OSI-Baltimore, the sole field office of Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Programs, supports a grantmaking, educational, advocacy and capacity-building program to expand justice and opportunity for Baltimore residents. With support from a range of individual, corporate and foundation investors, its current work focuses on helping Baltimore’s youth succeed, reducing mass incarceration and its social and economic […]
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Conferences Address the Need to Build Equity in our Schools
Wednesday, April 13, 2016Pictured: U.S. Department of Education General Counsel James Cole, Jr. addresses the Urban Child Symposium at the University of Baltimore School of Law. By Karen Webber There was a flurry of informative education conferences in the area this month and I was honored to be a speaker on two of the three conferences I attended […]
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Talking About Race: What is Progress? Reflections One Year Later
Thursday, March 24, 2016BALTIMORE – Open Society Institute-Baltimore, Good News Baltimore, and the Walters Art Museum have collaborated to present an important conversation to mark the one-year anniversary of the Baltimore Uprising, called “What is Progress? Reflections One Year Later.” The event, at 7pm on April 21, is part of OSI-Baltimore’s “Talking About Race” series and the Walters’ Ted Low […]
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Change is happening in Baltimore
Friday, January 08, 2016Don’t miss OSI-Baltimore’s year-end video, which focuses on the opportunities that arose out of the uprising in 2015. Open Society Institute Baltimore – Be The Change from Open Society Baltimore on Vimeo.
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PBS previews Anna Deavere Smith’s school-to-prison pipeline show
Thursday, October 01, 2015On Tuesday, PBS Newshour aired a great 7-minute story about Anna Deavere Smith’s OSI-supported stage project on the school-to-prison pipeline, “Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education.” In July, Smith, the veteran actor and activist whose credits include “Nurse Jackie,” came back to her native Baltimore to conduct interviews with locals, including Kevin Moore, […]
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#100Women100Miles arrives in Washington D.C. to greet the Pope
Wednesday, September 23, 2015A group of 100 women who marched 100 miles from an immigration detention facility in York, Pennsylvania to Washington D.C. to greet the Pope arrived at the White House today. OSI-Baltimore had the honor of hosting the women, organized by We Belong Together, for dinner during their stop in Baltimore. After the meal at First Unitarian […]
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Maryland is ready for reform
Monday, January 06, 2014Time and again, the ACLU receives calls from Marylanders, usually poor and of color, who have fallen victim to the failed war on drugs. Many describe the illegal searches and verbal intimidation they experienced at the hands of law enforcement officers in the misguided, racially biased, and endless hunt for marijuana.
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Big Change Baltimore
Wednesday, October 30, 2013We’re still processing all of the amazing and inspirational words we heard at Big Change Baltimore, OSI-Baltimore’s 15th Anniversary forum. We’ll be writing and talking a lot more in the coming weeks about the forum, and more importantly—our future work in Baltimore. Watch videos from Big Change Baltimore here.
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Real representation for all
Monday, March 18, 2013What would happen if every single person accused of a crime in this country got a lawyer who his knew his name? Why he had been arrested? His version of events? His witnesses? His evidence? His case? What? That doesn’t happen?
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Maryland DREAMERS give me hope
Monday, November 12, 2012“So happy all my friends get to go to college!” This is what my daughter, a sophomore at Trinity College, texted me when it became clear, late on election night, that 58 percent of voters had approved the Maryland DREAM Act, which will help thousands of undocumented students access higher education in the state over the next several years. A rush of tears came to my eyes, surprising me. It was a mixture of parental pride, patriotism, and hope.
