We believe that a community of creative problem-solvers, faced with complicated, seemingly intractable challenges, is well-served by thought-provoking, research-based information, and analysis. We support the development and dissemination of research in two ways:
Abell Reports are commissioned reports by subject matter experts, academics, and investigative journalists that provide studies of selected issues on the public agenda.
These projects – undertaken with grant funding by academics and nonprofit research and advocacy organizations – advance learning on issues key to Baltimore City.
Baltimore City depends on nonprofits to provide services, particularly in Black and low-income communities. This Abell Report asks what causes the delays in the City’s contracting process with nonprofits and how can those delays be fixed?
The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) is designed to preserve public housing and provide the funding necessary for long deferred capital improvements. Has the program achieved those objectives in Baltimore? This Abell Report offers some early assessments.
Vacant houses, uninhabitable due to abandonment or lack of owner investment, exert a heavy cost on neighborhoods and the City as a whole. This report calculates just how steep the public cost is and provides an economic backdrop for future action.
This Abell Report outlines how the federal and state governments can mitigate the threat of “forever chemicals” in our drinking water.
With funding from the Abell Foundation, the Smart Surfaces Coalition analyzed the costs and benefits of adopting “smart surfaces” in neighborhoods of Baltimore City where a high proportion of residents have low incomes.
Our 2020 Annual Report highlights programs that are creating a more digitally equitable Baltimore, reducing gun violence, decreasing racial disparities in chronic disease, supporting tenants facing eviction, helping Black entrepreneurs access capital and small-business loans, advancing medical innovation, and providing job training for graduates of Baltimore City Public Schools that will provide pathways to careers and higher education.
How much greenhouse gas is emitted from municipal waste landfills in Maryland? And what does that mean for the health and safety of our environment? With support from the Abell Foundation, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) examined the data and, in this report, share their very sobering findings.
Concerned that the economic distress of the pandemic might lead to an increase in the number of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM), the Abell Foundation funded The Reinvestment Fund to do an analysis of HECM originations in Baltimore City.
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Header photo courtesy of Venture for America.