Baltimore Integration Partnership Update - December 2012

Baltimore Integration Partnership Update - December 2012

Johns Hopkins University Announces $10 Million Commitment to Neighborhoods
Congratulations to Johns Hopkins University on its commitment to contribute $10 million over five years to enhance and strengthen the 11 neighborhoods surrounding the university's Homewood campus in Central Baltimore. This $10 million in flexible funding is the first commitment to the $60 million HCPI agenda. The goal for the JHU funding is to help enhance and strengthen neighborhoods by funding projects chosen in conjunction with the neighborhoods themselves and with other members of the Homewood Community Partners Initiative, a collaborative effort convened by Johns Hopkins last year. JHU also announced that it is setting aggressive new goals for hiring and promoting Baltimore City residents and for making purchases from local and minority owned businesses. Read More about the Announcement and the HCPI Initiative

TRF Partners with Seawall on Homeownership Project in Central Baltimore
BIP's CDFI partner, The Reinvestment Fund, closed financing with Seawall Development Corporation helping move forward the redevelopment of 10 homes in the Remington neighborhood. The project is part of a larger 30 unit redevelopment targeting teachers and other residents transitioning from rental housing into homeownership. The redevelopment is leveraging land and vacant buildings awarded through Baltimore City's Vacants to Valueprogram as well as purchase incentives for homebuyers provided through Greater Homewood Community Corporation from the Abell Foundation. The project includes the BIP's inclusion goals for hiring and construction contracting. This project is the 8thdevelopment project financed by TRF in Baltimore over the past 18 months including two New Market Tax Credit transactions. Congratulations to Seawall and TRF. Read More about this project and Seawall's projects here and here.

City of Baltimore Announces New Job Hubs
Congratulations to the Mayor's Office of Employment Development and the City of Baltimore on the launch of 4 new community job hubs. The hubs are being operated in partnership with area community organizations. The four hubs are intended to supplement services offered at the City's three one-stop career centers by offering no-cost classes taught by professional technology trainers that prepare residents for 21st-century jobs as well as access to academic resources, customized skill training, employer recruitment events, job alerts, and job fairs. Read more here and here.

Train-Baltimore Website Launched
Job Opportunities Task Force completed a new online resource for Baltimore area residents seeking to build their skills and find training resources to meet career goals. The website synthesizes the vast array of nonprofit and community college training programs while providing connectivity to other supportive and job search services. The website culminates a two year effort by JOTF to make this information more readily available and better connect area residents to workforce services and resources.

Small Business Ecosystem Study Launched
Associated Black Charities (ABC) and the BIP are jointly launching a study of the small business ecosystem led by area researcher Marsha Schachtel. This work builds on earlier work led by ABC and was inspired by a similar study recently completed in Cleveland. A small advisory group has been formed to help guide the research which is expected to last approximately 5 months.

CDFI Roundtable Convened
A variety of BIP stakeholders including Maryland Department of Housing and Community DevelopmentThe Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the Annie E. Casey FoundationThe Reinvestment Fund, the City of Baltimore, and the Maryland ABCD Network, were joined by the Opportunity Finance Network to host a CDFI Roundtable last week. Participants included a range of CDFIs as well as CDFI support organizations to explore common interests in an ongoing local network as well as better understanding barriers and opportunities to grow CDFI capacity in the area. The BIP and other stakeholders plan to reconvene the group in the new year.

BIP in the News
Joe Nathanson recently covered the work of the BIP in his The Daily Record column. The article, available through subscription, can be found here.

The goal of the Baltimore Integration Partnership is to reconnect low-income Baltimore City residents who are predominantly African American to the regional economy, maximize the linkage between physical and human capital development, and to reinvest in targeted inner-core neighborhoods so that they become regionally competitive, economically diverse, sustainable communities of choice. Learn more about the Baltimore Integration Partnership by visiting our website.

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