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2020-08-28
Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health;
This report is the product of the Reducing Violence, Building Trust: Data to Guide Gun Law Enforcement in Baltimore project. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research (JHCGPR) collected and analyzed data relevant to the enforcement of laws restricting the possession of firearms by prohibited individuals and unlawful carrying of concealed firearms to provide data-driven recommendations for more fair and effective practices. The project was designed to help inform the response to the dual crises in Baltimore—extraordinarily high rates of gun violence, and gun law enforcement practices that, in some cases, have violated the law and more generally weakened community members' trust in the police.
2019-02-05
Urban Institute;
Baltimore is the 30th-largest US city by population and is a study in contrasts. It has a low average income compared with other wealthy Northeast cities, has nine colleges and universities, and is a magnet for people pursuing higher education but has undergone decades of population loss. A large social sector provides important services to residents and buoys the local economy: nearly every third job in the city is with a nonprofit employer. But this also illustrates the city's limited economic vibrancy. This mix of market and nonmarket forces makes Baltimore an important place to examine the geography of opportunity in an American city.
2018-01-11
Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research;
Baltimore has long been plagued by high rates of homicides, with guns playing an important role. City and law enforcement officials in Baltimore have attributed much of the gun violence to the illegal drug economy and the availability of guns for criminal use. For many years, the most visible and direct approaches employed by the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) to curb gun violence have focused on enforcement of drug laws to reduce violent crime associated with the drug trade. In the most ambitious and resource-intensive efforts, the objective of law enforcement actions has been to "take down" or severely weaken organized groups selling illegal drugs through targeted arrests and prosecutions. Such efforts are intended to both remove violent criminals from communities and, ideally, deter violent crime. Most of these targeted drug law enforcement efforts have been place-focused, targeting "hot spots" for homicides and shootings. Within these hot spots, there is often some degree of targeting of individuals believed to be important drivers of gun violence, based on intelligence gathered, individuals' histories of criminal offending, and individuals' criminal associates.In the early 2000s, Baltimore City leadership encouraged aggressive enforcement of drug laws, resulting in the arrests of tens of thousands of individuals for drug possession and drug distribution. However, beginning mid-2007, the BPD shifted its focus to initiatives aimed at apprehending violent criminals and targeting illegal gun possession. We used data from January 1, 2003, through December 23, 2017, to estimate the effects of place-focused policing and prevention initiatives that were focused on criminal offending involving guns and/or drugs to estimate the effects of those interventions on homicides and nonfatal shootings. An overview of the specific interventions assessed in this study follows.
2017-02-01
The Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative;
The report, Strengthening Baltimore's Workforce: Reflections and Lessons Learned, presents data on program completion, job placement, starting wage and employment retention rates for 1,187 participants. While the outcomes varied by program, most jobseekers benefited on every measure. For example, approximately 80% of participants in the construction program completed training and received at least one credential. Of those placed in jobs, 70% were still employed after six months. Graduates across all programs were able to secure average starting wages of $12 to $18 an hour, much higher than the $8.75 state minimum wage, the report finds.The collaborative is a public/private partnership between Casey, other local and national foundations, corporate donors and representatives of city and state workforce agencies. Collectively, its members have pooled more than $14 million to support sector-specific strategies that provide greater training and job opportunities for residents who face barriers to employment. These efforts are primarily focused on six growing industries: biotechnology, construction, food service, transportation and logistics, environmental sustainability and manufacturing.Baltimore's unemployment rate was 41 times the national average in August 2016, with many residents facing obstacles such as prior criminal convictions, limited math and literacy skills and unstable housing. The report outlines several strategies that have helped the local workforce development effort succeed despite these barriers:collaboration with employers and stakeholders to understand and address labor force needs;programming that includes relevant skill development and industry-recognized certifications;wraparound services, peer groups and supportive instructional approaches to address the barriers jobseekers face;rigorous job placement and post-program follow-up; anda commitment to monitoring and tracking the performance of training programs and allocating resources accordingly.The report calls for additional policy and system reforms to address the inequities that have left many communities disconnected from quality employment and educational opportunities. They include changes to wages, benefits and safety practices, as well as criminal justice reform and an expansion of mental health, addiction and adult education services. Many of the programs have already made notable shifts, including the BioTechnical Institute of Maryland, JumpStart and the Baltimore Center for Green Careers, which expanded job opportunities to individuals without a college degree and those with prior criminal records."These results show what's possible when we focus on the needs of local employers and create opportunities for residents to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to build family-supporting careers," says Allison Gerber, a senior associate at the Foundation. "The next step is to ensure more youth and young adults can benefit from these programs. This report gives us a good outline of what's working, and where we need to build."Considering the breadth of community employment needs, existing sectoral programs operate at a much smaller scale than what Baltimore requires. To expand the scope and ensure more residents can secure family-supporting jobs, the report recommends partners across the city work to increase investment in industry-specific workforce programs, increase the number of quality jobs that are available and educate and prepare more individuals to enter these programs.
