The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a dynamic, public research university integrating teaching, research, and service to benefit the citizens of Maryland. Since 2014, UMBC has been engaged with a number of Baltimore City public schools in an effort to support enhanced math learning. Across the participating schools, achievement has increased steadily each year. The UMBC Reach Together Summer Math Project focuses on summer learning as an opportunity to increase math achievement. This grant provided funds to support UMBC’s Summer Math Program at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School and Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School, both in Baltimore City.

Paul’s Place is a catalyst and leader for change, improving the quality of life in the Southwest Baltimore
communities. Paul’s Place provides programs, services, and support that strengthen individuals and families, fostering hope, personal dignity, and growth. Paul’s Place offers daily feeding and helps meet basic needs, offers case management, wellness services, workforce development programs, and afterschool care/enrichment for 120 neighborhood students. The COVID pandemic was extraordinarily disruptive to Paul’s Place’s service models. They delayed their regular five-year strategic planning process, but have hired a new Executive Director, resumed most operations, and are now ready to embark on a new strategic planning process. This grant provided funds for consultant costs towards strategic planning.

Our Zero Waste Future (OZWF) was founded by Dante Swinton, a product of Johns Hopkins’ Social Innovation Lab (SIL) and a member of the 2022 Innovation Works cohort. Swinton also founded GRASS, a for-profit social enterprise working to reduce Baltimore’s dependence on the BRESCO incinerator through a glass/waste
cooperative that diverts this waste stream through restaurant-based glass recycling collection and residential drop-off points. Swinton subsequently formed the complementary nonprofit OZWF to promote awareness of the value of discarded materials by encouraging zero waste behaviors and facilitating thriving communities through cooperative business development. OZWF’s vision is a zero-waste economy powered by hundreds of new cooperatives across the country that localize material recovery and minimize our carbon footprint. This grant provided core operating support.