Cradle to Career Network member Baltimore’s Promise has built a strong foundation for advancing economic mobility locally by fostering collaboration, leveraging data and empowering young people in decision-making. Their cross-sector approach to aligning policies, practices and resources is shaping a future where all Baltimore youth have the opportunities they need to thrive. This transformative work was recently recognized with their partnership’s designation as a Systems Transformation community along the StriveTogether Theory of Action™.
Building a culture of collaboration and community leadership
At the heart of Baltimore’s Promise is a commitment to collaboration. As a recognized convener, the organization aligns key stakeholders to create a shared vision for systemic change, ensuring that individual strategies contribute to a broader mission. By fostering a culture of transparency and shared investment, Baltimore’s Promise has led to tangible shifts in policies, resource allocation and strategic alignment across the city. This approach has strengthened partnerships between public and private institutions, ensuring that efforts to advance economic mobility are coordinated and sustainable. 
A key aspect of their collaborative model is the elevation of youth and community voices in decision-making. Governance structures such as the Community Advisory Board, established in 2024, play a crucial role in ensuring that local stakeholders shape key priorities and initiatives. The Summer Funding Collaborative is another example of how Baltimore’s Promise engages youth and families in determining the allocation of resources for summer programming, making sure that funding decisions reflect the needs and aspirations of the community. Additionally, the Youth Grantmakers and Youth Interns initiatives enable young people to take an active role in program design, grant decisions and continuous improvement efforts. By embedding community leadership into the fabric of their work, Baltimore’s Promise ensures that change is driven by those most impacted by the policies and programs being shaped.
Harnessing data to drive change
Baltimore’s Promise has prioritized data as a tool for understanding community context, tracking progress and influencing policy. Their innovative data strategies have transformed how institutions assess and improve their programs. The Baltimore City Youth Data Hub is a groundbreaking initiative that brings together Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore City government and Baltimore’s Promise to track data longitudinally, providing deep insights into the cradle-to-career trajectory of students. This tool enables decision-makers to understand long-term trends and make evidence-based adjustments to policies and programs.
Another key data-driven initiative is the Fund Mapping Landscape, a comprehensive analysis of funding from nearly 30 public and private partners. This project provides policymakers, philanthropists and advocates with critical insights into how resources are being distributed and highlights areas where investment is needed to fill gaps in support services. The Baltimore City Youth Opportunity Landscape further strengthens data accessibility by aggregating and mapping youth opportunities, allowing organizations to identify gaps in services and improve accessibility to programs that enhance youth development.
The impact of these data strategies extends beyond Baltimore’s Promise, encouraging other institutions to rethink how they assess their programs. By combining qualitative and quantitative data, including youth perspectives, Baltimore’s Promise ensures that decision-making is both informed and equitable. Their efforts have been codified into state policy, including the Youth Data Hub, which was formally recognized by Maryland’s General Assembly in 2022, reinforcing a commitment to using open-source data to drive youth-focused policies and programs.
Strengthening workforce pathways and learning opportunities
Recognizing the importance of education and career readiness, Baltimore’s Promise has expanded its efforts to increase access to learning and workforce development opportunities. Addressing gaps in early childhood education and enrichment, the partnership has contributed to a 160% increase in after-school and summer opportunities between 2023 and 2024. This expansion ensures that more young people have access to meaningful learning experiences outside of traditional school hours.
The Baltimore Summer Funding Collaborative (SFC) streamlines grantmaking to fund high-quality summer programs, prioritizing youth decision-making through a community review process that engaged 63 youth reviewers in 2024. By centering youth voices, the SFC ensures that the programs funded align with the needs of the community. Over the past two years, SFC has invested $6.2 million in 162 programs, reaching more than 20,000 young people. This investment has created transformative learning experiences that help close opportunity gaps and enhance long-term educational and career outcomes. 
CareerBound, an expansion of the successful Grads2Careers initiative, is another major effort focused on strengthening workforce pathways for Baltimore youth. This initiative aligns education, workforce training and employer needs. They do so through apprenticeships and by connecting high school graduates to occupational training programs, addressing barriers to postsecondary success and offering wraparound support services to ensure students have the holistic support needed to thrive.
Since its launch, CareerBound has served over 900 youth, increasing annual earnings by an average of $10,000 for graduates. With plans to expand to 8,000 participants by 2030, the initiative is ensuring that Baltimore’s young people can access family-sustaining careers and long-term economic mobility. Additionally, CareerBound has secured financial support from Baltimore City Schools and the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, integrating career pathways into citywide workforce initiatives. By aligning its efforts with Maryland’s Blueprint for the Future, Baltimore’s Promise is strengthening the foundation for future public investment in career and technical education.
Baltimore’s Promise is setting the standard for true systems transformation, driving alignment between collaboration, data and community leadership. As Cradle to Career Network members nationwide work to put an additional 4 million youth on a path to economic mobility, Baltimore’s Promise stands as a model for what’s possible when communities come together to create lasting change. Read more stories of systemic transformation here.
