Living Classrooms Foundation

About Living Classrooms Foundation: Living Classrooms Foundation is a Baltimore- Washington, DC-based nonprofit that disrupts the cycle of poverty and makes our community safer, stronger, and healthier by meeting individuals where they are and giving them skills for life. We inspire children, youth, and adults to achieve their potential through hands-on education, workforce development, and health and wellness programming, using urban, natural, and maritime resources as "living classrooms. Living Classrooms Foundation has been proudly serving the community since 1985. About the Baltimore Target Investment Zone (TIZ): Living Classrooms Foundation has launched the Baltimore Target Investment Zone, a comprehensive strategic community initiative that concentrates core education, workforce development, health and wellness, and violence prevention programs within a 2.5 square mile area of East Baltimore, focused on disrupting a cycle of generational poverty. The TIZ is home to over 40,000 people, 9,100 students in 18 schools, and over 2,200 public housing units that span five communities and 122 acres, including Pleasant View Gardens and Perkins Homes, and neighborhoods surrounding Patterson Park and Johns Hopkins Hospital, Oldtown /Middle East, Fayette Street Corridor, and McElderry Park. These neighborhoods experience high poverty, high-density crime and recidivism rates, chronic health problems, low educational achievement, and high unemployment. A key strategy of this approach has been the establishment of Community Hubs in East Baltimore including two early childhood education centers, two workforce development centers, a public charter middle school, and three community centers. Living Classrooms has successfully worked with the community to create, renovate, and manage several inviting, accessible neighborhood facilities that are providing comprehensive multigenerational and supportive services to residents of all ages. Living Classrooms uses its performance management system, LivingClassrooms.Stat to measure, monitor, and evaluate the quality and efficacy of all programs and services.