In 2020, OSI-Baltimore lost four beloved members of our community, including three members of the Community Fellows Network.
REV. BERNICE BISHOP, a 2013 Community Fellow, started Women Empowering Women Ministries and Women Empowering Women Education and Outreach Center, which began with a desire to feed as many hungry women and their families throughout Baltimore as she could, and expanded to teach women essential life skills.
AVIS RANSOM, a 2002 Community Fellow, founder of Income and Equality for All and an anti-racism consultant and workshop facilitator for Baltimore Racial Justice Action, Avis was a force – both as a mentor and as a member of her communities – who influenced, touched, and inspired many, including OSI-Baltimore Director Danielle Torain.
WILLIAM MILLER, SR. was a founding member of longtime OSI partner Bmore POWER and a champion of Baltimore’s peer-led harm reduction movement who spoke out against the oppression of communities across Baltimore under the guise of public safety or public health.
BETTY ROBINSON, 2003 OSI Community Fellow was Civil Rights hero, organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), lead organizer of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, leader of Baltimore’s Standing Up for Racial Justice chapter, and mentor to generations of advocates in Baltimore and beyond.
