Twenty-five of Baltimore's most prominent businesses are launching a $69 million initiative to increase their investments in the community through more inclusive contracting and hiring, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Johns Hopkins University and Health System, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company and Under Armour are among those who have signed on to the plan, called BLocal.
Participating companies have pledged to enter into more design and construction contracts with minority and women-owned businesses and buy more goods from local vendors. They expect to invest $53 million in renovation and construction projects and $16 million in goods and services from minority and women-owned businesses over the next three years, according to the report. The companies will also hire more residents from distressed Baltimore neighborhoods.
The BLocal effort strives to improve the economic potential for minority-owned businesses and low-income residents. HopkinsLocal, a program that is already underway at Johns Hopkins, supports the initiative by using local resources for hiring, construction and purchasing goods. Johns Hopkins also proposed last year that hospitals throughout Baltimore and the state of Maryland create 1,000 entry-level jobs for residents of areas that are struggling the most. However, the state only approved rates to pay for about 375 new positions, according to the report.
"HopkinsLocal is our comprehensive approach to leverage Johns Hopkins' economic power to do more to build, buy and hire locally," Ronald J. Daniels, president of JohnsHopkinsUniversity, said in the press release. "Building on that promise, BLocal aims to help bolster a local economy, not on a project-by-project basis, but through a collective, deep-seated change approach."
Mr. Daniels will co-chair the BLocal effort with Ronald R. Peterson, president of JohnsHopkinsHospital and Health System, and Calvin G. Butler Jr., CEO of BGE, according to the report.
The companies participating in BLocal include: 1st Mariner Bank, A&R Development, ABS Capital Partners, Banks Contracting Co., BCT Architects, Beatty Development, BGE, Brown Advisory, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Cordish Companies, Cushman & Wakefield, DLA Piper, Grant Thornton, Hogan Lovells, Johns Hopkins University and Health System, KPMG, Legg Mason, M&T Bank, OneBaltimore, PwC, RSM, T. Rowe Price, Under Armour, Whiting-Turner, WPM Real Estate Management.