Our InitiativesThe Community Justice Program aims to equip legal and non-legal groups to work effectively in legal and public policy spheres to redress injustices and poverty in Baltimore. Through grantmaking and educational fora, the Program hopes to develop a more robust public interest law community in Baltimore that works collaboratively, effectively uses technology, and engages the private bar and community organizations to achieve systemic change. Grants focus on management and strategic planning, providing public interest law groups with the resources to take stock of their strengths and weaknesses and to institute measures to enhance their stability, to re-align their priorities with their mission and with current community needs, and to maximize their effectiveness. Grants generally support key public interest law groups whose dockets and constituencies cut across the Foundation's programmatic interests.
The Program places priority on law groups concerned with civil and political rights and injustices based on an individual’s race, ethnicity or class. To respond to changing demographics in Baltimore, the Program aims to help develop legal representation for the region's growing Hispanic population. Funds especially target law groups working for systemic change through collaboration with community organizations.
Occasionally, grants also support sector-wide initiatives that strengthen collaboration among public interest law organizations in order to provide more Baltimoreans with access to justice. These initiatives may enhance technology serving the community, through the Maryland Legal Assistance Network, or develop new sources of support for public interest law groups engaged in systemic change.
The Program also seeks to build the capacity of non-legal organizations to speak out against injustices and to help shape equitable public policies and practices in their areas of expertise. Grants focus on encouraging and building the capacity of local non-profits to conduct advocacy in their areas of expertise. Rather than working with individual non-profits, the Program supports intermediaries to provide training and technical assistance on advocacy and to promote an advocacy culture in Maryland.
