Archive

On Friday, Scott Nolen (above, fourth from the left), director of Open Society Institute’s Addiction and Health Equity program, joined Rep. Elijah Cummings, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, and others to discuss “Opioids and People of Color” at the 48th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Nolen also joined Rep. Cummings […]

Yesterday, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen announced that she will step down from her position to take over as president of Planned Parenthood. Dr. Wen has been a steadfast partner of the Open Society Institute, working together on distribution of life-saving overdose-reversal drug Naloxone, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program (LEAD), and many […]

Last month, the Department of Justice released six new and revised Baltimore Police Department policies, created as part of the city’s consent decree with the DOJ, which required reforms within the BPD. Today, the department extended the period for public comment on the new policies to September 28th. Anyone can review the policies at the […]

Holistic Life Foundation, a longtime Open Society Institute grantee that brings yoga and mindfulness to Baltimore City Schools, recently completed an OSI-funded curriculum that they are rolling out to several City Schools this school year. They just released a 60-second video, below, that highlights their work and is part of continuing efforts to re-frame perceptions of […]

A new story in the Maryland Daily Record reports on the dramatic reduction on the use of cash bail in Maryland (“With cash bail down and releases up, stakeholders turn attention to pretrial services“). Perhaps most notably, while the use of cash bail dropped from around 40 percent of criminal cases in 2016 to about […]

In its recent Biennial Performance Audit of the Baltimore City Health Department, the city’s Department of Audits noted several of the health department’s successes, including its Naloxone program, which reversed at least 1,439 overdoses in 2016 and 2017 alone. The audit also reported several failures to meet expectations, recommending that the department increase staffing levels […]

Pax Christi International, the global Catholic peace movement whose focus is “to transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity” has named the No Boundaries Coalition, an OSI-Baltimore grantee, the recipient of its 2018 Peace Award.  No Boundaries, a community advocacy organization that played a key role in ensuring that the Consent Decree was […]

On Wednesday, the Baltimore City Youth Fund announced its year-one grant awardees and among the recipients are several OSI-Baltimore grantees and organizations founded by OSI Community Fellows. Among the awardees was Afrikan Youth Alchemy Inc. (founded by 2009 Fellow Tre Subira), Baltimore Youth Arts (founded by 2016 Fellow Gianna Rodriguez), Intersection of Change (a part of […]

Baltimore Business Journal just announced its “40 Under 40” list for 2018 and among the recipients are 2016 OSI Community Fellow Gianna Rodriguez and Mark Procopio, CEO of OSI grantee FreeState Justice. As part of Fellowship, Rodriguez expanded her program, Baltimore Youth Arts, a job readiness program for youth who have contact with the justice […]

Join Open Society Institute-Baltimore for the second of three special events marking our 20th Anniversary. The centerpiece of the event will be a timely conversation on “Making Sure Every Person Counts: The Census, Advocacy, and Civic Participation” with two of the country’s foremost experts on these subjects: Barbara Mikulski was a US Senator representing Maryland for 30 years, from 1987 to […]