For years, OSI has served as a conduit between public and private institutions, communities, and individuals. This year, we built on that traditional role with several public-private partnerships that were able to leverage millions of dollars to support Baltimore residents struggling with the economic, health, and other impacts of the COVID pandemic, compounded by decades of disinvestment. Among those efforts:
- Collaborated with local government to leverage $6 million in city funds to launch the COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Program, delivering $400 debit cards to 15,000 residents of Baltimore’s marginalized communities, who are most impacted by COVID-19 and yet often overlooked.
- Provided seed funding to establish Baltimore Health Corps, a public-private partnership that leverages $12 million in city funds to hire hundreds of unemployed Baltimore residents to be contact tracers and care coordinators for residents of Baltimore neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19.
- Partnered with Baltimore City to provide technology and internet access in an effort to narrow the digital divide exacerbated by COVID-19, investing $200,000 and shepherding a $3 million city investment to create a “mesh network” to extend Internet access from school buildings to surrounding neighborhoods.
- Joined other local funders to support the city’s new Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which consists of several coordinated initiatives that aim to prevent violence by providing services to those most likely to be affected by violence.
- Collaborating and providing substantial funding for the enactment of the “Elijah Cummings, Baltimore Healing City Act of 2020.” Led by Councilman Zeke Cohen, Healing City Baltimore aims to unearth and reverse the causes of trauma in our city, by helping government proactively support the health of children and families, confronting injustice, and preventing violence.
- Supported Emergency Relief for Immigrant Families (ERIF), established by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to assist immigrant families impacted by the pandemic and with limited access to public benefits. To date, ERIF has provided assistance to over 2,000 families and 250 individuals.
- Supported the transition of new Mayor Brandon Scott, with the inclusion of OSI Director Danielle Torain, Board Member Alicia Wilson, and Community Fellow Brittany Young as co-chairs of his Transition Team, and the involvement of many other partners, grantees, Fellows, and Board and Leadership Council members as chairs and members of the team’s committees.
“Before I joined OSI, I always appreciated the organization’s ability to bring together people in government with advocates and communities,” says Torain. “This year, faced with COVID and its brutal consequences, we were able to lean on those relationships and that convening capacity to leverage many millions of public dollars—more than OSI has ever been able to leverage in the past—to support people who needed it most.”
OSI Director Danielle Torain speaks at a press conference announcing the launch of Baltimore Health Corps, with Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa (left) and Mayor Jack Young. (Mark Daniels)
As OSI-Baltimore considers how it can best support transformative change in Baltimore in the coming years, it will build on the lessons learned in 2020 in many ways. One way could be to expand on the models of public-private partnership established in 2020 to support more long-term, non-emergency funding and to leverage funding from the state and federal level, in addition to local sources.
In a Leadership Council meeting in September, OSI staff and representatives from the Mayor’s Office and our community partners discussed the extensive infrastructure that had been established to facilitate the $6 million COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Program. Council members asked whether that infrastructure could be replicated for other public-private partnerships, including ones with federal agencies. It was an inspiring conversation, one we hope to continue in 2021 and beyond.
Of course, not all OSI’s work in 2020 was done in explicit partnership with government. As always, OSI has worked with a wide range of partners, including other funders, community-based advocates, and local businesses. A few highlights from those efforts:
Worked with local advocates to launch a campaign to decrease the Baltimore City police department budget by $100 million (20%) over two years, institute an annual participatory budgeting process in Baltimore City, restore local control of the Baltimore City police department, and repeal the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights.
Launched Bmore Invested, a partnership with Baltimore’s Promise that brings together 10 local funders and 24 com-munity leaders to distribute more than $2.3 million in pooled, private capital, including $1 million from OSI-Baltimore, to local leaders of color who are work-ing at the grassroots level to reimagine community-serving systems and advance community-based alternative approaches that promote healthy, safe, and thriving neighborhoods.
Released a landmark study demonstrating that Baltimore City Schools that have adopted restorative practices have seen dramatic drops in suspensions, improved school climate, and better relationships between students and teachers. The report, co-released with Baltimore City Public Schools, Johns Hopkins University Institute for Education Policy, and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, earned local and national media attention.
Responded to the unprecedented pivot to vote-by-mail election in 2020 by supporting local advocates’ innovative efforts to educate and promote voting in marginalized neighborhoods in the primary election, resulting in unprecedented voter participation in Baltimore City and the use of OSF funds to scale these efforts to several cities in the general election.
Granted emergency funding to 23 local organizations providing COVID-response services to some of Baltimore’s most marginalized populations, include people who use drugs, are incarcerated, or were recently released from incarceration, and thus at increased risks of contracting COVID-19, suffering a fatal overdose, or being re-incarcerated.
Selected 12 Community Fellows, including two Youth Activist Community Fellows, with funding from Open Society Foundations’ Youth Exchange program.
Worked with nine grantee advocates to initiate a multi-year decarceration cam-paign to reduce the number of currently incarcerated people who have served more than 15 years in Maryland prison, with executive, legislative, administrative, and community-based strategies.
Provided $220,000 in direct cash assis-tance for grassroots leaders and business owners through Black-led micro-granter CLLCTVLY.
Supported COVID-response efforts advancing policy and structural reform on behalf of populations left out of stimulus access, including formerly incarcerated people, Black workers, and non-custodial parents.
Supported COVID-response efforts advancing policy and structural reform on behalf of populations left out of stimulus access, including formerly incarcerated people, Black workers, and non-custodial parents.
