Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative Announces $5.3 Million for Children & Youth Programs

BALTIMORE – The Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative (the Collaborative) has awarded $5.3 million in grants to support 93 high-quality summer programs for children and youth living in low-income families throughout Baltimore City. The Collaborative is a partnership between public, private and nonprofit institutions that aims to create summer program opportunities for families that provide academic support to reduce summer learning loss, connect youth to valuable work experiences, and/or engage youth in enrichment activities that allow them to pursue interests, discover talents, and develop skills. 

Collaborative members – some of Baltimore’s largest public, private and nonprofit institutions – include the Abell Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Clayton Baker Trust, Constellation, Family League of Baltimore, France-Merrick Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, The Hinkey-Benson Family Fund, Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds, Lockhart Vaughan Foundation, The Richman Family Foundation, and United Way of Central Maryland.
 
While members of the Collaborative bring their own priorities to the table – including literacy, STEM, youth employment, and social-emotional wellness – they work together to make complementary funding decisions with the goal of supporting a diverse set of high-quality summer programs to reduce summer learning loss and ensure more youth have the chance to reach their full potential. The Collaborative is committed to ensuring that Baltimore City youth can access programs that allow them to learn and grow during the summer months and prepare them for success throughout the year.
 
This year, the Collaborative welcomed the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, which committed $2 million in funding for summer programs run by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led organizations and for programs serving older youth ages 14-24. The older youth priority was identified as a result of the Baltimore City Youth Opportunities Landscape (BCYOL), a citywide data collection and analysis effort conducted by Baltimore’s Promise that showed that older youth disconnected from school and work had the fewest out-of-school time opportunities available to them. Employing an explicit equity lens, BCYF and the Collaborative have expanded funding for stakeholders that public and philanthropic funding have     historically under-resourced. 
 
“BCYF is honored to make an investment in older youth who are often overlooked and lack access to out-of-school time enrichment,” said Alysia Lee, President of the Baltimore Children & Youth Fund. “These young people are close to or in the beginning phases of adult-hood and they need to know they still have the support of their city and its institutions.”
 
In addition, Baltimore’s Promise facilitated a robust community review process for all 190 funding applications. The process engaged 11 community-based organizations and 150 individual reviewers. Reviewers used a Community Review Rubric developed from the findings of BCYOL, which in addition to mapping youth opportunities also engaged 161 young people, parents, and caregivers to understand local priorities for out-of-school time opportunities. The community review process provided SFC funders with in-depth insight into stakeholder perspectives. Many SFC funders either directly relied on community review results for decision-making or incorporated the scores and feedback into an existing decision-making process. The Baltimore Children and Youth Fund’s $2 million in funding, for example, was directly determined by community review results. In addition, all SFC 2022 applicants received feedback from the review process to support planning for their summer programs and future funding applications.
 
 "The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is deeply appreciative of the time, effort, and expertise shared by community members and partner organizations throughout the SFC Community Review Process," said Rachel Duden, Weinberg Foundation Program Officer, Education. "The comprehensive Community Review Process enabled the Foundation to directly incorporate reviewers' insightful feedback into the grants decision-making process. It is incredibly rewarding to see how the Collaborative and its impact have grown since its inception in 2015, both creating and expanding educational and employment opportunities for young people in Baltimore.”
 
The following organizations will receive funding from the Summer Funding Collaborative:

10:12 Sports
¡Adelante Latina!
A Revolutionary Summer
Access Art, Inc.
Afrikan Youth Alchemy
Art with a Heart
Arts for Learning Maryland
AZIZA PE&CE
B-360
Backyard Basecamp
Baltimore Clayworks, Inc.
Baltimore Curriculum Project
Baltimore Youth Arts
Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation
Beadly Speaking Jewelry LLC
Black Girls Cook
Black Wall Street Charm City
Bon Secours Baltimore Community Works
Bridges Baltimore
Brittany K. Booker Foundation Inc.
BYKE Collective
CASA
Catherine's Family and Youth Services, Inc.
Child First Authority, Inc.
Civic Works
Code in the Schools
Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Maryland
Corner Team, Inc.
Creative City Public Charter School Foundation, Inc.
Dance and Bmore Programs
Dent Education
DewMore Baltimore
Digital Harbor Foundation
Downtown Sailing Center
Elev8 Baltimore, Inc
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Excellence & Ambition Inc.
From Prison Cells To PhD
Hampden Family Center
HeartSmiles
Holistic Life Foundation
I'm Still Standing Community Corporation
Intersection of Change
Islamic Leadership Institute of America
Johns Hopkins University
KEYS EMPOWERS, INC.
Leaders of Tomorrow Youth Center Inc
LET'S GO Boys and Girls, Inc.
Let's Thrive Baltimore
Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center, Inc.
Living Classrooms Foundation
Medical Education Resources Initiative for Teens
Mending Broken Wings, LLC
Mentoring Mentors Inc
Middle Grades Partnership
Mindful Mentors Inc.
MOMCares
Moving History
MTM Foundation, Inc.
National Aquarium
No Boundaries Coalition
Omega Baltimore Foundation. Inc.
P.O.P. Inc.
Parks & People
Patterson Park Public Charter School, Inc.
PeacePlayers International
Project Pneuma
R.I.S.E Arts Center of Baltimore
Safe Alternative Foundation for Education
Soccer Without Borders Maryland
Springboard Collaborative
St Veronica Roman Catholic Congregation Inc
St. Francis Neighborhood Center
St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore
the Board Room Chess
The Loyola School: Early Learning Center - Elementary K-4
The Marching Elite Foundation
The Movement Team
The Nolita Project Inc
UMBC Foundation
Unique Fabrics Nonprofit
University of Maryland, Baltimore Foundation, Inc
Village Learning Place
W.O.M.A.N.(Working Organizing Making A Nation)
Wide Angle Youth Media
Women in Transition
Y in Central Maryland
Youth As Resources

This is the eighth year of summer youth funding provided by the Collaborative. Last summer, the Collaborative provided over $3.4 million in funding throughout Baltimore City and funded more than 6,700 summer youth opportunities.
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About Baltimore’s Promise
Baltimore’s Promise is a cradle-to-career collective impact nonprofit that is the administrative backbone of the Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative (www.bmoresfc.org).
 
The mission of Baltimore‘s Promise is to coordinate strategy, identify quality programs, support alignment activities, establish shared measures for meaningful results, build public will, and advance policy on behalf of Baltimore City’s youth. For more information, please visit www.baltimorespromise.org.
 
For more information about the Baltimore City Youth Opportunities Landscape, please visit www.baltimorespromise.org/bcyol.