The Foundation Awards Over $850,000 in Grants to Summer Programs for Baltimore Kids and Youth

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has award­ed grants to 43 local non­prof­its through its Bal­ti­more Direct Ser­vices Grants (BDSG) pro­gram, amount­ing to a com­bined $860,000 that will sup­port sum­mer activ­i­ties and pro­grams for hun­dreds of Bal­ti­more City’s young people.

The Foundation’s awards are among a total of $3 mil­lion in grants from sev­er­al of the city’s char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tions, all geared toward fund­ing high-qual­i­ty sum­mer pro­grams that serve city youth in low-income fam­i­lies. Besides the Casey Foun­da­tion, the nine oth­er mem­bers of the Bal­ti­more Sum­mer Fund­ing Col­lab­o­ra­tive are the Abell Foun­da­tion, The Asso­ci­at­ed: Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Fed­er­a­tion of Bal­ti­more, Clay­ton Bak­er Trust, Fam­i­ly League of Bal­ti­more, France-Mer­rick Foun­da­tion, The Har­ry and Jeanette Wein­berg Foun­da­tion, Joseph and Har­vey Mey­er­hoff Fam­i­ly Char­i­ta­ble Funds, Lock­hart Vaugh­an Foun­da­tion and The Mor­ton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation.

While each fun­der has spe­cif­ic cri­te­ria, all 10 share the same goal of ensur­ing city youth can access edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties that allow them to con­tin­ue learn­ing and grow­ing dur­ing the sum­mer months. Unlike their peers from high­er-income fam­i­lies, youth in low-income fam­i­lies often lack access to activ­i­ties — whether through camps, libraries, or even muse­ums — that keep their minds engaged over the sum­mer, result­ing in the poten­tial loss of one to three months of knowl­edge and skills gained dur­ing the pre­vi­ous school year. 

“These sum­mer pro­grams will make a dif­fer­ence in young people’s lives now and into their futures,” said Sophie Dage­nais, direc­tor of the Casey Foundation’s Bal­ti­more Civic Site. ​“They allow our city’s chil­dren and teens to con­tin­ue grow­ing, learn­ing skills and hav­ing expe­ri­ences that will serve them as adults.”

The 2016 grants will give youth oppor­tu­ni­ties to get prac­ti­cal work expe­ri­ence, par­tic­i­pate in aca­d­e­m­ic and cul­tur­al enrich­ment and devel­op life and lead­er­ship skills. Many of the pro­grams address such areas as lit­er­a­cy; sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing and math; youth employ­ment; col­lege and career readi­ness; and enrich­ment such as sports and the arts. 

The Foundation’s BDSG pro­gram began in 1995 and has sup­port­ed a wide range of inno­v­a­tive ideas and prac­tices for chil­dren and fam­i­lies through­out the city.

The 2016 BDSG recipients:

Access Art ($20,000)
Afrikan Youth Alche­my ($25,000)
Alter­na­tive Direc­tions Inc. ($20,000)
Art with a Heart ($14,000)
Bal­ti­more Cur­ricu­lum Project ($25,000)
Bal­ti­more Squash­Wise ($20,000)
Bal­ti­more Urban Debate League ($10,000)
Bal­ti­more Urban Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion (The Door) ($25,000)
Ban­ner Neigh­bor­hoods Com­mu­ni­ty Cor­po­ra­tion ($12,800)
Beat the Streets – Bal­ti­more ($20,000)
Bal­ti­more Youth Kinet­ic Ener­gy Col­lec­tive ($15,000)
Camp Far­thest Out ($25,000)
CUPs Cof­fee­house ($25,000)
Dig­i­tal Har­bor Foun­da­tion ($25,000)
Druid Heights Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion ($10,900)
Full Gospel Fel­low­ship Church of Deliv­er­ance ($25,000)
Greater Bal­ti­more Urban League ($21,482)
Holis­tic Life Foun­da­tion ($20,000)
Hope House ($20,000)
Imag­ine Project Inc. ($15,000)
Junior Achieve­ment of Cen­tral Mary­land ($20,000)
Lead­ers of a Beau­ti­ful Strug­gle ($25,000)
Mary­land New Direc­tions ($25,000)
Men­tor­ing Male Teens in the Hood ($24,969)
Mid­dle Grades Part­ner­ship ($25,000) 
Mind­ful Men­tors Inc. ($19,500)
New Lens ($20,000)
Next One Up Foun­da­tion ($19,250)
POP (Play on Pur­pose) Inc. ($25,000)
Recon­struct & Rebuild ($25,000)
Renais­sance Acad­e­my High School ($10,400)
Soc­cer With­out Bor­ders Bal­ti­more ($19,700)
St. Fran­cis Neigh­bor­hood Cen­ter ($20,000)
Stand for Youth ($25,000)
The Inner Har­bor Project ($25,000)
The March­ing Elite Foun­da­tion ($20,000)
Thread ($25,000)
Women in Tran­si­tion ($25,000)
Writ­ers in Bal­ti­more Schools ($22,000)
Youth As Resources ($25,000)
Youth Empow­ered Soci­ety ($20,000)