To Continue Good Work, Baltimore Needs to Pony Up

The following editorial originally appeared in the Maryland Daily Record. George Soros is founder and chairman of the Open Society Institute.

Seven years ago, my international network of foundations, the Open Society Institute, established an office in Baltimore to test new approaches to solving urban problems. We selected Baltimore because of its typical urban conditions, its openness to change, and its engaged residents, community leaders, and local officials.

Our approach was to provide funds and technical assistance to organizations and individuals targeting the root problems of the city—drug addiction, high rates of incarceration, and lack of employment and educational opportunities. We hoped our investment would help Baltimore become a society that guarantees impartial justice and economic self-reliance for its citizens.

During my visit to Baltimore in May, I saw firsthand that my initial $50 million investment has reaped significant benefits for the city. In fact, I am so pleased with the return on this investment that I have pledged an additional $10 million to help Baltimore become an even better place to live and work.

Now I am asking local foundations, businesses, and individuals to join me by investing an additional $20 million in Baltimore.

The work of my foundations throughout the world has convinced me that social change requires a true partnership with community stakeholders. Working with public agencies, nonprofits, and individual social entrepreneurs, OSI will use the combined $30 million over five years to address the root causes of poverty and injustice and bring effective approaches to a broader scale.

Baltimore is at a crossroads. During my recent visit, I saw a city that once was sinking, but now is rising. With the support of engaged residents and OSI, the city has made great progress on difficult problems. I hope Baltimore will continue to rise, in part by building on OSI's investments and accomplishments:

• OSI support has helped to double the number of people receiving drug treatment to more than 22,000 annually. A recent study showed that patients receiving this treatment cut their heroin and cocaine use by 69 percent and 48 percent, respectively. In addition, overdose deaths are at their lowest levels in five years.
• OSI has helped former prisoners successfully re-enter their communities. With OSI support to Alternative Directions, a nonprofit that helps women become self-sufficient after prison, 60 percent of the program's participants avoided taking drugs and getting arrested again after their release. For women who stayed in the program, that figure rose to 92 percent.
• OSI has funded advocates who pushed for reforms in abusive juvenile justice centers and who recently chalked up a big success—the closing of the notorious Charles Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore.
• OSI also helped start a successful urban debate league for city high school students and exposed them to learning in ways they never imagined while developing their critical thinking, research and public speaking skills. Instead of dropping out of high school, most of those youths now go to college. The debate league now operates in 26 high schools.
• OSI support has expanded high-quality after-school programs so that 14,000 more youngsters now have access to academic enrichment and recreational activities after school. Summer programs are also expanding. These are vital to helping Baltimore's students catch up academically because, too often, students lose months of reading and math skills over the summer. As one mother said about an OSI after-school program: "Every child in Baltimore needs a program like this. It gives children hope."

She summed it up best: the programs supported by OSI offer true opportunity to people who need it most.

Raising $20 million is ambitious. But after my recent visit, I know that sustained, strategic investment at this time is critical to Baltimore 's ability to address, once and for all, the conditions that undermine the region's health, stability, and productivity.

The question is: Are concerned citizens ready to commit resources to educate the city's children, treat its drug-dependent residents and help its citizens overcome the cycle of poverty, addiction and incarceration? I hope so. With my $10 million and with $20 million in local funding, I believe we can capitalize on the momentum already in evidence in Baltimore and ensure that the city continues to rise.