He will present awards to Andres Alonso, the city schools' chief since July; Carlos Hardy, executive director of the Maryland affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence; and Jacqueline Robarge, a 2002 OSI-Baltimore Fellow and founder of Power Inside, an outreach program that works with women leaving the city jail system, especially those who are battling drug addiction and mental illness.
"These three people share important qualities: They have the courage and passion to act on their bold ideas," said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore. "And Baltimore is much better for it."
Also attending the celebration tonight will be Gov. Martin O'Malley and Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. The keynote speaker will be Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker.
Marilynn K. Duker, chairwoman of the OSI-Baltimore board, said that while fundraising is still on track, it is getting more difficult because some sources are tapped out. "The more challenging fundraising still lies ahead," she said. "We will have to broaden our base of investors."
Recent donations worth $3.5 million total have helped. Empower Baltimore Management Corp., the nonprofit that oversees federal Empowerment Zones in the city, recently awarded OSI-Baltimore a grant worth $2.5 million, Duker said. That money will be used to assist residents with criminal records and those with drug addictions, she said. An anonymous donor also gave OSI-Baltimore $1 million, money that will be used to improve the city school system.
"These two new additional gifts help ensure that the positive results OSI-Baltimore has achieved over the past decade will become lasting solutions for the future," said Duker, who is president of The Shelter Group, a Baltimore-based developer and property manager.
Soros said yesterday that he has already provided a portion of the extra $10 million to OSI-Baltimore, which has an annual budget of about $5.5 million. He warned that if the institute fails to raise the roughly $10 million more it needs to reach the $20 million mark, some programs could be cut.
Such cuts would be a disappointment, he said, pointing to such successes as nurturing nearly 100 social entrepreneurs, offering alternatives to suspension and expulsions at city schools, supporting the launch of the news department at WYPR, expanding the city's use of buprenorphine to fight heroin addiction, and working with formerly incarcerated adults.
"OSI-Baltimore has been truly important to the progress that our city is making," said C. William "Bill" Struever, president of development firm Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse and a member of OSI-Baltimore's Leadership Council. "They fill an important role."
Carla D. Hayden, executive director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and a member of the council with Struever, said she also appreciates the role OSI-Baltimore plays in shaping the policy decisions of the city's elected leaders and, consequently, its future.
"The name captures the spirit of how OSI-Baltimore operates," said Hayden, one of the original OSI-Baltimore board members. "There is that openness to new ways of thinking and new ideas about some problems that are older and more established. ... So far they have a good track record."
lynn.anderson@baltsun.com
