Press Release

July 26, 2021
Cardin, Van Hollen Submit Appropriations Requests Supporting Local Workforce Training, Health Care, and Education Projects

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (both D-Md.) have released their requests for Congressionally Directed Spending for projects under the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee for Fiscal Year 2022. The senators’ requests will help strengthen local health care infrastructure, expand educational and economic opportunities, provide diverse resources for those struggling with addiction issues and solidify Maryland’s position as a hub for STEM and biomedical development.

Senator Cardin is a member of the Senate Finance Health Care Subcommittee. Senator Van Hollen serves as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Access to educational and job training opportunities, health care and emergency services should not be limited by your zip code. We have worked with local officials and nonprofits statewide to identify structural and programmatic solutions that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of Marylanders, particularly our most vulnerable or those who have faced historic barriers to success,” said Senator Cardin. “Through targeted Congressionally Directed Spending, Team Maryland strives to support local initiatives that will make our communities healthier, safer and more equitable.”

“Investing in Marylanders’ success means investing in community services that create new opportunities and support the health and wellbeing of our residents – from job training and education initiatives to crisis assistance and behavioral health programs. Working together with local partners, we can provide folks across our state with new pathways for success and ensure that help is there for those who need it most. That’s why we’ve teamed up with these organizations and are working to bring federal dollars to these crucial programs. Together, we will continue pushing to invest in Maryland and bring greater opportunity and prosperity to our communities,” said Senator Van Hollen.

Senator Cardin’s FY22 requests can be found here. Senator Van Hollen’s FY22 requests can be found here. These pages will be updated as Appropriations subcommittee requests are submitted.

 

 

Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee

 

PROJECT TITLE: Auto Mechanic Training and Placement

Recipient Name: Vehicles for Change

Location: Halethorpe, MD (headquarters)

Amount: $1 million

Project Purpose: Vehicles for Change is a non-profit that helps provide families in need with cars, while conducting workforce training for formerly incarcerated individuals. Funds would support training locations in Halethorpe, Salisbury, and Hyattsville to help individuals with barriers to employment become auto mechanics through a 4-month paid internship. Graduates of the program obtain certifications and full-time employment at local dealerships and independent garages throughout the state.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Baltimore Grads to Careers Demonstration Project Expansion

Recipient Name: City of Baltimore, Maryland

Project Location: Baltimore City, Maryland

Amount Requested: $500,000

Project Purpose: To expand the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Economic Development’s Grads to Careers Demonstration Project. Six years after graduation from Baltimore City Public Schools, City School graduates who did not attend college or job training programs have an average yearly earnings of $15,000. The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development has recently created the Grads to Careers program that aims to identify potential future disconnected youth and while in high school, connect these individuals who will be eligible for career training programs and provide them with a pathway to enroll in in-demand training programs after graduation of high school. Under the first two years of the program, program participants have an average annualized salary of $28,000 to $29,000 just six months after graduation. Additional federal funding will allow the WIOA eligible program to serve an additional 50 disconnected youth.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Best Buddies in Maryland Inclusion Project for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Recipient Name: Best Buddies International, Inc.

Location: Baltimore City, MD (Headquarters)

Amount: $250,000

Project Purpose: Funds would be used to support the Best Buddies in Maryland Inclusion Project to help students with intellectual and developmental disabilities develop peer relationships, carry out student-led inclusive group activities, and provide leadership training to students across Maryland.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Bridge from School to Work

Recipient Name: TranZed Academy for Working Students (TAWS), a service line under the Children’s Guild

Location: Prince George’s County

Amount: $1 million

Project Purpose: Funds will support the work of the TranZed Academy for Working Students (TAWS) and the TranZed Apprenticeship Service (TAS), both programs of The Children’s Guild. These programs help high school students in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties access work opportunities and apprenticeships while providing career counseling, mentoring, and wraparound supports like transportation and child care. They aim to provide a comprehensive path from high school to sustainable employment with training, skillsdevelopment, and recruitment and placement.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Cecil County Mental Health Initiative, Ashley Addiction Treatment

Recipient Name: Ashley Addiction Treatment

Project Location: Cecil County, Maryland

Amount Requested: $1.5 million

Project Purpose: Support the Cecil County Mental Health Initiative under Ashley Addiction Treatment. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Cecil County is a geographic mental health professional shortage area. Given this staffing need, the Cecil County Mental Health Initiative will be instrumental in increasing access to mental health services for patients in need. The pandemic may have increased the need for mental health services, particularly for the uninsured or underinsured individual who may otherwise not have access to treatment. Funding for this project would allow Ashley Addiction Center to fill mental health staffing shortages in Cecil County to provide additional mental health services to this community, including for individuals involved in the justice system. Allocated funds would support salaries of full time employees and associated infrastructure support costs. This project would serve as a community asset by enabling Cecil Community to better address access to mental health services.  

