National Network Recognizes Baltimore’s Promise for Transforming Systems to Achieve Better Results for Young People
In recognition of its direct impact on the lives of youth across Baltimore, collective impact nonprofit Baltimore’s Promise has earned the Systems Transformation designation from StriveTogether, the country’s largest network of place-based partnerships.
This is the most advanced designation from StriveTogether, and Baltimore’s Promise is just the 11th group to achieve this status.
“Baltimore’s Promise is proving it’s possible to transform the systems of opportunity for youth and families,” said StriveTogether President and CEO Jennifer Blatz. “Their work centers youth leadership and taps into the power of data to get better outcomes. Baltimore’s Promise is making an impact across the state of Maryland and across the nation.”
Doing the work and envisioning a bold future
In sharing the designation, StriveTogether pointed to a host of accomplishments, including cross-sector collaboration, advancement of data-driven decision-making across the community, partners’ willingness to adopt new ways of working together, and strong leadership that includes meaningful roles for community members and young people.
Baltimore’s Promise recently established an ambitious goal of supporting 42,000 Baltimore City youth on their way to economic mobility by 2030. This goal builds on key achievements from across the organization’s history:
Strengthening the city’s talent landscape by developing CareerBound, which brings together public and private partners to create free and paid career training opportunities for young people. It builds on the success of Grads2Careers, which has provided career training and support for 1,200 young adults in high-demand fields since its inception.
Creating equity-centered, actionable data and tools, and coordinating the development of the Baltimore City Youth Data Hub, a cross-agency database of information about the city’s young people. This data will help decision-makers make smarter decisions about how to invest in opportunities for our young people.
Strengthening the landscape of summer youth programs by serving as the backbone for the Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative—which brings together funders to invest in high-quality summer opportunities—and collaborating with dozens of public and private entities to coordinate citywide summer programming efforts. Summer is a vital time of year, and this work positively impacts tens of thousands of young people each year.
Over the next few years, Baltimore’s Promise’s work will be guided by its 2030 strategies, which focus on the city’s talent ecosystem, summer ecosystem, quality wraparound supports, engagement with public and private sector partners, actionable data, and efforts to celebrate the greatness of Baltimore’s young people.
“We are honored to receive this designation from StriveTogether, which represents decades of collective work by many partners, stakeholders, and communities across our network,” said Baltimore’s Promise CEO Julia Baez. “This recognition is not just ours—it belongs to everyone who has been part of the effort to create real opportunities for Baltimore’s young people. Most importantly, we earned this designation by co-developing our strategies with youth themselves, ensuring their voices, leadership, and aspirations drive the change we seek. We love this city, and we believe in its future. Baltimore wins when we come together, and by working in true partnership—especially with young people—we can build a stronger, more equitable future for all.”
A Theory of Action with transformative impact
Through the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, Baltimore’s Promise is part of a national movement to help every child succeed in school and in life, regardless of race, ethnicity, zip code, or circumstance. Cradle to Career Network members change the way their communities work together by building connections, sharing resources, and using data to improve outcomes for young people.
Baltimore’s Promise has been a member of the Cradle to Career Network for more than a decade. To join the network, communities complete an assessment of their work and progress against a continuum of quality benchmarks called the StriveTogether Theory of Action™. This proven framework for change has five designations—Exploring, Emerging, Sustaining, Systems Change and Systems Transformation—that indicate progress putting more young people on a path to economic mobility.
Reaching Systems Transformation requires community members and leaders to come together to create lasting, measurable changes in policies, practices, resources, and power structures.
“Our city is full of talented and ambitious youth who are hungry for opportunity,” said Lisa Lawson, co-chair of the Board of Directors at Baltimore’s Promise and president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Baltimore’s Promise is showing what’s possible when we come together to remove the barriers that stand in young people’s way and create real pathways for them to succeed.”
Today, dozens of cross-sector partners collaborate in Baltimore to advance the shared mission of supporting the success of every child, from cradle to career. Key partners include Baltimore City Public Schools, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, the Governor’s Office for Children, local colleges and universities, and a host of funders, business leaders, and other groups.