Archive

It has been a remarkable 2017 for Baltimore and for Open Society Institute-Baltimore. Some highlights: *  In January, the U.S. Department of Justice and the City of Baltimore agreed on a consent decree requiring reforms of the Baltimore Police Department (read OSI’s statement). OSI and its grantees played a pivotal role in the process, ensuring that community voices were heard and hosting public meetings with Department of Justice officials. * […]

WYPR’s On the Record with Sheilah Kast continued its series of profiles of OSI’s 2017 cohort of Community Fellows with segments yesterday on Shantell Roberts, founder of Touching Young Lives, and Asar Daniels, who a farmer based in Sandtown who will use his Fellowship to expand the Greater Mondawmin Empowerment Project. You can find links […]

Four of OSI-Baltimore’s most recent cohort of Community Fellows have been featured in the Baltimore Sun and WYPR over the last few days. Shantell Roberts (top left) and her organization, Touching Young Lives, which provides baby boxes to young families, was featured on the cover of the Baltimore Sun on Christmas Day. The same day, Ryan Flanigan (top […]

As you may have heard, the recently-passed federal tax bill will effectively eliminate the charitable tax deduction for many taxpayers. (Contact your tax advisor to learn how the new law will specifically affect you). As a result, many analysts suggest increasing donations in 2017, before the new tax law takes effect. As the Washington Post’s […]

The Baltimore Sun included Clinton Bamberger, a lawyer, professor, a tireless advocate for human rights and the founding member of OSI-Baltimore’s Advisory Board, in its round up of notable deaths in 2017. “Clinton was a rigorous thinker who had high ethical standards and was fearless,” OSI Director Diana Morris says in the Sun’s story. “When […]

Patrick Gaspard, the former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa who was recently tapped as president of Open Society Foundations, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, as part of the “Powerhouse Roundtable” segment. Gaspard discussed public perception of the GOP tax bill and Republican prospects for the 2018 elections. “African-American women have […]

OSI-Baltimore Deputy Director Tracy Brown was a guest of host Sheila Kast on yesterday’s edition of WYPR’s On the Record, to discuss OSI-Baltimore’s Safe City Baltimore initiative, establish to provide legal representation and education to local immigrants threatened by stepped up immigration enforcement. Brown and OSI Director Diana Morris recently joined Mayor Catherine Pugh at […]

This week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee came to Johns Hopkins University to hold hearings on the opioid crisis at the behest of the committee’s ranking Democrat, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings. The staff of OSI-Baltimore’s Drug Addiction Treatment program briefed Cummings’ staff in advance of the hearing. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, chair […]

MICA’s Community Art and Service Program and the Philadelphia-based People’s Papers Co-OP initiative will co-present a community discussion “that brings together individuals from across the city who work to dismantle systems of oppression and narratives that feed into mass incarceration.” From the event page: “We’ll ask; How do artists, activists, and community members collaborate to identify […]

Last week, the Afro published a story about the Kirwan Commission’s decision to delay its much-anticipated report about equitable funding for Baltimore City schools, quoting Karen Webber, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Education and Youth Development program: “In Baltimore City particularly, we have a crisis in our murder rate right now. Students who live in neighborhoods where […]