• Baltimore Sun highlights OSI’s Fellowships program on its 20th anniversary

    This week, the Baltimore Sun featured a great article on the OSI-Baltimore Community Fellowships program. “Sparks for change: Open Society fellows have tested new ideas for Baltimore for 20 years,” highlights how deeply woven into the fabric of Baltimore the fellows have become in the two-decade history of the program. “When we think about the […]

  • Shawn Burnett

    OSI Fellow organizes journalism master class for city youth

    2014 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Shawn Burnett and his organization, Walks of ART, will collaborate with author D. Watkins and photographer Devin Allen to bring a two-day journalism master class to Baltimore City youth on August 15 and 16. Young people from Baltimore City age 14 to 18 can send a photo with a story (no more than […]

  • OSI’s Webber visits Hungary to talk about educating marginalized populations

    Karen Webber, director of OSI’s Education and Youth Development program, recently returned from Budapest, where she attended a week-long course at Central European University on inclusion of marginalized student populations. Representatives from more than 20 countries, including Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia, Mongolia, South Africa, Kenya, India, Nepal, and Spain, participated in the course. Participants discussed the […]

  • OSI grantee to host naloxone training, benefit concert

    Next Saturday, August 5th, the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition (BHRC), an OSI-Baltimore grantee, will host an event where Baltimore City Health Department officials will train individuals how to administer the life-saving overdose-reversal drug naloxone. Afterwards, there will be a benefit concert featuring local artists, including Ducky Dynamo, Violet Ripken, KnifeCrime, and others. The training will be available from […]

  • OSI-sponsored CityLab comes to Baltimore next week

    OSI-Baltimore has teamed up with The Atlantic to present CityLab Baltimore, a one-day convening of local and national leaders to discuss pressing issues in American cities, at the Parkway theater next Wednesday, August 2nd. Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and Johns Hopkins University grad who has invested heavily in Baltimore, will offer […]

  • OSI Community Fellows gather at Teacher Supply Swap

    On Friday, the 2016 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellows hosted its monthly Fellows Gathering at Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap to hear about the experiences of two members of their cohort, Melissa Badeker and Jennifer Will-Thapa. Badeker co-founded the Teacher Supply Swap to help bridge the gap between educators who need materials and those who have extra materials […]

  • OSI’s Scott Nolen Graduates from Presidential Leadership Scholars Program

    This week, Scott Nolen, director of OSI-Baltimore’s Drug Addiction Treatment Program graduated from the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, an initiative hosted by the presidential centers of George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Nolen was one of 60 people selected for the program’s third cohort which ran from February […]

  • Public Defender, OSI Leadership Council Member Publishes Op-Ed on Mandatory Minimum Sentences  

    TODAY, the Baltimore Sun published an op-ed by Public Defender and OSI-Baltimore Leadership Council member, Todd Oppenheim. In “Baltimore’s Mandatory minimum madness,” Oppenheim calls the newly-proposed mandatory minimum sentencing for illegal handgun possession a “shortsighted attempt to curb violence through incarceration.” Mandatory minimum sentences do not increase public safety and restrict judges ability to rule […]

  • OSI Fellows’ mural arts programs with BOPA’s Art@Work to hold unveiling

    Photo from the Baltimore Sun gallery.   Next Friday, July 28, Art@Work, a summer mural program for young people enrolled in the Baltimore City YouthWorks program, will unveil the completed murals. The program, now in its third year, is produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) in partnership with Jubilee Arts […]

  • Open Society Institute-Baltimore Urges Consideration of the Historical Lessons of Tough-on-Crime Policies to Bring About Public Safety

    There is currently much debate and discussion in Baltimore City about the best strategies to reduce the violence that currently plagues our City. As policymakers, civic leaders and concerned community members come together to identify and implement the best solutions, it is prudent that we revisit what the last 40 years has taught us about […]