 

PROJECT TITLE: Center for Employment Opportunities

Recipient Name: National Federation of the Blind

Location: Baltimore City, MD

Amount: $150,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to develop a Center for Employment Opportunity (CEO) to assist blind people as they work to gain the skills, competence, and confidence to move into competitive integrated employment that is commensurate with their talents and abilities. The CEO will also provide employers with the tools they need to recruit, hire, train, and promote blind employees.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Consent2Share in Prince George’s County Health Department Patient Records

Recipient Name: Office of the Prince George’s County Executive

Project Location: Prince George’s County, Maryland

Amount Requested: $1 million

Project Purpose: Allow the Prince George’s County Health Department (PGCHD) to consolidate electronic medical and behavioral health records into one electronic health record system in order to improve patient care. PGCHD currently houses medical (somatic) and behavioral health records on two separate electronic health record systems. Care coordination services offered by PGCHD would be more comprehensive if the records were integrated into one patient record. However, patients need to have the option to consent to sharing their information this way, pursuant to 42 CFR. PGCHD will adapt the SAMSHA-funded Consent2Share module to allow patients to opt into mental and somatic health record integration for their care coordination services with the Department. Federal funding will leverage an existing tool to implement Consent2Share on a large scale for all PGCHD patients and lead to greater patient outcomes.

 

PROJECT TITLE: CreativeWorks Job Training Program: Promoting Access to College and Careers

Recipient Name: World Arts Focus, Inc. d/b/a Joe’s Movement Emporium

Location: Prince George’s County

Amount: $300,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to expand CreativeWorks, a paid job training program supporting the college and career readiness of Prince George’s County Public School (PGCPS) high school seniors, recent graduates, and Prince George’s Community College students. CreativeWorks participants receive training in theater tech, digital media, photography, and movie production and can access internship and job opportunities at a range of employer partners, including the Smithsonian, Community Forklift, and Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center. Currently in its 13th year, nearly 500 youth have graduated from the CreativeWorks job training program.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Drop Anywhere Lab

Recipient Name: Learning Undefeated, Inc.

Location: Gaithersburg, MD (Headquarters)

Amount: $600,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to purchase scientific equipment, student supplies, and laboratory equipment, and to hire staff for two Drop Anywhere Labs. These labs are custom-fit STEM learning spaces built from modified shipping containers and used by schools one week at a time. Less expensive and more impactful than brick-and-mortar science lab buildings, these labs offer a blend of career and skills education with flexible in-classroom resources that empower teachers and serve up to four classes simultaneously. Targeted at underserved communities, including Baltimore, the immersive learning environment provides authentic, real-world learning co-developed with teachers and STEM industry subject matter experts to introduce students to high-paying, high-demand careers while building teacher capacity in STEM.

 

PROJECT TITLE: EveryMind Crisis Prevention and Intervention Capacity Building

Recipient Name: EveryMind

Location: Rockville, MD

Amount: $317,100

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to provide technology improvements to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of EveryMind’s remote and virtual services. EveryMind has 64 years of expertise and experience in serving Maryland’s communities’ and their most vulnerable populations’ mental health needs. This expertise is precisely what will ensure our mental health and crisis prevention and our intervention services target those Marylanders most in need and especially youth, teens, homeless, elderly, veteran, and BIPOC communities who may have decreased access to care.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Federalsburg Health Center Construction for Choptank Community Health System

Recipient Name: Choptank Community Health System

Project Location: Federalsburg, Maryland

Amount Requested: $800,000 – $6 million

Project Purpose: Support the construction of a new Federalsburg Health Center to better serve the medically underserved residents of Caroline County, Maryland. The proposed building will provide examination rooms for family medicine, behavioral health, medication assisted treatment, women’s health, and dentistry. As well as a waiting area, patient services, provider offices, a special purpose training room, restrooms, healthcare support function areas, communications, and mechanical spaces. The facility will also host training and classroom space for Choptank Community Health System’s Rural Residency Program and Teaching Health Center Development. The resulting facility will result in a larger and better organized facility, well-suited to deliver services to the community of Federalsburg and surrounding areas.

