Archive

On Friday, Karen Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program, testified on behalf of the Open Society Policy Center, the advocacy arm of Open Society Foundations, to support Senate Bill 918, which would create a statewide commission on trauma-informed care. I am excited to announce that @jillpcarter and I are partnering to bring […]

This week, Pamela King, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Community Fellowships program, was recognized by the Maryland Daily Record as one of “Maryland’s Top 100 Women” and recognized by the Featherstone Foundation, founded by 2013 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Lanaea Featherstone, with its first-ever “Changemaker Award.”  King, who been leading OSI’s Community Fellowships program since its founding over […]

The March issue of Baltimore magazine features the Baltimore Compost Collective, a South Baltimore service managed by 2019 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Marvin Hayes that collects organic waste to create compost and fertilize the Curtis Bay community garden. “We call the garden the Wakanda of South Baltimore,” Hayes, who first learned about urban composting at the […]

Scott Nolen, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Addiction and Health Equity program, testified Friday on behalf of the Open Society Policy Center, the advocacy arm of Open Society Foundations, to support HB 464, a bill that would create a program to pilot Overdose Prevention Sites around the state of Maryland. Nolen criticized Maryland leadership’s lack of urgency […]

A recent report by WBAL highlighted the success of Pivot, a re-entry program for women co-founded by 2019 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Emily Thompson. As the story points out, one in four women released from jail experiences homelessness and 70% re-offend. For women who have had access to a reentry program that helps with the basics, […]

It’s been nearly five years since April, 2015, when Freddie Gray died of injuries sustained in police custody, sparking weeks of protests punctuated by spasms of violence and an emerging movement of activists looking to address the systemic racism and disinvestment that shaped the life of Freddie Gray and thousands of other Baltimore residents. Open […]

Yesterday, the Maryland Philanthropy Network hosted a screening of “Baltimore: A History of Structural Racism,” a film created by Associated Black Charities that chronicles the intentional building of structural racism in Baltimore. It was followed by a discussion of how philanthropy contributed to that process and how Baltimore’s philanthropic community can help create a more equitable […]

On Wednesday night, 22 candidates for Mayor of Baltimore City participated in the first Blueprint for Baltimore Mayoral Forum, moderated by WYPR’s Tom Hall and Lisa Snowden-McCray of the Baltimore Beat and the Real News Network. All of the questions were based on responses to the Blueprint for Baltimore survey, which asked thousands of Baltimore […]

Read the Blueprint for Baltimore Survey Report NOW BALTIMORE—The most important way to improve Baltimore neighborhoods, according to respondents in the Blueprint for Baltimore survey, is by creating safer streets. Asked how the city should allocate resources to respond to violence, respondents said city leaders should expand the Safe Streets program, improve access to mental […]

Last week, OSI hosted a delegation of people who have worked at Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) in Canada and Europe to talk to city and state legislators, advocates, and the public about their experiences and the ways that such sites not only save lives, but also build community and have also helped thousands of drug […]