2017-09-01
My Brother's Keeper- Baltimore;
This report looks at the "enormous survival challenges facing Black males of all ages in communities across Baltimore." The recommendations presented in this initial report are intended to establish a blueprint that can be used to focus city-wide collaborations and refine programmatic strategies to realistically address the alarming challenges faced by Black male youth.
2008-05-01
Herring Run Watershed Association, Inc.;
Findings of a unique study of public attitudes about stormwater in the Baltimore, MD region are explored in this report. Four focus groups were conducted to develop themes for further followup in telephone surveys of 800 Baltimore area residents. Respondents clearly indicated that altruistic concern for the environment is not enough to spur behavior change. They are motivated by self interest. Key points of the research are:Stormwater is an urgent problemThe public is uninformed, but willing to be engagedPeople are motivated by health concernsA focused public information campaign has the capacity to reach people and change behavior
2001-01-01
Annie E. Casey Foundation;
Describes challenges in implementing a ten-year community building initiative in Baltimore. Includes community capacity investment, early decision-making, power relationships, race and class issues, and neighborhood leadership.
2012-11-15
Baltimore CASH Campaign;
This presentation describes the activities of the Baltimore CASH campaign, a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Programs (VITA).
2014-01-07
Baltimore Education Research Consortium;
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has partnered with Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) to complete a series of reports examining the implementation and impact of the Baltimore Elementary and Middle School Library Project (Library Project). This report on the first year of the project examines the experiences of the principals, librarians, teachers, and students at the three schools that received new libraries. Also, teachers' and students' perceptions of their school library were compared across the Library Project and comparison schools. Findings of the report include: (1) all three schools with a new library viewed them as inviting, attractive, and well-resourced spaces; (2) a knowledgeable, skilled, and motivated library staff is essential to maximizing the potential of these new libraries; (3) librarians and teachers need additional professional development to best integrate the library technology into instruction; and (4) the community partnerships initiated through this project are adding significant resources to the education of students in these schools. The implications for the school district and future efforts are discussed.
2008-02-28
Baltimore Collegetown Network;
Quantifies the economic contributions of higher education to Baltimore's economy. Explores lessons to be drawn from Silicon Valley and other areas where higher education, business, and government collaborated to build strong research-based economies.
2002-01-01
Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers;
Designed for program officers fairly new to evaluation who may be asked to advise grantees about contracting an external evaluator, or may commission evaluations of their own organizations.
2015-04-17
Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice;
This study examined the high school experiences, graduation rates and post-secondary attendance rates of students who received need-based scholarships to attend private elementary schools from the Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore (CSFB). CSFB provides funds to students from low-income families in the Baltimore area to attend the private or parochial schools of their choice in kindergarten to eighth grade. One of the goals of CSFB is to increase high school graduation rates and improve postsecondary education success rates of low-income students living in and near the city.This study is significant as, to date, few studies have examined the long-term educational attainment outcomes of recipients of need-based scholarships in the elementary grades. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of parents of former scholarship recipients three to eight years after they completed eighth grade, inquiring into their experiences with their elementary and high schools, the high school graduation status of their children, college attendance and/or work following high school, and the college preparation climate of their child's high school. The researchers were unable to develop a comparison group for the Baltimore scholarship recipients, which allowed only a comparison to results of urban, lowincome students in general.
