This morning, Sheilah Kast interviewed OSI Director Danielle Torain on WYPR’s On the Record, talking about OSI’s COVID response, investing in underinvested Baltimore communities, and the 2020 cohort of OSI Community Fellows. On the Record recently completed its series of interviews with all 12 Fellows in the 2020 cohort.
Last night, Torain participated in a Baltimore City Youth Fund panel on “Understanding Baltimore’s Fiscal Sponsorship Landscape,” moderated by Dayvon Love of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, who leads communications and community engagement for the Youth Fund, Candace Chance, founder and CEO of the VPI Firm, which brings strategy for community development initiatives, and community advocate Changa Onyango, the Board Chair of Fusion Partnerships, a local, Black-led fiscal sponsor. As the panelists discussed, many BCYF grantees and other grassroots nonprofits in Baltimore use fiscal sponsors or fiscal agents, but there is some confusion about the role of such organizations, particularly as the local landscape of fiscal sponsors has shifted in recent months.
On Wednesday, Torain participated in the symposium, A 2020 Election Dissection: How Social Movements for Racial Justice Impact Electoral Politics and Inform Our Path Forward, sponsored by the Maryland Law Journal for Race, Religion, Gender, and Class.