 

PROJECT TITLE: FoodWorks Culinary Training Program Expansion

Recipient Name: Maryland Food Bank, Inc.

Location: Baltimore County, MD

Amount: $750,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to expand the FoodWorks Program, which provides underserved adults in the Baltimore metropolitan area with culinary and life-skills training along with case management support to secure a sustainable career in the hospitality industry. More than 40 restaurants, institutions, and caterers in Maryland hire FoodWorks students, who are trained in partnership with the Community College of Baltimore County and receive ServSafe certifications.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Frederick County Crisis Stabilization Center

Recipient Name: Frederick County Office of the County Executive

Project Location: Frederick, Maryland

Amount Requested: $846,303

Project Purpose: Support the Frederick County Crisis Stabilization Center, which will be a 24/7 program that is responsive to local needs, grounded in a public health framework, and integrated into the behavioral health crisis care system in Frederick County. It will divert people who are in crisis and/or under the influence of a substance away from emergency departments and provide stronger links to community-based behavioral health care for individuals who have not been engaged well by the behavioral health system. It will create another non-traditional access point for individuals who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis and may include those with behavioral health disorders who engage in high-risk substance use and related behaviors and who are at risk of overdose or other harmful behaviors. The initiative would significantly improve access to quality treatment to Frederick County and regional residents suffering from opioid and other substance addictions.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Gaudenzia Park Heights Kitchen Renovations

Recipient Name: Gaudenzia, Inc.

Project Location: Baltimore City, Maryland

Amount Requested: $83,000

Project Purpose: Support the renovations of the Gaudenzia Park Heights kitchens to better serve more than 175 daily residents of Gaudenzia’s drug and alcohol rehabilitation services in Baltimore City. The proposed kitchen improvements will allow the kitchen to be used as a training space for clients seeking their ServSafe certification and potentially for meal preparation classes to increase life transition training for our clients. The update will increase its usability to optimize use in providing nutritious meals for our clients and their families post discharge. This is intended to increase client resilience, thereby improving their ability to function, clean and sober, post program completion.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Grassroots New Outpatient Mental Health Clinic

Recipient Name: Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, Inc.

Location: Columbia, Maryland

Amount: $500,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to support the Grassroots Outpatient Mental Health Clinic as it expands to offer a wider range of behavioral health services in addition to its current crisis intervention programs and Mobile Crisis Team. The expansion will provide individual and group psychotherapy, psychiatry services, and case management to address patients’ unique needs.

 

PROJECT: Greater Washington Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse Victim Services

Recipient Name: Greater Washington Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse

Location: Rockville, MD

Amount: $297,500

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to support an increase in demand for services and support from the Greater Washington Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse Victim (JCADA). JCADA works to end power-based violence by empowering survivors and ensuring safe communities through clinical support, advocacy, and direct legal services as well as educational programming for youth, parents, educators and other professionals.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Healthcare on the SPOT

Recipient Name: Baltimore City

Location: Baltimore, MD

Amount: $458,370

Project Purpose: Funds would be used to deploy a second mobile treatment van with staff and supplies in Baltimore City to provide medication-assisted treatment. The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) partnered in 2018 to launch the first mobile treatment van. The van currently provides free medication-assisted treatment (MAT), wound care, HIV and hepatitis-C testing and care, and case management services. This second van would expand free and accessible treatment and help to reduce Baltimore’s overdose incidents in areas of most urgent need.

 

PROJECT: Howard Community College Center for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success

Recipient Name: Howard Community College

Location: Columbia, Maryland

Amount: $750,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to launch the Center for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success at Howard Community College to support low-income residents who are first-generation college students and students with disabilities. The goal of the Center for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success is to increase graduate, transfer, and retention rates for first-generation, low-income, and racial-ethnic minority students. It will provide credit and non-credit support through academic coaching/advising and peer mentoring; financial literacy; career counseling; on- and off-campus internship opportunities; and culturally and educationally enriching experiences. 

 

PROJECT TITLE: Humanim Workforce Development and Social Enterprise Initiatives

Recipient Name: Humanim, Inc.

