25th Anniversary
Grants
Over the past 25 years, the Goldseker Foundation has had the privilege
of supporting well over 300 organizations in the Baltimore area. The Board
of Trustees and Selection Committee wanted to mark the Foundation's 25th
anniversary by singling out organizations that are making a particularly
strong effort to improve the economic and social health of the Baltimore
region. Consequently, the Foundation awarded grants of $10,000 each to
25 area nonprofit organizations, in recognition of the important work
they do to make the region a better place to live and work. Those grants
also underscore longstanding interests and values of the Goldseker Foundation:
stronger neighborhoods, a regional perspective, attention to critical
long-term issues, collaboration, and thoughtful leadership.
1000 Friends of Maryland
Only two years old, 1000 Friends is a network of organizations, government
officials, and private individuals created expressly to respond to the
social, economic, and environmental costs of sprawling regional development.
This group is fast becoming an energetic force for educating the public,
building a regional coalition, affecting public policy, and advocating
"smart growth" across the metropolitan region and the state.
Baltimore Efficiency & Economy Foundation
Founded in 1998, BEEF is an independent citizens' organization that conducts
research into Baltimore City government management, operations, and fiscal
and tax policy and makes recommendations for improvement. Part of a venerable
civic watchdog tradition in Baltimore, BEEF adds to its mission strategies
for working with government to attract homeowners and businesses to the
city.
Baltimore Regional Partnership
Another recently created effort, the Baltimore Regional Partnership is
designed to consider carefully the region's transportation needs, educate
the public, and influence how the Baltimore region will spend the $16
billion in public funds earmarked for improvements in our transportation
system over the next two decades. The organization is a coalition formed
by 1000 Friends of Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Citizens
Planning and Housing Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, and
the Urban League.
Belair/Edison Neighborhoods
This organization has been working for several years to promote revitalization
of the commercial heart of its neighborhood, Belair Road in Northeast
Baltimore. Belair/Edison is one of six city neighborhoods selected to
participate in the Main Streets program, a federal and local government
partnership to strengthen the commercial core of older communities - the
centerpiece of Baltimore city's commercial revitalization efforts.
Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation
One of the few anchor institutions in Southwest Baltimore, Bon Secours
provides quiet leadership in community organizing, human service provision,
and community development. Its approach is thoughtful and realistic and
very much supports the development of leadership from within its community.
Center for Poverty Solutions
This organization is widely recognized for its efforts in educating the
public, research, community mobilization, and affecting public policy
in alleviating hunger and homelessness. The center is the product of a
1998 merger between Action for the Homeless and the Maryland Food Committee,
whose respective work is strengthened by the decision to find common cause.
Centro de la Communidad
Baltimore's ethnic diversity is enhanced by its rapidly growing Latino
community. Concentrated largely in East Baltimore, along Broadway south
of the Johns Hopkins University medical institutions and north of Fells
Point, this community has special social service, health, and housing
needs that are uniquely addressed by the center.
Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore
Part of a national, privately funded program to promote educational choice
for poor urban children, the fund is a partnership of local foundations
and corporations that provides partial scholarships to nonpublic schools
for about 500 Baltimore city children. Parents are expected to pay the
portion of the tuition not covered by scholarships. This past year, more
than 20,000 children applied for the available scholarships.
Downtown Baltimore Child Care
For more than a decade, this organization has provided high-quality child
care for parents who live or work in downtown Baltimore. The children
range from four months old to kindergarten age, and they participate in
full-day, year-round programs of educational and recreational activities
at two downtown locations.
Downtown Partnership of Baltimore
This collaboration among business, local government, and nonprofit organizations
is the principal advocate, planner, and program provider on behalf of
an economically vital, clean, and safe downtown in which, as its current
slogan says, to live, work, and play. Its services include sanitation,
security, housing renovation and marketing, and streetscape redevelopment.
Goodwill Industries
Among the many services performed by this venerable institution are high-quality
job training and placement for unemployed and underemployed people in
the Baltimore region. Goodwill's purchase and renovation of a historic
downtown building will enhance both its capacity and its reach.
Govans Ecumenical Development Corporation
Since 1992, GEDCO has developed five facilities for poor senior citizens,
people with mental illnesses, and formerly homeless people. It was formed
as an association of 24 Govans-area churches and 7 nonprofit organizations,
and it has taken the lead in planning and organizing a range of human
services. In partnership with Presbyterian Homes, GEDCO is coordinating
the proposed $40 million redevelopment of the Memorial Stadium site.
