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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Baltimore Children & Youth Fund Announces 2024 Grassroots Fund;
Emphasizes Life Changing Impact of awarding 29 million dollars over four years to organizations that help Baltimore’s Children and Youth thrive.
(Baltimore, Maryland – Nov 29, 2023) For the fourth year in a row, Baltimore Children & Youth Fund (BCYF), a public charity stewarding public dollars to build partnerships that support the ecosystem focused on building opportunities for Baltimore youth, will steward funds to city nonprofits who help Baltimore’s children and youth thrive. On February 1, 2024, BCYF’s 2024 Grassroots Fund will be open to applicants. In 2024, BCYF will award $250,000 each in Grassroots Funds to 12 grantees, to be paid over the next five years, totaling 3 million dollars. Grantees say the multi-year funding has provided impact in three key areas – supporting the stability of their organizations, helping their organizations innovate and plan long term by allowing them to project resources and make strategic investments.
To date, the fund has awarded 23 million dollars to 101 grantees. However, BCYF will have awarded more than $60 million by the year 2028 in Grassroots Funds alone to those grantee organizations. BCYF officials say that while these numbers are a staggering measurement of impact, the true impact can be found in the thousands of success stories reported by young people, their families, and the nonprofits who serve them.
An example of this transformation can be found in AZIZA PE&CE, a non-profit that primarily serves girls, gender expansive and LGBTQ+ youth, ages 14 to 24 – with a focus on Black, Latinx and Indigenous youth. AZIZA PE&CE has been transforming the lives of young people for fifteen years. A former teacher, Executive Director, Saran Fossett, founded the organization in 2008 in response to the lack of black history her daughter Aziza was learning in a Baltimore independent school. “I decided to be the change I wanted to see,” she says. Saran began the program while working in local school systems with black girls who were labeled “problematic” by administrators because they were getting expelled or suspended from school at alarming rates. “Then we found out that LGBTQ+ youth weren’t coming to school because of bullying.” Saran used engagement tools like fashion and the arts to create a sense of self-love in the young people. “All of those girls they said were problematic excelled in school, graduated and went to college.” Today, through its school year and summer programs (focused on the arts, fashion, fitness, music and mentoring to address social, emotional, cultural life and critical thinking skills), AZIZA PE&CE serves up to 130 young people each year. To date, the organization has provided safe spaces and tailored mental health services for thousands of young people, many of whom have been sexually abused and/or have become homeless due to their gender identities.
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