Location: Baltimore City, MD

Amount: $500,000

Project Purpose: Humanim has a 50-year history of providing services to support and empower individuals through human services, youth services, workforce development, and social enterprise. Funds will be used for Humanim’s workforce programs, including the statewide Direct Support Professional (DSP) Apprenticeship Program, which operates with partners in government, school systems, and service providers to increase career paths for the unemployed to reach living wage jobs. Funds would also support a partnership with Obran Cooperative to grow the field of DSPs using an employee ownership model. And funds would support City Seeds, Humanim’s East Baltimore culinary social enterprise, which has been providing training and employment opportunities for Baltimore residents with barriers to employment since 2016.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Imagination Stage’s Theatre for Change

Recipient Name: Imagination Stage

Location: Bethesda, MD

Amount: $351,338

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to grow two key programs which are part of Imagination Stage’s Theatre for Change initiative: Oyeme!, a workshop and play based on the stories of immigrant youth, and “10 Seconds,” a play based on our Youth and Police Partnership (YPP), which is put on in collaboration with regional police departments. Over the past eight years, these programs have reached over 8,000 youth and educators in Montgomery County and Washington, D.C. and given students the opportunity to use the arts to engage with critical issues.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Integrated Learning Center at Kennedy Krieger Institute

Recipient Name: Kennedy Krieger Institute

Project Location: Baltimore City, Maryland

Amount Requested: $1.25 million

Project Purpose: Support the Integrated Learning Center demonstration at Kennedy Krieger Institute. The proposed site aligns with current, high-priority efforts in Maryland to strengthen results by advancing equity and inclusion for young children and their families, including through initiatives supported by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) Division of Early Childhood, Division of Early Intervention and Special Education Services, and Maryland Department of Health Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Kennedy Krieger will establish evidence-based early childhood education demonstration sites that improve social/emotional, functional, and behavioral outcomes for children, with a focus on: 1) increasing access with defined outcomes; 2) advancing equity with meaningful participation; and 3) promoting progress with acceleration to close the learning gaps for young children with special needs.  

 

PROJECT TITLE: Interdisciplinary Research Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Recipient Name: The University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Project Location: Princess Anne, Maryland

Amount Requested: $350,000

Project Purpose: Support the establishment of an Interdisciplinary Research Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) that will serve as the academic hub for the University. The Center would support the research and learning environment for the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) faculty and graduate students in an effort to increase the graduation rates of graduate students and lead to increased research productivity and maintenance of the Carnegie Classification (High Research Activity). It is proposed that graduate rates will increase by providing support in the areas of writing, research development, financial resources and research infrastructure and will provide resources that will support researchers and increase grant and contract development and proposal submission. Personnel of the Center will provide administrative, research support, and professional development to faculty and students through workshops, training, and experiential learning. These proposed activities will increase the number of faculty and students who are conducting peer-reviewed research and assist in the research infrastructure needs.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Johns Hopkins Research Partnership

Recipient Name: Ashley Addiction Treatment

Location: Havre de Grace, MD

Amount: $531,388

Project Purpose: Funds will be used for a substance use disorder treatment program partnership with John Hopkins University to research the effectiveness of treatments. This partnership would build upon previous Ashley Addiction Treatment efforts in advancing scientific research to identify and implement new and more effective forms of treatment for Maryland residents suffering from opioid and other substance addictions.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Living Classrooms Foundation Crisis Management System

Recipient Name: Living Classrooms Foundation

Project Location: Baltimore City, Maryland

Amount Requested: $750,000

Project Purpose: Establish a Crisis Management System at the Living Classrooms Foundation (LCF) to work in tandem with their existing Workforce Development System and strengthen their State Streets initiative. Safe Streets violence prevention efforts in McElderry Park (since 2008) and Belair-Edison (since 2018) have been effective at mediating conflicts which may lead to violence via the Cure Violence model (formerly Ceasefire developed in Chicago). This project will strengthen and expand upon the existing Safe Streets initiative by streamlining and increasing access to work through a rapidly expanding network of essential skills training, job training, and job placement opportunities offered by both LCF and their partners. As part of this new system, LCF will assemble a team of Case Managers and community members who will be trained to mediate disputes and dedicated to helping individuals navigate alternatives to gun violence. The team will identify individuals and families who are at risk of being involved or have been affected by violence and connect them with immediate job training opportunities and other wrap-around supports in real time. Through continued partnerships and Resource Asset Mapping, they will build a comprehensive network of resources that draw upon evidence-based best practices and address underlying issues to reduce violence long-term. This nonprofit partnership will build the capacity of Baltimoreans to help address rising levels of gun violence in Baltimore.

