Baltimore magazine’s annual Best of Baltimore issue recently came out and OSI-Baltimore was so pleased to find so many members of the OSI family recognized.
Four different OSI-Baltimore Community Fellows and/or their projects were recognized:
- 2012 Fellow and Morgan State University professor Lawrence Brown was recognized as founder of one of the “Best Political Facebook Groups,” BRACE: The Baltimore Redevelopment Action Coalition for Empowerment.
- The Skatepark of Baltimore, founded by 2010 Fellow Stephanie Murdock as part of her “Skateboarding for Success” project, was recognized as “Best Skatepark.”
- Gather Baltimore, founded by 2012 Fellow Arthur Morgan, was recognized as “Best Concept We Love” for its mission of redistributing surplus produce from the Baltimore Farmers Market to underserved citizens around the city.
- Baltimore Youth Arts, founded by 2016 Fellow Gianna Rodriguez, was listed among “Best Art That Gives Back.”
The broad representation of OSI’s Fellows in the issue calls to mind 2015 Fellow Gregory Carpenter’s comment in the Sun’s recent story on the 20th anniversary of the Fellows program: “When we think about the value, we can almost pick any area of the community and you can find an OSI stamp on it,” he said.
In addition, Catalina Rodriguez-Lima, director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, was recognized in a series of profiles of the “Best Baltimoreans” for her collaboration with OSI to create the Safe City Baltimore legal defense fund:
“When the Trump administration announced plans to ramp up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations across the country, leading to a series of high-profile arrests earlier this year, she helped the city announce a private legal defense fund for immigrants and refugees called Safe City Baltimore, managed by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.”
Click here to get more information about Safe City Baltimore and to donate – when we reach 80% of our goal, we will begin dispersing funds and we are almost there.