Carnegie Corporation of New York announced Grads2Careers - a partnership that includes Baltimore City Public Schools - as one of 10 winners of a new initiative to support outstanding local partnerships that educate youth, bolster the workforce, and demonstrate the power of working together.
Grads2Careers, a collaboration between Baltimore City Public Schools, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, and Baltimore’s Promise, is an initiative that provides pathways for recent high school graduates into career-track jobs as part of the StriveTogether network.
Profiles in Collective Leadership provides $200,000 grants for nonpartisan collaborations that serve as education and economic bridges in a range of communities across the country. The philanthropic initiative draws on the strengths of local government, education, nonprofits, business, and healthcare professionals to create career opportunities for young people and encourage civic participation.
Grads2Careers funds occupational skills training opportunities in high-growth fields in Baltimore, including health care, information technology, construction, transportation and logistics, biotechnology, early childhood education, automotive and HVAC, and more. Grads2Careers also provides wraparound services to participants, including transportation assistance, mental health and wellness services, and an academic remediation program.
In addition to focusing on local workforce needs, Grads2Careers addresses a community challenge: the prevalence of poverty and disengagement among young people in Baltimore. A 2017 Baltimore Education Research Consortium study found that 26 percent of Baltimore City Schools graduates in 2009 had neither pursued higher education nor entered the workforce six months after graduation. The median annual income for this population was only $11,000 after six years. In addition, only 12 percent had earned college degrees after six years, with pronounced disparities along racial and gender lines, and 29 percent of city residents between the ages of 18-24 were living in poverty.
As of February 2024, Grads2Careers had served more than 950 young people: 660 had completed a training program, and another 108 were still in training. Of those who completed the program, 68 percent had obtained a job within six months. On average, Grads2Careers graduates are earning a $10,000 higher salary than Baltimore City Schools graduates who did not earn a college degree and did not participate in the program.
“We are thrilled that Carnegie Corporation of New York has selected Grads2Careers as a Profiles in Collective Leadership exemplar. This honor will allow us to learn from — and alongside — other collaboratives from around the country who are doing amazing work in workforce development and education,” said Julia Baez, chief executive officer of Baltimore’s Promise. “This grant also allows us to expand our collective programming to reach even more young people, helping them achieve their career goals, and continuing to decrease the number of graduates who are disconnected from both education and the workforce following graduation.”
In addition to the $200,000 grants, winners will receive opportunities to document and share their stories nationally and participate in a community of practice committed to highlighting and replicating these approaches and solutions.
The Corporation, in partnership with the education nonprofit Transcend, identified candidates through a competitive national process. The winners were selected by a panel of jurors comprised of a broad range of leaders in business, higher education, and philanthropy, including Corporation board member Kurt L. Schmoke, president of the University of Baltimore and the former mayor of Baltimore.
“We launched Profiles based on our belief that communities across the country are working to create opportunity for economic and social mobility as well as civic engagement irrespective of red, blue, or purple politics — we want to listen and learn from them,” said LaVerne Evans Srinivasan, vice president of the Corporation’s National Program and program director of Education. “Grads2Careers is a leading example of this type of collaborative work on the local level, and our hope is that by spotlighting and funding their efforts, we can ultimately influence the field to work in new and collective ways that also mitigate the impact of polarization.”
Learn more about the Profiles in Collective Leadership initiative at carnegie.org/CollectiveLeadership.