four children sitting down and smiling at the camera
Photo via BCYF Facebook page.

Baltimore Children & Youth Fund (BCYF) announced it is investing $9.55 million in Summer 2025 to create a variety of creative, fun, and empowering opportunities for Baltimore Cityโ€™s young people.

Describing its vision for Summer 2025 as โ€œa season of joy, leadership, creativity, and opportunityโ€ for Baltimore youth, BCYF sees the investment as a reflection of their belief that summer should be a time of growth, discovery, and belonging. Highlights of the Summer 2025 investments include:

  • $4.9M Emergency Investment in YouthWorks:
    Fueling 8,500 youth jobs across Baltimore, fueling career readiness, confidence, and staffing for grassroots summer programs.โ€จโ€จ
  • $2.9M to 47 Community-Based Grantee Partners:
    Scaling transformative arts, STEM, mentorship, health, and academic programs, led by trusted neighborhood organizations.โ€จโ€จ
  • $1.5M to Strengthen City Partnerships:
    Supporting strategic collaborations with the Mayorโ€™s Office to expand youth access to public spaces and city services.โ€จโ€จ
  • Launching Baltimoreโ€™s First Youth Master Plan:
    This summer, BCYF will convene young people, families, and community leaders for brainstorming sessions to co-create a citywide vision for youth success beyond 2025.

BCYF was created through a public referendum to invest in the potential, power, and leadership of Baltimoreโ€™s youth. The full breadth of investments for Summer 2025 will reflect that by contributing to employment, arts, education, and wellness experiences for city young people across every neighborhood.

โ€œThese investments are rooted in equity and designed in partnership with community wisdom to ensure that young people, no matter their background, can thrive,โ€ reads the press release announcing the investments.

Other Summer 2025 investments include administrative support for Baltimoreโ€™s Promise, which supports a shared infrastructure for supporting youth programs, and supporting arts programming by funding arts facilities, supplies, and experiences for city youth.