The Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative (the Collaborative) has awarded $3.5 million in grants to support 74 high-quality summer programs for children and youth living in low-income families throughout Baltimore City. The Collaborative is a partnership between public, private and nonprofit institutions that aims to create summer program options for families, including academic support to reduce summer learning loss, youth work opportunities and a variety of enrichment activities.
Collaborative members – some of Baltimore’s largest public, private and nonprofit institutions – include the Abell Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Clayton Baker Trust, Constellation, Family League of Baltimore, France-Merrick Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, The Hinkey-Benson Family Fund, Lockhart Vaughan Foundation, Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds, Under Armour and United Way of Central Maryland as funding partners.
Responding to grantee feedback, this year the Collaborative moved its decision-making process up by two months so programs would be notified earlier in the year and be better positioned to launch in the summer. While members of the Collaborative bring their own priorities to the table – including literacy, STEM, youth employment, environmental education, sports and arts – they work together to make complementary funding decisions with the goal of supporting a diverse set of high-quality summer programs to reduce summer learning loss and ensure more youth have the chance to reach their full potential.
This is the sixth year of summer youth funding provided by the Collaborative. Last summer, the Collaborative provided over $3.4 million in funding throughout Baltimore City and served more than 9,671 students.
To learn more about the Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative, and to see a list of this year’s recipients, click here.