Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative Announces $3.46 Million for Children & Youth Programs

BALTIMORE – The Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative (the Collaborative) has awarded $3.46 million in grants to support 87 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 options for families, including academic support to reduce summer learning loss, youth work opportunities and a variety of enrichment activities.
 
Collaborative members – some of Baltimore’s largest public, private and nonprofit institutions – include the Abell Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 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, Under Armour, and United Way of Central Maryland as funding partners.
 
“The Summer Funding Collaborative allows the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds to support a broad range of youth programs that serve students and young adults both in our target neighborhoods and throughout the city,” said Elizabeth “Buffy” Minkin, President of the Funds. “High-quality summer program options are important for families and participants in normal years and even more so during the pandemic. These programs help stem summer learning loss and create work and enrichment opportunities for participants.”
 
While members of the Collaborative bring their own priorities to the table – including literacy, STEM, youth employment, environmental education, sports and arts – 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. SFC members are 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. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the learning disruptions that have occurred as a result, the need for engaging, enriching, and supportive summer programming is even more important. As a result, Collaborative members considered virtual, in-person, and hybrid program models to increase accessibility to high-quality programs aligned with public health guidance.
 
“The need to provide supports to children and youth in Baltimore has been made that much more important in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic,” said Demaune Millard, president and CEO of Family League of Baltimore. “The programs which serve them have faced significant challenges over the past year, and the uncertainty surrounding the impacts to learning and what the educational landscape will look like in the months to come is very real. Now more than ever, philanthropic support is critical to help maintain continuity in vital summer programming. Family League remains committed to this work.”

The following organizations will receive funding from the Summer Funding Collaborative:

• A Revolutionary Summer
• Access Art, Inc.
• Adelante Latina!
• Art with a Heart
• Associated Catholic Charities, Inc.
• AZIZA PE&CE
• B-360
• Baltimore Curriculum Project
• Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School
• Baltimore Youth Arts
• Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation
• Beat the Streets Baltimore
• Black Girls Cook
• Bmore Empowered Inc
• Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation, Inc.
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore
• Bridges Baltimore
• BYKE Collective
• Camp Puh'tok for Boys and Girls, Inc.
• CASA
• Challenge 2 Change
• City Neighbors Foundation
• Civic Works
• Code in the Schools
• Corner Team, Inc.
• Dance and Bmore Programs
• Dent Education
• DewMore Baltimore
• Digital Harbor Foundation
• Downtown Sailing Center
• Elev8 Baltimore
• Enoch Pratt Free Library
• First Tee - Greater Baltimore
• From Prison Cells To PhD
• Green Street Academy
• Hampden Family Center
• Harlem Lacrosse-Baltimore
• HeartSmiles
• Holistic Life Foundation
• iMentor Baltimore
• Intersection of Change
• Junior Achievement of Central Maryland
• KEYS Empowers, Inc.
• Koinonia Baptist Church
• Leveling the Playing Field
• Liberty Elementary School
• Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center, Inc.
• Living Classrooms Foundation
• Loyola Early Learning Center
• Medical Education Resources Initiative for Teens (MERIT)
• Mentoring Male Teens in the Hood
• Mentoring Mentors Inc
• Middle Grades Partnership
• Mindful Mentors Inc.
• MOMCares
• National Aquarium
• Next One Up
• ONE More...ONE Less Mentoring Inc.,
• Parks & People Foundation
• Patterson Park Public Charter School, Inc.
• POP Inc. (Play On Purpose)
• Project I CAN
• Safe Alternative Foundation for Education, Inc
• Soccer Without Borders Baltimore
• Springboard Collaborative
• SquashWise
• St Veronica Roman Catholic Congregation, Inc.
• St. Francis Neighborhood Center
• St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore
• The Be. Org
• The Ryan Institute, LLC
• The Urban Alliance Foundation, Inc.
• UMBC Foundation
• Unique Fabrics
• University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation, Inc
• Village Learning Place
• Wide Angle Youth Media
• Women in Transition, Inc.
• Writers in Baltimore Schools
• Y in Central Maryland
• Young Audiences of Maryland

This is the seventh year of summer youth funding provided by the Collaborative. Last summer, the Collaborative provided over $3.5 million in funding throughout Baltimore City and served more than 6,445 students.