencies and private healthcare providers are complying with state and federal language access laws that require the provision of translation and interpretation services for people with limited English proficiency. This grant supports the salary of the Health and Benefits Rights attorney, and associated project expenses.
Parks & People Foundation
Parks & People Foundation builds and revitalizes public spaces, supports greening groups and nonprofits with material and grant donations, and hosts out-of-school time programs for city-youth from low-income backgrounds that integrate environmental education, outdoor experiences, and social-emotional development. This grant supported the middle school sports program, which provides public school students after-school athletic enrichment with an integrated character development curriculum. Sports offered using a non-traditional model include soccer, baseball, volleyball, kickball, basketball, and flag football.
Maryland MENTOR / Fund for Educational Excellence
Maryland MENTOR was founded in 2018 as the Maryland affiliate of MENTOR: the National Mentoring Partnership. This organization has a mission to increase the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships and to close the mentoring gap across the State and the City of Baltimore by working with mentoring programs serving vulnerable young people. This grant supported Maryland MENTOR’s general expenses, particularly relating to the delivery of technical assistance and trainings on evidence-based mentoring best practices, the launch of the Maryland MENTOR Quality Program Partner pilot initiative, and the execution of targeted outreach to expand the Mentoring Connector database.
Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund, Inc.
In 2019, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law creating a new program to identify people who are eligible for but not enrolled in health insurance, and provide support to assist them in enrolling in affordable insurance plans. When fully implemented over the next few years, this new “Easy Enrollment” program is projected to enroll 50,000 currently uninsured people in Medicaid, 70,000 in fully subsidized private insurance, and 100,000 in partially subsidized private insurance. This grant funds the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative to conduct outreach and public education to support the Easy Enrollment program and encourage eligible individuals to enroll in affordable health insurance plans.
The Lieber Institute for Brain Development
The Lieber Institute for Brain Development’s African American Neuroscience Research Initiative (AANRI) is designed to close a gap in neuroscience research in the African American community. This grant supports activities related to the launch of the AANRI.