Fearless, a Baltimore-based digital services firm just announced the creation of a $50,000 donation matching fund to support nonprofit organizations in Baltimore and Montgomery, Alabama, (where the company has offices) that are committed to bridging the racial gap. Baltimore organizations chosen to receive the funds include many OSI grantees Job Opportunities Task Force, CASA, Out […]
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New report indicates major impact of restorative practices in Baltimore City Schools
Tuesday, September 29, 2020Read Baltimore Sun story on the report. BALTIMORE—Baltimore City Schools that have adopted restorative practices since 2018 have seen dramatic drops in suspensions, improved school climate, and better relationships between students and teachers, according to a new report released today by Open Society Institute-Baltimore, Baltimore City Public Schools, Johns Hopkins University Institute for Education Policy, […]
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OSI and Baltimore City to launch COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Program
Thursday, September 24, 2020In the coming months, OSI-Baltimore and Baltimore City will launch the COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Program to provide much-needed support to residents of Baltimore’s marginalized communities, who are most impacted by COVID-19 and yet often overlooked. The program, profiled this week in the Sun, will use $6 million of city funds to provide $400 prepaid cards […]
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Watch OSI Community Fellow Shelley Halstead flip out on the Kelly Clarkson Show
Thursday, September 24, 2020This week, 2018 OSI Community Fellow Shelley Halstead was a virtual guest on the Kelly Clarkson Show. Halstead started Black Women Build Baltimore, which trains Black women in construction skills like plumbing, electrical, and carpentry by restoring vacant and deteriorating houses in West Baltimore, which the women then have an option to buy. She was […]
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Meet Jamar Brown, the new Chair of OSI’s Advisory Board
Monday, September 21, 2020Jamar Brown, a partner in the Litigation group at Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, LLP, and a champion of several justice-seeking organizations in Baltimore, has stepped in as Chair of OSI’s Advisory Board, replacing William C. Clarke, III, who has chaired the Board for the last ten years and will remain an Advisory Board member. “I am […]
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Over-incarceration still happening in Maryland | READER COMMENTARY
Sunday, September 20, 2020By Andre M. Davis I was doubly discouraged by the data reported by Professors Doug Colbert and Colin Starger reflecting the unnecessary and unjust over-incarceration of non-violent pre-trial detainees in Baltimore (“Bail injustice in the time of COVID-19,” Sept. 7). Not long ago, as an advisory board member of Open Society Institute-Baltimore, I applauded OSI’s participation [...] -
Danielle Torain on Black leadership and the future of Baltimore
Thursday, September 17, 2020OSI-Baltimore Director Danielle Torain sat down with The Daily Record as part of a series of interviews launched during the newspaper’s “Young, Black, Homegrown and Leading in Baltimore” webinar. Torain, who joined OSI in January, talked about how being a Black woman and Baltimore native shaped her view of the city and her work. “When […]
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Danielle Torain: ‘You’re talking about your own folks’
Tuesday, September 15, 2020By Adam Bednar Danielle Torain grew up in Baltimore, and her career included work in the mayor’s office before taking over as the executive director of the Open Society Institute Baltimore early in 2020. Having young people of color in positions leading organizations, she said, provides an important context for organizations like her own dedicated [...] -
Maryland will allow Big Tech to track if someone with the coronavirus comes near you. Should you let them?
Friday, September 04, 2020By Jean Marbella and Hallie Miller You probably want to know if you’ve come in contact with someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus. But questions like who else would know, and what they might do with that information, have made some wary of a new cellphone notification tool developed by Apple and Google [...] -
OSI YouthWorks Summer Intern on the Challenges of Online Internships
Wednesday, September 02, 2020The challenges of learning and internship, whew! Where do I start? My name is Lashai Simms, I attend Baltimore City Community College and I’m currently in my sophomore year. The beginning of the spring semester was going perfectly fine. Being present in school every day, attending all my classes on time, and being social was […]
