Causes: Community Recreational Centers, Crime & Law, Education, Job Training, Rehabilitation Services for Offenders, Sports

Mission: Living Classrooms Foundation strengthens communities and inspires young people to achieve their potential through hands-on education and job training, using urban, natural, and maritime resources as "living classrooms. " Living Classrooms has developed a distinctive competency in experiential learning -- literally learning by direct experience -- or what we call "learning by doing. " Living Classrooms Foundation has been proudly serving the community for over thirty years.

Geographic areas served: Baltimore, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia

Programs: We are serving some of the region's most disadvantaged communities, which have suffered from decades of low educational achievement, high poverty, unemployment, crime, and recidivism rates, gang activity, and chronic health problems. Using proven hands-on training methods in our established after-school and supplemental education programs, health and wellness programs, violence prevention and reduction initiatives, clean and green projects, and job training focused on teen and adult ex-offenders, we provide results-oriented programming that helps youth and families remove barriers to success and build a bridge to a successful future. These programs are an effective intervention for poverty, and help create systemic solutions to effect much-needed change in parts of Baltimore, DC, and surrounding areas. Living Classrooms operates six community hubs, a top-performing public charter middle school, an adult and workforce resource center, 4 historic sailboats used as "living classrooms, " together offering after-school education, GED preparation, ESL classes, recreation, nutrition education, early childhood education, workforce development, entrepreneurial development, music education, STEM and environmental education, and mentor programs. Living Classrooms also operates Historic Ships in Baltimore and its 5 historic ships open for public educational tours, and Friends of Fort McHenry which works to introduce educational programs at Baltimore's historic Fort McHenry to local students.