Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church
$41,875 / 2004 / Health and Human Services
Challenge grant for renovation to the church and community center to allow for expanding outreach programs serving needy residents in East Baltimore. Working with the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, the church offers a food pantry, a six-week summer camp for 40 children, a computer literacy program, and, in partnership with Civic Works, neighborhood cleanups and gardens.
Legal Aid Bureau, Inc.
$150,000 / 2004 / Health and Human Services
Fifth-year funding of the Child Support/Barriers to Employment Project, an initiative designed to address the financial needs of noncustodial parents with child support obligations. The program provides individual representation to more than 200 noncustodial parents, addressing systemic problems within the child support enforcement system.
The Justice Policy Institute
$50,000 / 2004 / Health and Human Services
To provide research and guidance to the Campaign for Treatment Not Incarceration, designed to reduce Maryland’s prison population and expand drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration.
The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute
$20,000 / 2004 / Health and Human Services
For support of the Community Health Worker Program, which provides free health services to the uninsured in East Baltimore. The institute will recruit ten AmeriCorps volunteers from East Baltimore to serve as community health workers; after training, each worker will follow as many as 50 patients, providing individual medical monitoring and support through home visits and telephone calls. The status of each patient will be tracked by computers.
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies
$50,000 / 2004 / Health and Human Services
Second-year funding for the completion of the “State of Baltimore’s Workforce System” report, which provides a detailed description of Baltimore’s local workforce development system, focusing on the city’s network of one-stop career centers. The report includes a description of who are served by the career centers, the wages of job seekers before and after service, a listing of employers who hire career center job seekers, and an analysis of how well the career center network meets U.S. Department of Labor measures. The report is intended to provide an annual assessment of Baltimore’s workforce system, and will be used as a tool to improve the city’s services to job seekers and employers.