Adopt a Block, Inc.
The Compassion Commission program teaches 300 young people ages 11 to 25 to look beyond their lives and be a positive influence to low-income inner-city children and adults. This is achieved through a weeklong series of activities focused in East Baltimore that provides an experience that fosters leadership, promotes volunteerism, and develops an interest in the welfare of others. Adopt A Block will acquire, renovate, and donate a formerly vacant Baltimore City home to a family led by a resident leader in the community in East Baltimore.
Adopt a Block, Inc.
Adopt a Block distributes over 300,000 pounds of food a year to more than 45 shelters, soup kitchens, pantries and partnering agencies in Baltimore City. Adopt A Block has weekly scheduled pickups with corporate partners and secures items that are donated by individuals, typically within a 24-48 hour turnaround window. A box truck will be purchased to facilitate the collection and distribution of items to partners and individuals served by the organization.
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, Inc.
ICIC will bring Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) to Baltimore, a business technical assistance program started in 2005 to help urban entrepreneurs better position themselves to access capital, increase revenues, grow their businesses and create jobs. The program specifically targets companies located in areas with high rates of poverty and unemployment, and they accept businesses that draw 40 percent of their employment from economically distressed communities. Grant funds will be used for stipends and travel of business school professors and finance professionals providing the training in Baltimore City.
Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
The Baltimore Healthcare Innovator Retention Program fellowship stipends enable talented Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineering students to continue working on promising healthcare innovations after they complete their graduate studies. These teams of Fellows operative as virtual startups creating commercially viable products, seeking follow-on funding, and creating new companies. The program maximizes the translation of discovery and invention from the University biomedical program into income-generating companies which have the potential to generate local employment.
Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Watch will provide research, education and advocacy around issues of affordability of water and wastewater consumption in Baltimore City by low income customers. Grant funding will be used toward best practices information from a research consultant and expert on utility affordability, the production and distribution of educational and promotional materials, and staff costs of outreach, civic engagement and community education about water utility customer affordability issues.