Baltimore Integration Partnership Update - July 2012

BIP and Baltimore Workforce Funders Award Funds to Support Linked Workforce Training Opportunities

By Kurt Sommer & Linda Dworak

More than $400,000 in funding from Living Cities, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and the Corporation for National and Community Service/ Social Innovation Fund will help support 400 slots of training for area residents in green demolition, pre-apprenticeship construction training, retail and hospitality, and health care preparation. These fields are tied to active and planned employment opportunities in BIP target areas and those within surrounding anchor institutions. Candidates within BIP communities as wells as the Central Baltimore Partnership and East Baltimore Development Inc. workforce pipelines will be targeted for participation. Awardees include Humanim, JumpStart, the Caroline Center, and Episcopal Community Services which is partnering with Safe and Sound. A companion award by Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative will support training opportunities in food preparation services through St. Vincent DePaul. Congratulations to all the organizations.

Building Connections to Employment Opportunities

Through the leadership of the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED) and the City of Baltimore, the BIP has added a new Business Services Representative to help connect area residents to employment opportunities in the local area and anchor institutions. The position builds on the key partnership role MOED plays in the BIP as well as their access to training funds and linkages to regional and statewide employment resources.Please contact Jimmy Smith at 410.396.9030 or email him at jlsmith@oedworks.com for more information about MOED employment and training resources as well as any employment opportunities that may be available.

MICA and TRF Partner on Studio Center Project

Congratulations to BIP partners Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) which just closed on a New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) transaction for the ongoing renovation of the Graduate Studio Center on North Avenue. The project furthers MICA’s leadership and investment in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and is TRF’s first deployment of NMTCs in Baltimore.

Great Neighborhoods, Great City Report

What are the most promising ways to create and sustain strong communities in older industrial cities? A study by Paul C. Brophy just released by BIP partner the Goldseker Foundation, "Great Neighborhoods Great City, Strategies for the 2010s,” analyzes what happened in Baltimore’s neighborhoods during the past decade and suggests strategies going forward. Read the Report (pdf file)

BIP Launches New Website Mapping Tool

Building on TRF’s data analysis capabilities and internal BIP analytical work, a new mapping tool is availability to explore Baltimore City socio-economic and demographic trends. Data layers available include the 2011 TRF Market Value Analysis, vacant building and home sales, as well as a range of employment, education, income, and investment data.

Reflections on the Integration Initiative

Please be sure to check out the companion Living Cities Blog Posts on site visits to the Twin Cities and Baltimore that reflect on the ideals, structures, and activities of the Baltimore Integration Partnership and the Corridors of Opportunity by project Directors Kurt Sommer and Mary Kay Bailey.

-From Baltimore to the Twin Cities: Reflections on Collective Impact
-From the Twin Cities to Baltimore: Lessons on Workforce and Inclusion

BIP Developments Continue to Move Forward

Four reinvestment projects financed in part by TRF are continuing to move forward in Central and East Baltimore. The Telesis homeownership project in Barclay, funded also with Neighborhood Stabilization Funds through Healthy Neighborhoods, is in the process of wrapping up. Telesis reports that 5 of the 12 units have contracts on them already. Southway Builders, the project’s general contractor, reports that 3 community residents hired for a previous phase were retained through the job and 4 additional residents gained employment because of the project. Congratulations to all the stakeholders on their work and efforts.

A project housed at the Maryland Philanthropy Network, the goal of the Baltimore Integration Partnership is to reconnect low-income Baltimore City residents who are predominantly African American to the regional economy, maximize the linkage between physical and human capital development, and to reinvest in targeted inner-core neighborhoods so that they become regionally competitive, economically diverse, sustainable communities of choice.