It’s About Opportunity

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

December 2018
Formal Notice: Dissolution of the Safe and Sound Campaign

The Safe and Sound Campaign dissolved on December 31, 2018. We do so, not in defeat of our goal, but rather confidence in others to build more broadly on the progress we have achieved.

Thank you for your support of the Campaign and the challenge set forth by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) “to ensure all children grow up safe and healthy in urban environments.” Having earned one of five competitive ten-year grants from RWJF, the Campaign operated thirteen years after the grant expired, optimistic that the citywide goal could be achieved by the intentional design of public policy and the collective work of its people.

The Campaign was incrementally successful. Many of the institutions, service coalitions and funding streams, we supported, continue to operate and expand. These include the Baltimore City Out-of-School Time Strategy, Maryland Out of School Time network (MOST), Healthy Birth Strategy, Entering School Ready to Learn Strategy, and the Family Recovery Program Compact. We are grateful to the leadership of these efforts that are improving the lives of Baltimore’s children and families every day.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has generously funded the Campaign to write our Lessons Learned report. We will share a copy upon its completion. The report will detail our most effective moves, warn against our avoidable failures and explain our continued confidence that all Baltimore’s children actually can grow up safe, healthy and educated in nurturing families and economically sound communities.

The Maryland Opportunity Compact is the foundation of our optimism. The Compact is a proven financial agreement that reduces the cost and harm of state custodial systems, while facilitating positive outcomes in the lives of those detained. Proven to free millions of dollars from programs that do not work to those that do – the Maryland Opportunity Compact changes the status quo person-by-person, community-by-community. As it expands, so too will the well-being of our city’s children, youth and families.

ONWARD

Warm regards,
Hathaway Ferebee
former Executive Director

The lessons learned report will be posted here in April 2019.

Join the effort to remove the most egregious barriers to equal access to opportunity.

We can free people and money from the systems that block equitable opportunity.

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