Mapping Baltimore’s Investments in Young People
To Julia Baez, the CEO of Baltimore’s Promise, the concept of fund mapping is simple: “We say we budget to our values, whether in our households or in our organizations. So, we should know whether the budgets of our city and our state are aligned to the values of our communities and our young people.”
This was the motivation behind a months-long effort to understand exactly how public and private investments support Baltimore City youth ages 14-24, and how those funds align with the needs and priorities of that age group.
With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Maryland Philanthropy Network, Baltimore’s Promise worked in partnership with MainSpring Consulting to collect and analyze funding data from nearly 30 public and private partners. The data serves as a tool legislators, philanthropists, and advocates can use to determine investment priorities to better support older youth and ensure they have what they need to thrive.
The work found $84.5 million invested in Baltimore City youth in 2022, a partial total as the tally did not include state funding in vital areas such as child welfare and mental health. But when Baltimore’s Promise evaluated the program services being funded against the priorities that young people – specifically the Youth Grantmakers – identified for programs serving their peers, gaps emerged.
“We now have the data to illuminate what community members have been saying for far too long,” said Bridget Blount, deputy CEO of Baltimore’s Promise. “What is being funded does not align with what is most important for youth and their families.”
For example, the data showed limited investment has been made in financial literacy programs, despite young people’s deep interest in that area. (See “Listen up!” below for more on this topic.)
Bridget added, “With access to data like this we are able to advocate for investment that better aligns with community-identified priorities. Because what we know is true is that community members that are impacted are the closest to the solutions. Community members know what they need and have always known. Now it is time that investments are directed towards those needs.”
Breaking down the investments
The fund map data highlighted the amount of investment from the public sector (60%), the private sector (27%), and public-private intermediaries, such as Baltimore’s Promise (13%). Of the public sector total, 35% ($31.9M) came from Baltimore City Public Schools, and 16% ($14.9M) from the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development.
But over a third of the public sector total ($18.7M) came from short-term COVID-related funding that is set to expire. This will cause a destabilization in all the great work that has been invested in to provide support to the youth and their families most in need.
While the map provides important data, partners will need to collaboratively assess how much total funding is needed to scale vital programs and sustainably meet young people’s needs.
“The funding may seem like a lot – until you consider the need,” Baez said. “If you funded summer programs for every kid in Baltimore City for just one summer, it would be $100 million. You’d more than exhaust every resource on this list.”
Aging out
The fund map focused on ages 14-24 because partners already understood the disparities in support for older youth through our Opportunities Landscape. But the map highlighted additional gaps within this age range, including a steep drop in the number of dollars and programs available to those who are over 18.
“The older you are, the fewer dollars supporting you and the fewer programs available to you,” said James Sadler, the director of research at Baltimore’s Promise. “This aligns with what we see in the Baltimore City Youth Opportunities Landscape and what we hear from our youth.”
The Need for Unrestricted Funds
A majority of the funds mapped was directed to program support, rather than to operating, capital, capacity-building, or advocacy budgets. That approach presents difficulties for many organizations, which may struggle to maintain the staffing and infrastructure needed to support quality services and respond to funders’ demands. This is particularly a challenge for smaller community-based organizations led by BIPOC leaders that provide critical services within the community. For example, most funders require data on program outcomes or participants, but few provide money to facilitate such evaluations.
The fund map found the greatest amount of funding for youth ages 14-18, less for youth ages 19-21, and even less for young people ages 22-24.
“Our city can often narrowly focus on helping young people stay safe with interventions that are usually too little and too late,” Julia said. “But a thriving Baltimore requires investment in opportunities that help youth be whole people, stay motivated and shift securely into adulthood. That takes career readiness, financial literacy, mental health support, housing services, and more.
“It doesn’t work to just react when a young person falls off track. We have to proactively offer the tools they need to thrive as they approach adulthood, Baltimore – and Maryland – can make that happen now.”
Listen up!
When Youth Grantmakers started considering how to allocate significant funding to older-youth-serving organizations, they developed a set of priorities they wanted to invest in. These were mental health resources, safe spaces, mentoring and positive inter-generational relationships, individualized academic support, and hands-on career opportunities.
Fund mapping provided an opportunity to consider whether funders’ investments aligned with those priorities, and the results were mixed. Both public and private funders make large investments in workforce readiness and academic advancement, for example, and many funders support safe spaces across a variety of programs. But many career-focused programs operate only in the summer, and few private investments focus on mental or social-emotional health.
The fund map findings emphasized the need for more agencies to engage and empower youth in decision-making around funding. Less than half of agencies ask youth for their input on needs and priorities or their experiences with programs. And 30% of agencies reported no youth-engagement strategies at all.
Many local agencies have seen the benefits of including youth directly in their work, however. Their strategies provide models for others to follow.
The Baltimore City Children and Youth Fund includes youth members on their board, for example, and engages youth in all aspects of their work.
The Baltimore City Public Schools’ Board includes a student commissioner, and the Associated Student Congress supports district-level decision-making.
And Baltimore’s Promise’s Youth Grantmakers have demonstrated how young people can make meaningful – and difficult – philanthropic decisions.
How can you help?
The fund map is an ongoing project that will be updated with the latest funding information and input from more partners, including the State of Maryland, which will provide more insight into funding for mental health, juvenile justice, and other areas.
But the success of the tool depends on engagement from across Baltimore.
Policymakers, funders, and other influencers: Take time to explore how your organization’s decisions align with the priorities laid out by young people, and help us sustain this important approach by investing in Baltimore’s Promise and our city’s young people by donating here.
Community members and young people: Join the conversation. Is there a value important to you that we missed in our first round of engagement? Let us know!
Interested in learning how to replicate our work in your organization or community? Have suggestions for our next round of research? Reach out to info@baltimorespromise.org!