Baltimore Children and Youth Fund details spending, capacity-building and $8 million summer investment

The Education, Youth and Older Adults Committee convened on a legislative oversight hearing for L0250014, the Baltimore City Children and Youth Fund (BCYF), where BCYF leaders outlined operations, compliance gains and new spending announced the same day to support summer programs.

BCYF President and CEO Alicia Lee told the committee the fund is “guided by our vision for more justice, abundance, and creativity in Baltimore,” and reported a clean independent FY23 audit, higher grantee compliance and an expansion of capacity-building services for grassroots organizations.

Why it matters: Council members and administration officials said summer programming and job access for young people are urgent priorities. Council members pressed BCYF on how new spending will align with city agencies and on ensuring smaller, Black- and Brown-led grassroots groups can access City Schools funding and federal grant pools.

BCYF presentation and announced allocations BCYF reported it has awarded roughly $32 million since 2020, supports more than 100 organizations and funds programs that together provide more than 17,000 “youth seats” across the city. Lee said the fund’s FY23 audit, completed Nov. 13, 2024, gave a clean opinion with no findings of noncompliance or material weakness. Hannah Machover, BCYF director of grantmaking for compliance, described a disbursement system tied to submitted documentation and said batch disbursements launched July 1, 2024, have put most grantees on predictable payment schedules.

At the hearing the administration and BCYF announced new investments intended to support summer services. JD…