Last week, Tara Huffman, director of OSI’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice program, co-wrote a Baltimore Sun op-ed with Shane Bryan of the Ednor Gardens-Lakeside Community Association, asking “Is community-driven policing the answer to Baltimore’s problems?“ As Huffman and Bryan describe in the op-ed, “Micro-community policing plans allow each community to partner with local law enforcement to […]
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OSI’s Tara Huffman advocates for micro-policing in the Sun, at Public Safety Task Force
Thursday, February 21, 2019 -
School Climate Collaborative holds first meeting of 2019
Thursday, February 21, 2019On Tuesday, the OSI-supported School Climate Collaborative held its first meeting of 2019 at the offices of the Family League of Baltimore, discussing developments during the legislative session in Annapolis and other updates. Khalilah Harrington-Slater of the Family League announced that Shantay McKinily, director of the Positive Schools Center (which OSI founded at the University of […]
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2018 Fellows cohort gather to share progress, ideas
Tuesday, February 19, 2019This morning, the 2018 cohort of OSI Community Fellows held their first monthly gathering to discuss the progress of their projects. Each month, two Fellows host the gathering and present to the group about their work. This month, Brittany Young and Fred Watkins presented at Mervo High School, one of the schools that Watkins works […]
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Scott Nolen talks about working toward health equity on Comcast Newsmakers
Thursday, February 14, 2019Scott Nolen, the director of Open Society Institute’s Addiction and Health Equity program, appeared on Comcast Newsmakers to discuss the history of the war on drugs, efforts to increase access to treatment for drug users most in danger of overdosing, and the role of Open Society’s work in Baltimore to national efforts. Comcast Newsmakers segments […]
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Capacity crowd joins talk about the legacy of Plessy vs. Ferguson
Thursday, February 14, 2019Last night, more than 700 people came to the Church of the Redeemer to hear Steve Luxenberg, author of the new book, Separate: The Story of Plessy vs. Ferguson and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation, talk about the history of the case and its lasting impact on the country with Chief Judge Robert Bell, […]
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Out of the Blocks profiles OSI-supported drug treatment van outside city jail
Wednesday, February 13, 2019Yesterday, WYPR’s Out of the Blocks, which profiles people living and working on different city blocks, focused on the PCARE Van, which the Behavioral Health Leadership Institute operates with support from Open Society Institute-Baltimore. OSI’s support for the van is part of the Addiction and Health Equity program’s strategy to reduce overdose by increasing access […]
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OSI’s Karen Webber touts impact of restorative practices at Educating the Whole Child forum
Friday, January 25, 2019Friday afternoon, Karen Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program, presented as a part of the Baltimore Curriculum Project’s annual Leading Minds forum. The topic this year was “Educating the Whole Child” and the other speakers were Kirwin Commission Chair Brit Kirwan and Mark Gaither, principal of Wolfe Street Academy, a pioneering community […]
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OSI publishes cost-benefit analysis of releasing aging prisoners
Friday, January 25, 2019Today, Open Society Institute-Baltimore released a new report, “Building on the Unger Experience: A cost-benefit analysis of releasing aging prisoners.” The new report follows the Justice Policy Institute report, “The Ungers: Five Years and Counting,” which detailed OSI’s five-year investment to provide reentry services for aging prisoners in the “Unger Group,” who were returning to […]
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Baltimore Grantmakers discuss local work to support threatened immigrants and refugees
Friday, January 25, 2019Yesterday, the Association of Baltimore-Area Grantmakers (ABAG) hosted a forum to discuss recent initiatives focused on protecting Baltimore’s immigrant and refugee communities. OSI-Baltimore Deputy Director Tracy Brown opened the forum by discussing the Safe City Baltimore initiative, which OSI and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA) launched in response to stepped up ICE immigration […]
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Baltimore Sun: “Cut the act, Gov. Hogan. You know Baltimore schools are being shortchanged”
Friday, January 25, 2019Today, the Baltimore Sun Editorial Board called “bull” (their word) on Governor Larry Hogan’s feigned ignorance about why OSI grantees the ACLU of Maryland the NAACP Legal Defense Fund sent him a letter demanding adequate funding for Baltimore City schools. As the Editorial Board writes say in today’s staff editorial: “[W]e are quite certain [Governor […]
