Human Services
While national debates raged on about economic recovery and health insurance reform, our grantees made sure that moms and their children got the medical treatment they needed, that seniors could stay in their own homes, that our low-income neighbors found pathways from poverty to self-sufficiency.

Our Human Services Path focuses grants in four areas:  
  • Emergency assistance—helping organizations increase their capacity to provide emergency services to individuals and families in crisis;
  • Aging—helping older adults remain in their homes, healthy and actively engaged in their communities;
  • Health—supporting medical, dental and mental health services – as well as advocacy for better access to those services – for disadvantaged children and families;
  • Family economic security—providing eligible residents with access to public benefits and helping low-income families keep, save, grow, and manage their assets.
See our recent grants. In recognition of the toll taken on Baltimore residents by rising unemployment and financial uncertainty, we placed a high priority in 2009 on access to emergency services, including a significant grant to the United Way Emergency Assistance Fund. Complementing this focus, BCF’s Ensign C. Markland Kelly Jr. People’s Emergency Fund granted $30,500 to 15 organizations for emergency needs of individual clients, helping low-income Baltimoreans weather the effects of the economic downturn.

BCF is launching Neighbors in Deed in six communities—a pilot program that will mobilize adults aged 55 and over to work on effecting change in their neighborhoods’ quality of life.

Links and Resources

The Human Services Path helps Sun Shine Folks like Floyd

Special Initiatives

Neighbors in Deed is  mobilizing older adults in six areas of Baltimore to effect change in the quality of life in their neighborhoods. 
Through the BGE Community Assistance Fund, created and supported by BGE, BCF administers the Crisis Intervention Initiative, which helps low-income residents of Central Maryland who have fallen behind on their electricity and heating bills.
This Kelly People's Emergency Fund provides short-term assistance to people in crisis in order to prevent their decline into long-term dependency. Grants are distributed to non-profit organizations who re-distribute these monies as cash grants to individuals in need. Learn more about the Kelly Fund

Stories

  • The Value of Experience
    An Experience Corps volunteer playing xylophone with childrenExperience Corps-Baltimore places older adult volunteers in struggling city elementary schools to serve as classroom aides, mentors, and tutors.

  • Helping Baltimore County Smile

    Young girl with big smileThe Community College of Baltimore County is working to provide basic dental services to low-income children across Baltimore County.


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Youngsters in Patterson Park get a workout in the neighborhood’s youth soccer league.
One Step Up scholars Sherrone Ricks and Jeane’ Baker celebrate with donors Jonnie-Kay McLean and Norman Morrison.
A Baltimore City student soaks up the sun at North Bay Adventure Camp.
Enjoying the lake at Druid Hill Park. Photo by Middleton Evans.
Dreams do come true: Our Playground at Stadium Place, rebuilt by determined volunteers and generous donors after the original was destroyed by arson. The work was supported by a fund at BCF. 

BCF’s efforts through the Diversity Path will work to rebuild Baltimore’s black middle class.

Baltimore’s vibrant arts and cultural scene boasts innovative projects like the Contemporary Museum’s Mobtown Modern Music Series, which combines classical instruments, jarring visual components and DJ-style electronics into informal performances of works by modern composers. Photo by Robert McIver Photography.
Cyclists atop Federal Hill take in views of the city skyline and bustling Inner Harbor. Photo by Middleton Evans.
Collecting butterflies in the field for a nature study.
In the spring of 2009, an army of dedicated volunteers worked to rebuild Our Playground at Stadium Place, which had been destroyed by arson in September 2008. Photo by Kristine Buls.
Enjoying one of the simple pleasures of summer at a neighborhood camp.
BCF’s Human Services Path emphasizes health, aging, and family economic security.
Neighbors team up to beautify and reclaim a vacant lot.
Most Middle Grades Partnership scholars qualify for the city’s competitive high schools.
Rapid and reliable public transportation for our region is a central goal of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, a fund of BCF. Photo by P.A. Greene.
Children beat the heat in the waters of the Walter Sondheim Fountain at the Inner Harbor. Contributions to construct the memorial were collected through a special project fund at BCF. Photo by Will Kirk, courtesy of Homewood Photography.
Students at Great Kids Farm learn about local food production, from “seed to fork.”
Baltimore’s successful One Plus One recycling program has engaged residents in making the city cleaner and greener.
Baltimore City students and farm manager Greg Strella (far right) with the summer harvest at Great Kids Farm.
Students at Baltimore’s Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology, one of many public charter schools helping to transform public education in our city. Photo by Stephen Jones, courtesy of Baltimore City Public Schools.
BCF’s Promoting Baltimore Path works to ensure that Baltimore continues to retain and attract citizens and businesses.
Experience-Corps Baltimore places older adult volunteers in struggling city elementary schools to serve as classroom aides, mentors, and tutors. Photograph by Michael Ciesielski, courtesy of Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Inc.

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Looking to donate time to human services? Explore Volunteer Central to find related volunteer opportunities with area nonprofits.

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