Council President Young issues statement on the passage of city’s historic Children and Youth Fund

“Today marks a turning point for the City of Baltimore. It’s a moment we should truly celebrate and lift up as an example of the power of collectively investing in our young people and the power that comes from engaging in such a strong and forceful turn toward inclusion and equity.

I would like to thank the members of the Education and Youth Committee for facilitating a productive and robust hearing, and my colleagues on the Council for supporting the Children and Youth Fund. I am forever grateful to the 34 members of the task force I created to help jump start this process and provide feedback on how to move forward with a truly revolutionary grant-making model that placed average citizens in the driver’s seat when determining how programs get funding. In particular, I’d like to thank Adam Jackson and Dr. John Brothers who served as co-chairs of the task force.

But most importantly, I’d like to recognize and thank the citizens of Baltimore City. Countless people attended meetings and offered suggestions to improve the process by which we ultimately invest in our young people. We couldn’t have come this far without your dedication and hard work.

We will take a brief moment to celebrate today’s historic accomplishment for Baltimore’s young people, but tomorrow the journey continues. We must now turn our attention toward finalizing this process through the city’s Board of Estimates – the city’s spending panel. We anticipate that action taking place December 20 at which point Associated Black Charities, which has been designated as the interim fiscal agent, would begin the difficult work of helping the City build a fundamentally transformative grant-making model that is led by community and places the needs of our most vulnerable citizens front and center.”