Meet our partners.
Associated Builders & Contractors of Greater Baltimore / Construction Education Academy is the 5th largest chapter in a national, 501c3 organization boasting over 21,000 members. ABC Baltimore offers 70 years of experience in the construction training and continuing education space.
The chapter’s apprenticeship, management training, and continuing education courses typically serve 500 individuals each year, a number they anticipate to double following the recent move to their 25,000SF space at the Hoen Lithograph Building.
Project Jumpstart is a 14-week construction-training program for Baltimore City residents with a high school diploma or GED. Experienced teachers help students understand job readiness and prepare for success on the construction site. Students also receive essential safety training, financial coaching, a stipend and driver’s education. More than 80% of our graduates are placed in construction jobs, with many leading to solid careers in the construction industry. Project JumpStart also serves contractors by referring only well-screened, job-ready candidates to meet their entry-level hiring needs.
Outlook OVFX is a full-service production company, 2D/3D animation studio, and IP holder specializing in Kids and Pop Culture content. As the only animation studio in Baltimore, founder Trevor Pryce and his staff of Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) graduates have positioned Outlook Co. as a space to contribute to the city’s growing creative economy and build opportunities for artists, especially women and people of color, that might otherwise leave to pursue them.
The first minority-owned and controlled animation company and only animation studio within a 400 mi radius, OVFX is attracting national attention and can build Baltimore as a hub for the animation and content creation industry.
Morgan CARES Community Center aka the Community Engagement Core component of the Center for Urban Health Disparities Research and Innovation (RCMI@Morgan) out of their facilities at Hoen. Morgan CARES supports community-campus partnerships that address health issues disproportionately affecting minority groups, particularly those living in urban settings like East Baltimore.
Morgan CARES engages minority communities by:
- Providing a host of professional development programs to nurture a group of health disparities researchers and innovators:
Seed funding (up to $2,000) for community-campus health-focused projects
- Engaging in collaborations with community-based organizations, academic institutions and government agencies: Morgan
CARES also hosts various events ranging from co-learning to consultation, educational training/seminars, and community
outreach.
Cross Street Partners is a vertically integrated real estate company exclusively focused on re-building communities by creating vibrant urban mixed-use neighborhoods built on a foundation of innovation and entrepreneurial activity. CSP has successfully rehabilitated a number of historic industrial buildings for a range of new uses, including offices, retail, and housing. The partners of Cross Street Partners invest their own capital into these transformative real estate projects.
Morgan State University
City Life Community Builders (CLCB) is a 501(c)(3) organization that approaches community development by leading a construction workforce development program, rehabilitating boarded and vacant homes, and revitalizing neighborhoods.
CLCB provides construction training, job readiness skills, job search skills, and professional support services to assist in overcoming barriers that have prevented trainees from gaining employment and financial independence. This support, combined with the organization’s extensive experience in construction management and construction training, leads to successful job placement and puts CLCB graduates on a career pathway leading to advancement and family supporting wages.
The Living Classrooms Foundation - Project Serve (Service, Empowerment, Revitalization, Validation, Employment training) addresses the issue of high unemployment and high recidivism among returning citizens in Baltimore City. SERVE provides on-the-job training for 150 unemployed adults per year in marketable skills while they revitalize Baltimore neighborhoods.
While still incarcerated, participants begin receiving “wrap around” services, and on the day of their release, they become full-time SERVE members. The program helps members overcome some of the significant barriers to employment and economic mobility faced by this population: lack of marketable skills and/or employment history, employer reluctance, social stigma, and lack of support system.
Enterprise Development Group (EDG) serves as an intermediary of the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Program, corporations and private donors by lending capital to low-to-moderate income consumers as an alternative to traditional financial institutions to become entrepreneurs, which provides a foundation for them to achieve self-sufficiency, which helps our local communities.
EDG promotes opportunities for self-sufficiency and development to low-to moderate-income people through sustainable economic and community development initiatives, including:
- Micro-loans ($500 to $50,000)
- Financial literacy and full lifecycle business training
- Pre-and-post loan technical assistance (e.g., meeting local business ordinates, licensing, IRS EIN (Tax ID) and tax schedules, benchmarking and other necessary compliance requirements of being an entrepreneur).