On Wednesday night, 22 candidates for Mayor of Baltimore City participated in the first Blueprint for Baltimore Mayoral Forum, moderated by WYPR’s Tom Hall and Lisa Snowden-McCray of the Baltimore Beat and the Real News Network. All of the questions were based on responses to the Blueprint for Baltimore survey, which asked thousands of Baltimore […]
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Baltimore residents seek violence prevention, mental, behavioral health services as path to safer streets, according to Blueprint survey data
Monday, January 27, 2020Read the Blueprint for Baltimore Survey Report NOW BALTIMORE—The most important way to improve Baltimore neighborhoods, according to respondents in the Blueprint for Baltimore survey, is by creating safer streets. Asked how the city should allocate resources to respond to violence, respondents said city leaders should expand the Safe Streets program, improve access to mental […]
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Safe place to shoot up? Some say Baltimore needs supervised sites for drug use. Others say that’s insane.
Friday, January 24, 2020By Jean Marbella and Meredith Cohn Unlike the public bathrooms, dark alleys and vacant rowhomes where addicts furtively conduct their business, the facility’s atmosphere would be welcoming and clean. Users could avail themselves of new needles and alcohol swabs — with trained staff discreetly nearby in case of overdose — then linger in a “chill” [...] -
Inside Baltimore’s Unique Bid to Open Safe Consumption Sites
Wednesday, January 22, 2020By Brandon Soderberg A row of seats at the front of Baltimore City Council’s chambers was reserved for harm reductionists on January 13. They were there to celebrate a small but significant shift in how Baltimore deals with the overdose crisis: The introduction of a resolution to hold an informational hearing about safe consumption sites [...] -
Overdose Prevention Services experts meet with Maryland lawmakers, advocates
Monday, January 20, 2020Last week, OSI hosted a delegation of people who have worked at Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) in Canada and Europe to talk to city and state legislators, advocates, and the public about their experiences and the ways that such sites not only save lives, but also build community and have also helped thousands of drug […]
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Community Fellowships Application: Frequently Asked Questions
Thursday, January 16, 2020What is an “open society”? Popularized by philosopher Karl Popper, the term “open society” refers to a society based on the recognition that nobody has a monopoly on the truth, that different people have different views and interests, and that there is a need for institutions to protect the rights of all people to allow […]
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Danielle Torain named OSI-Baltimore executive director
Tuesday, January 14, 2020By Adam Bednar Danielle Torain takes over as Open Society Institute-Baltimore’s executive director on Jan. 21 at a time when issues at the core of the organization’s mission, such as criminal justice reform, are intertwined with the debate about how to address violent crime in the city. Read Full Article -
Danielle Torain to lead Open Society Institute-Baltimore
Tuesday, January 14, 2020BALTIMORE—The Open Society Foundations are pleased to announce the appointment of Danielle Torain as the new director of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, effective Jan. 21, 2020. A proud Baltimore native, Torain brings a decade’s experience in the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors to the job. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the University […]
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New Impact Series photo essay features Black Women Build-Baltimore
Monday, January 13, 2020Black Women Build-Baltimore, an organization started by 2018 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Shelley Halstead is featured this month in our Impact Photo Series. Halstead started the organization specifically to help black women gain skills to renovate and maintain homes and train them in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing, which will equip them to enter the construction sector–a […]
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Check out OSI’s latest newsletter, including “Five Lessons Learned with OSI’s Community Fellows”
Monday, January 13, 2020The latest edition of OSI-Baltimore’s newsletter, Audacious Thinking, is now available online. For the cover story, Weaving a Network for Baltimore: Five Lessons Learned with the OSI-Baltimore Community Fellows, Didi Goldenhar updated her 2016 white paper about OSI’s Fellowships Network, describing how the Fellows Advisory Board helped develop connections and collaborations among the more than […]
