Past Grants

Job Opportunities Task Force

Toward continued support of the JumpStart Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program for 70 Baltimore City residents. The 13-week program has been designed to provide low-income city residents with training in handling tools, construction math, and safety, as well as an introduction to the carpentry, electrical, and plumbing trades. Approximately 70 percent of program graduates are placed into employment, with 25 percent enrolled in apprenticeships.

Art with a Heart

For support and expansion of the 2011 Summer Job Program, a visual arts program for 50 at-risk youth from the Rose Street Community Center, Paul’s Place, and the Raynor Brown Elementary/ Middle School. Students receive a stipend of $10 a day to create more than 200 marketable pieces of art during the four-week program, and work in the HeARTSware store, for a minimum of four hours, selling their artwork as a job-readiness experience.

Job Opportunities Task Force

For continued support of the Baltimore CASH Campaign, an initiative designed to increase the use of the Earned Income Tax Credit. The campaign plans to serve 9,000 residents while operating 15 to 17 free tax preparation sites. Plans call for strengthening and expanding its financial education program to help clients save more of the money they earn; enrolling tax filers into public benefits programs through EarnBenefits; and building assets of low-wage tax payers through savings accounts and the purchase of savings bonds.

Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers

For continued support of the Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative. The focus of the grant is to analyze wage gains of participants in three sector-based job-training programs, as well as training programs supported through the Baltimore Integration Partnership Training Fund. The collaborative will use the wage record analysis to determine which program proves to be most effective in moving participants to higher wages.

Maryland Center for Arts and Technology, Inc. (MCAT)

For continued support and expansion of job-training programs for unemployed and underemployed youth and adults in Baltimore City. MCAT plans to offer an evening GED training program for 40 young men, ages 17 to 24. The course curriculum will emphasize employment opportunities, job readiness, and weekly individual counseling sessions devoted to addressing educational and criminal background issues. The goal of the initiative is to prepare 36 students for the GED exam, and to place students into jobs.