Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, Inc.
$32,000 / 2011 / Community Development
To conduct a study of Rent-to-Own stores in Baltimore City. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent of price gouging, false advertising or omission of facts, collection activities, harassment by collection agents, and defective goods. The report will recommend changes in existing state law that would protect consumers from abusive Rent-to-Own practices.
Live Baltimore Home Center
$25,000 / 2011 / Community Development
Toward support of the Employer Outreach Campaign designed to increase the number of private and public employees owning or renting houses in Baltimore City. Working with the state, the center’s outreach efforts will promote incentives to help employees purchase houses.
KaBOOM!
$75,000 / 2011 / Community Development
Toward the implementation of the Playful City USA program, an initiative to provide safe playgrounds for children in Baltimore City. Through the creation of a local play task commission, the project will design action plans for play, recruit volunteers to care for play spaces, and encourage families and their children to play outside.
Jubilee Baltimore, Inc.
$50,000 / 2011 / Community Development
Toward support of planning and revitalization efforts in Central West Baltimore as part of the federal Choice Neighborhood Program. This initiative will provide representation from each of the neighborhoods working on community projects.
Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Concern
$35,000 / 2011 / Community Development
Toward Phase II of Project Gado, a robotic scanning technology initiative. By adopting a social enterprise model to build a revised, easier-to-assemble version of the robotic scanner, the project will digitize archival images, which will serve as primary sources for publishers, film-makers, and researchers. The scanned images can then be entered into a Web-enabled database system for eventual publishing online.