ABAG Leads Baltimore Integration Partnership for Living Cities Integration Initiative

Baltimore has been selected as one of five cities to participate in the Living Cities Integration Initiative, a three-year effort to address some of the most pressing challenges facing America’s cities. The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers will be the lead organization charged with coordinating this effort, along with a stellar list of partners. 

A collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, Living Cities’ Integration Initiative is designed to address some of the most pressing challenges facing America’s cities, supporting innovations that demonstrate how the public, private, philanthropic and non-profit sectors can improve the lives of low income people in urban communities by tackling problems long considered intractable.

The Baltimore Integration Partnership will receive up to $19 million in grants, loans and Program-Related Investments to create new jobs and improve neighborhoods in Central and East Baltimore, while preparing residents for opportunities created by the planned East-West Red Line Transit Corridor.  Funding is expected to result in at least 1200 residents connected to job pipeline services, 840 of who will be employed in careers with family supporting wages in partner institutions and/or in building our city’s infrastructure; 400 units of mixed income housing built, and 346,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space developed.

The Baltimore Integration Partnership is a new collaboration between City and State government, philanthropic organizations, private institutions, nonprofit organizations and a regional Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), to integrate workforce, community and economic development and transportation investments and fundamentally improve opportunities for low income residents and build strong neighborhoods.

The support to Baltimore is part of up to $80 million that will be invested in five metropolitan areas. Other cities chosen for the Integration Initiative are Cleveland, Detroit, Newark and the Twin Cities region of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Photo by ktylerconk on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons.