The Abell Foundation board has approved spending an additional $350,000 to create summer youth skills training and employment opportunities for 125 youth and 21 supervisory crew leaders. The funding, which supplements the foundation’s regular grant-making, is a response to the recent unrest in Baltimore, which highlighted the lack of training and work opportunities for many teenagers and young adults in the city.

The challenges associated with concentrated poverty, mistrust of police practices, racial profiling, and high rates of incarceration and unemployment continue to hold back our young people in many Baltimore neighborhoods and demand attention as the summer months approach. However, research shows that youth who work during their teen years are more likely to work as young adults.

Working with the Mayor’s Office on Employment Development, the Abell Foundation identified seven organizations that have the capacity to quickly hire crew leaders and offer skill-based employment to youth and young adults through the YouthWorks program, Baltimore’s five-week summer jobs program for youth ages 14 to 21. The Abell Foundation grant will support program staff, equipment costs and other expenses so that organizations can engage 125 YouthWorks participants in greening projects, urban farming, street and alley cleaning, vacant house and lot maintenance and tree planting. YouthWorks will pay the wages for each of the youth participants. For some groups, employment will go to young adults and extend beyond the summer.

Enabling young people to work productively in the communities in which they live and contribute to the health and greening of neighborhoods has the potential to create lasting value both for the participants and the neighborhoods. Summer opportunities such as YouthWorks introduce participants to the growing field of green careers, provide a stable income source and offer hands-on experience in a wide variety of projects that are positively affecting the communities where they live and work. The results of their work will create visible and lasting environmental benefits to communities.

To date, 5,000 youth are expected to be employed through YouthWorks, with funding coming from the public, private and philanthropic sectors. Organizations that participate include Civic Works, Parks & People Foundation, Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition (HEBCAC), Blue Water Baltimore, Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Banner Neighborhoods, and Baltimore Tree Trust. These organizations have experience working in many Baltimore neighborhoods, ensuring that the youth will work on projects that are valued by community members.

This short-term strategy is a needed response to the events that disrupted Baltimore in recent weeks. Longer-term strategies to address systemic change around Baltimore have always been at the heart of the Abell Foundation’s grantmaking and we will continue to explore and support effective strategies that will have lasting impact.