Audacious Ideas

Taking a hard look at child support enforcement

Keith Wallington — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:32 +0000

Child support plays an invaluable role in the quality of a child’s life and their trajectory toward a healthy and positive future. However, non-custodial parents with criminal records often find themselves unable to meet child support obligations due to an inability to secure stable employment.

Heman Rai, Soccer Without Borders

Heman Rai — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:30:34 +0000

I was born in a refugee camp in Nepal. I never imagined I would go to college because the camp only offered 1st to 10th grade.

Big Change Baltimore: A Forum of Ideas that are Reshaping Our Future

Tania Cordes — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:08:42 +0000

As Open Society Institute-Baltimore marks its 15th year in the city, we want to acknowledge our partners and the progress we have made in the last decade and a half. We are trending upwards on many indicators but we need to sustain the growing momentum.

Succeeding in Baltimore for fifteen years

Diana Morris — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:30:59 +0000

For the last fifteen years we’ve helped launch programs, some that have floundered and many that have flourished. Given the urgency of the issues we address, we’re very willing to take on risk and, with our partners, try new approaches. We’re here to test what’s possible and create new pathways to opportunity and justice. Fifteen years is a blip in time for our undertaking. We’re in it for the long haul—because, sometimes, it’s not until years later that the change for which we advocate is proven as the right road taken.

Want better student attendance? Head Start may be part of the solution.

Faith Connolly — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:30:34 +0000

Our study of attendance in City Schools’ early grades resulted in a surprising discovery. Head Start students began kindergarten with better attendance than peers from City Schools pre-kindergarten. Not only that, they maintained a higher level of attendance through the end of third grade! That’s four years after leaving the program.

It’s time to redesign high school

Lucy Friedman — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:40:26 +0000

Expanding learning time and opportunities for students is not about adding something extra to the school day. It’s not about creating a program or one more initiative for a principal to manage. It’s about helping schools develop new ways of doing business by working in partnership with communities to make the most of all the great assets we’ve built up...

Real representation for all

Karen Houppert — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:07:37 +0000

What would happen if every single person accused of a crime in this country got a lawyer who his knew his name? Why he had been arrested? His version of events? His witnesses? His evidence? His case? What? That doesn’t happen?

The Perry Hall case and the danger of prosecuting youth as adults

Monique Dixon — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:32:52 +0000

An unthinking “lock ’em up” approach does not adequately serve either the youth involved in criminal cases or the larger society. Maryland decision makers should rethink the practice of prosecuting and sentencing youth as adults and appropriately deal with all criminal cases involving youth in the system created especially for them—the juvenile justice system.

Justice Talking: Stories about crime, punishment, and life (and death) in the legal system

Tania Cordes — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:30:45 +0000

The evening will feature seven storytellers telling seven-minute true, personal, tales about their experiences with the criminal justice system...

Wasted: discharging patients from outpatient treatment

Thomas Cargiulo — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:34:04 +0000

Maryland’s preparation for the full implementation of health care reform on January 1, 2014 offers an exciting opportunity to make significant changes to our substance abuse treatment system. Open Society Institute-Baltimore and our grantees have spent many hours working to ensure that comprehensive substance abuse services are part of the essential health benefits in Maryland. This is an enormous step forward and will undoubtedly increase the number of individuals who are able to access substance abuse treatment next year.