HealthCare Access Maryland
HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM) works to connect Maryland residents to insurance, health care, and other services to support their health and well-being. Among the services HCAM offers is a homeless outreach program, which serves unsheltered homeless individuals in Baltimore City, connecting them with housing and supportive services. This grant provided funding for purchase of a vehicle for the HCAM homeless outreach program to transport clients to and from appointments, to mental health and substance use treatment, and to shelter, among other things.
Leveling the Playing Field, Inc.
Leveling the Playing Field aims to combat the decline of youth sports participation among low-income communities by distributing used and excess donated equipment free of charge to youth development programs and Title I schools. Since its founding in 2011, Leveling the Playing Field has donated over $4 million worth of sporting equipment, allowing their partners to enhance and expand programming. This grant supported their Baltimore-based operations in collecting and distributing over $500,000 worth of equipment to 150 programs through collection drives and volunteer engagement.
Moveable Feast, Inc.
Moveable Feast prepares and delivers nutritious meals to individuals who are medically-compromised and have HIV, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses. In addition to providing home-delivered meals, Moveable Feast provides meals for drop-in centers and substance use treatment programs, nutritional therapy and medical transportation for clients with specific needs, and operates a culinary arts job training program. This grant funded the purchase and installation of a new walk-in freezer to expand Moveable Feast’s frozen storage capacity and enable it to serve more clients.
Baltimore City Health Department
To better target asthma treatment resources to the children who are most in need of support, the Baltimore City Health Department will create an asthma surveillance system that uses state health claims data to identify children who have had emergency room visits and/or hospitalizations due to asthma. The Health Department will conduct outreach to these children and their families to offer supportive services to assist them in managing their asthma and reducing exposure to allergens. The department will also use the asthma surveillance system to identify asthma “hot spots” in Baltimore where asthma prevention interventions can be delivered. This grant provided funding to hire a half-time epidemiologist to design and manage the asthma surveillance system.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The SPARC Center is a drop-in center designed to meet the needs of female sex workers and other vulnerable women in Baltimore City. Part of a federally-funded study that aims to reduce HIV rates by addressing drug- and sex-related risk behaviors, the center provides a range of health and social services to address the many challenges and barriers to service faced by female sex workers. This grant provides funding to hire a case manager so that the center can better meet clients’ mental health and social service needs.