Skip to Content List

  • Skip to primary content
  • Skip to footer content

Site Navigation Lists

  • Fellowship Application
  • Grantmaking Process
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Leadership Council
    • Impact Reports
    • Impact Photo Series
  • Programs and Impact
    • Our Programs and Impact
    • Education and Youth Development
    • Criminal and Juvenile Justice
    • Addiction and Health Equity
    • Community Fellowships
  • Grantees and Fellows
    • Grantee Database
    • Grantmaking Process
    • Community Fellows
    • How to Apply
  • News and Reports
    • Baltimore Justice Report
    • Newsletters
    • Reports
    • Impact Reports
    • Blueprint for Baltimore
    • OSI in the News
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • 20th Anniversary Speaker Series
    • Talking About Race Series
    • Talking About Addiction Series
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Community Guidelines
  • Terms & Conditions
Open Society Institute – Baltimore

Open Society Institute – Baltimore

Open Society Institute (OSI) – Baltimore : Audacious Thinking For Lasting Change

  • Fellowship Application
  • Grantmaking Process
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • EN
    • EN
    • ES
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Leadership Council
    • Impact Reports
    • Impact Photo Series
  • Programs and Impact
    • Our Programs and Impact
    • Education and Youth Development
    • Criminal and Juvenile Justice
    • Addiction and Health Equity
    • Community Fellowships
  • Grantees and Fellows
    • Grantee Database
    • Grantmaking Process
    • Community Fellows
    • How to Apply
  • News and Reports
    • Baltimore Justice Report
    • Newsletters
    • Reports
    • Impact Reports
    • Blueprint for Baltimore
    • OSI in the News
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • 20th Anniversary Speaker Series
    • Talking About Race Series
    • Talking About Addiction Series
OSI Community Fellow

Miriam Avins

2007 Baltimore Community Fellow

OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow Miriam Avins and her neighbors in Better Waverly toiled for years to turn a vacant plot of land near her home into a lush garden. But when the long-absent property owner unexpectedly agreed to sell the land to a developer, Avins saw that Baltimore needed a land trust that would own community-managed open lands. Thus, the seed was planted for Baltimore Green Space, a nonprofit Avins developed during her recent fellowship to create a land trust for community-managed open space.

Finally, Avins’s seed has borne fruit.

Under a plan approved by the city Board of Estimates, the city will sell vacant land that has been managed by community groups for at least five years–at the price of only $1. The policy lays out several benchmarks that the sites must meet. Community groups can go to Baltimore Green Space, which will do all the bureaucratic leg work and red tape for them.

“This is a really big deal,” says Avins, who was a 2007 Community Fellow, “Now you don’t have to start from scratch for every negotiation.”

At the same Board of Estimates in the fall of 2009, the 44-lot Duncan Street Miracle Garden and the Pigtown Horseshoe Pit were sold to Baltimore Green Space, which will now protect three community-managed open spaces.

Avins spent her fellowship raising awareness of the social, environmental and health benefits of community gardening. She also worked to promote the value of preserving community-managed spaces among city officials from the mayor’s office and the departments of public works, planning and housing and community development. Because of her work, the land trust is now a part of the city’s Sustainability Plan and will benefit individuals, neighborhoods and the city as a whole.

Avins says realizing her dream of a working land trust is a “real thrill.” But now that her effort has paid off, Avins says she will continue to work to make Baltimore Green Space the go-to place for residents who are managing community open spaces.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she says.

Related Stories

  • Miriam Avins
  • Bay Journal highlights OSI Fellow Miriam Avins and Baltimore Green Space
  • OSI mourns the loss of tireless advocate and OSI Community Fellow Avis Ransom
  • Weaving a Network for Baltimore
  • OSI Community Fellow’s Baltimore Green Space to host celebration of Fairwood Forest
  • OSI Community Fellow’s Baltimore Green Space negotiates protections for Fairwood Forest
  • Janet Felsten
  • Community Fellow’s Baltimore Green Space project to host “Fantastic Forest Forum”
Van Brooks
OSI Fellow Van Brooks named Director of Governor's Office of Service and Volunteerism

About Baltimore Community Fellowshop

The Open Society Institute-Baltimore launched the Community Fellowships network in 1998. It is now a corps of social innovators 180 strong. The program seeks dynamic activists and social entrepreneurs interested in implementing projects that address problems in underserved communities in Baltimore City. Fellowship awards are in the amount of $60,000 for a term of 18 months.

Post navigation

Previous Post OSI’s Tara Huffman talks pretrial justice reform on Innocence Project panel
Van Brooks Next Post OSI Fellow Van Brooks named Director of Governor’s Office of Service and Volunteerism
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Youtube

Subscribe to our mailing list

OSI Logo

Open Society Institute-Baltimore
Bold Thinking, Strategic Action, Justice for All.

Quick donate

© 2023 Open Society Institute-Baltimore
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Community Guidelines
  • Terms & Conditions
Skip to top of page