George Soros is giving $5 million to the
Open Society Institute�Baltimore. The philanthropic gift will be used to provide services for thousands of the city's most vulnerable residents, including the homeless and those living in poverty, who have been particularly hurt by the recession.
Homelessness, for instance, in Baltimore has increased by 12 percent over the past year. The funding will provide grants to local nonprofits for a range of services, including jobs and employment training for disadvantaged youth, urgent dental care for homeless people, drug addiction treatment for the indigent, as well as housing, counseling and job training for formerly-incarcerated people. The Family League of Baltimore, for example, will receive $1 million, the largest single grant, to create year-long jobs for 200 youth, including 40 juvenile-court-involved youth who will be trained in construction trades and 50 youth aging out of foster care who will learn to plant, sell, prepare and serve food at Fresh Start Farm.
The $5 million in grants comes from the Special Fund for Poverty Alleviation, a new national fund created by Soros in response to the economic downturn. Soros's foundation, the Open Society Institute, is using the fund to make grants to states and national organizations across the country, including Baltimore, to provide relief from the recession for low-income people.
"Mr. Soros wants to provide an immediate lifeline for the most underserved people in our community who are struggling to find jobs and keep their families healthy," says Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore. "Many jobs have vanished at a time when families need the income most. For some people the need is drug addiction treatment and very basic medical care. These grants form a safety net for the most vulnerable."
The OSI�Baltimore board of directors recently approved half of the $5 million for 10 Baltimore organizations. OSI will award the other half by early 2010 but is not soliciting new funding proposals.
The grants require each recipient to secure matching funds, most of which come from public dollars and will bring substantial additional, new investment to Baltimore.
"Being part of a national foundation enables us to periodically tap special funds and resources for the greater benefit of Baltimore," Morris explains. "All of these new grants support our intertwined local goals of tackling drug addiction, reducing over-reliance on incarceration and helping youth stay connected to school and on the road to success."
Soros founded OSI�Baltimore in 1998 and since then has invested more than $60 million, the largest single investment an individual has made to Baltimore to help those suffering from poverty and discrimination.
Source: Diana Morris, OSI-Baltimore
Writer: Walaika Haskins