 

PROJECT TITLE: The Lourie Center Trauma-Informed Preschool

Recipient Name: Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children, Inc., d/b/a The Lourie Center for Children’s Social and Emotional Wellness

Location: Gaithersburg, MD

Amount: $970,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to launch a Trauma-Informed Care & Preschool Project ECHO to establish an expert hub to train early childhood educators to more effectively support children experiencing trauma in their classrooms, reduce suspension and expulsion in preschool, and foster resiliency against teacher burnout and secondary traumatization — made even more pressing by the pandemic. The Lourie Center serves children and families in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Maryland Statewide Computing Alignment to Locate your Education Pathway (SCALE) Portal

Recipient Name: University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Location: Baltimore, MD (Headquarters)

Amount: $750,000

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to build and code the Maryland Statewide Computing Alignment to Locate your Education pathway (SCALE) project, which will provide computing education training and/or industry certification pathway for young people to enter Maryland’s technologically advanced workforce. The SCALE Portal will include self-assessments, aptitude assessments, virtual training, mentoring, apprenticeships, internships, and integration into a Learner Credential Network. The Portal will connect several existing state education and workforce development programs, including: Employment Advancement Right Now (EARN) Maryland, the Maryland Business Works program, and Maryland Apprenticeship Programs. It will also help expand the Computing Career and Technical Education program, which provides pathways for students from fifth grade through community college. Finally, the Portal will connect individuals directly to information about workforce needs and to job openings.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Melwood abilIT Federal Neurodiversity Workforce Pilot Program

Recipient Name: Melwood Horticultural Training Center (Melwood)

Project Location: Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Amount Requested: $1.5 – $1.6 million

Project Purpose: Expand Melwood’s abilIT Federal Workforce Pilot Program to provide an additional 20 program participants with the job training and workforce experience necessary to gain employment with a federal cybersecurity agency. Federal funding will allow Melwood to scale up a federal neurodiversity workforce pilot program, leveraging Melwood’s past performance in disability employment and the expertise of our advisory partners. This project will fill an unmet technical need in the federal workforce, provide job opportunities for people with disabilities who are at greater risk of under- or unemployment, and enable independent living for people with disabilities, thereby reducing reliance on government services as they transition into full employment.

 

PROJECT TITLE: Montgomery County Stabilization Center

Recipient Name: Montgomery County Maryland Government

Location: Rockville, MD

Amount: $1 million

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to plan and develop a Stabilization Center where behavioral health, medical, and social work professionals work together with peer support specialists to provide short-term 24- or 48-hour services to help those experiencing a behavioral health or substance use crisis. The Stabilization Center will serve as an alternative to incarceration and emergency rooms.

 

PROJECT TITLE: National Federation of the Blind Center for Employment Opportunities

Recipient Name: National Federation of the Blind

Project Location: Baltimore City, Maryland

Amount Requested: $150,000

Project Purpose: For the National Federation of the Blind (NFIB) to establish a Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) to give blind people the tools, techniques, and skills to succeed in their professional careers of choice. Federal funding would allow NFIB to develop programming to include: Each One Teach One, Train the Trainer, and the Virtual Career Club. To encourage employers in their efforts to diversify their workforces to include blind workers, the Center will operate an Employer Leadership Network. The initial phase of the project will include the hiring of additional staff members, purchasing equipment and supplies to operate the program virtual programming, and paying for travel related to providing support for NFIB affiliates with other vocational rehabilitation agencies across the country. The program is intended to become self-sustaining through the purchase of the CEO program by national affiliates once the program is fully operational.

 

PROJECT TITLE: One Love Foundation Education Center

Recipient Name: One Love Foundation

Location: Baltimore, MD

Amount: $1 million

Project Purpose: Funds will be used to expand the offerings of One Love’s online Education Center that provides educators with a robust suite of free tools and resources to teach young people about healthy relationships and empower them to identify and avoid abuse. The platform includes professional development trainings, lesson plans, activities, implementation supports, high quality video-and-discussion-based workshop materials, and toolkits to foster discussion about relationships and friendship in diverse communities and teach healthy communi

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