Greater Homewood Community Corporation
In 1997, the 35 disparate neighborhoods that constitute Greater Homewood
adopted a community-generated, $32 million redevelopment plan and selected
the Community Corporation to lead its implementation. In partnership with
Johns Hopkins University, Union Memorial Hospital, churches, merchants,
and residents, the Greater Homewood Renaissance Plan is targeting as its
major long-term activities school improvements, improving the Jones Falls
watershed, revitalizing the poorest communities in Greater Homewood, and
economic development.
Harford Road Partnership
A six-year-old, community-led organization, HARP was created by residents
who were concerned about the deterioration of the major commercial district
adjoining their neighborhood, Harford Road between Parkside Drive and
Echodale Avenue. The organization has assumed leadership for planning,
implementing, and maintaining the redevelopment strategy for that area.
Harlem Park Revitalization Corporation
Located in a very poor neighborhood in West Baltimore, this group
began as a nonprofit housing corporation to address abandoned and deteriorating
properties whose condition was discouraging homeownership and reinvestment
in the community. It has since evolved into a leader on other issues as
well: education reform, public safety, and commercial development, working
with a major financial institution and several foundations to develop
a strategy for the area.
Health Education Resource Organization
Founded in 1983, HERO is Maryland's oldest and most comprehensive HIV/AIDS
organization. Its outreach, particularly to low-income clients, and its
educational materials have made it an acknowledged national leader in
its field. HERO provides case management, support groups, counseling,
and legal assistance to clients among its direct services.
Maryland Center for Arts and Technology
This three-year-old intensive job-training program prepares lower income
clients for specific jobs in Baltimore-area industries where demand for
skilled workers outpaces supply. Crucial to the strong success of MCAT
is its contractual arrangement with two corporate partners, Commercial
Credit Company and Johns Hopkins Health System, which establish admission
and performance standards and oversee curriculum development and faculty
hiring.
Midtown Academy
The academy is one of Baltimore's seven New Schools: public schools essentially
created and managed by parents and faculty and enjoying both substantial
budgetary control and defined academic performance standards. Midtown
is unusual in Baltimore in that it serves the students and families of
diverse racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds who live in Bolton
Hill and Reservoir Hill.
Mount Vernon Cultural District
A significant collaboration of 10 cultural organizations, 3 foundations,
and the Baltimore Sun, the district was created to improve the physical
appearance of Mount Vernon and the neighboring Midtown area and build
on its institutional strength as a tourist destination and architecturally
distinctive attraction in the heart of the city. It also is home to a
diverse community of residents and businesses.
Neighborhood Design Center
This organization has a rich 30-year history of coordinating the volunteer
services of architects and planners in neighborhoods. It has been the
source of consistently high-quality volunteer and staff leadership in
designing tangible tools for improving neighborhoods.
Patterson Park Community Development Corporation
The corporation was created to halt deterioration of residential neighborhoods
north and east of Patterson Park, one of the city's greatest amenities.
Particularly troublesome has been the rapid turnover of properties to
absentee investors, who in turn rent them at inflated prices to irresponsible
tenants. The corporation buys properties, rehabilitates them, and either
sells or rents them at affordable prices to responsible tenants.
St. Frances Academy
The oldest African-American secondary school in the United States, St.
Frances educates low- and middle-income students on its East Baltimore
campus. Ninety percent of St. Frances graduates go on to college. Although
the school is thriving, the surrounding neighborhood suffers from crime
and poverty. The school created a separate organization to work with neighborhood
residents' providing counseling, tutoring, and other outreach, as well
as organizing a community redevelopment strategy.
Southwest Teen and Parent Consortium
This organization was founded in 1995 by a group of parents and teenagers
who were concerned about an increase in teenage crime and vandalism in
their neighborhood. The consortium recruited area churches and schools,
the recreation department, and youth organizations from throughout southwest
Baltimore County. The project began as a volunteer effort working in borrowed
space, but it has since drawn 500 middle school students from 25 public
and private schools in the area to its recreation, mentoring, and athletic
programs. Pending negotiations with Baltimore County, a permanent, refurbished
space and professional staff will allow programs to be expanded to a much
larger number of students.
Teach Baltimore
This project recruits and trains local university students to provide
seven weeks of intensive summer instruction to low-income elementaryschool
students in Baltimore City. It is designed to combat the decline in student
learning that, especially in low-income families, typically occurs during
the vacation. It has a strong academic focus and small classes, and project
teams work with the same students for three consecutive summers, beginning
in first or second grade.
Village Learning Place
Located in southern Charles Village, the Learning Place is a former branch
of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, which was closed in 1997. A coalition
of area residents, teachers, parents and businesses, after an intense
protest failed, mounted a successful grassroots campaign, raising sufficient
funds to lease the facility and reopen it as a community educational and
cultural center that includes a computer laboratory.