Reports / Reports

Baltimore Health Corps Pilot: Early Lessons

Tackling the Dual Economic and Public Health Crises Caused by Covid-19

On March 12, 2020, the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Baltimore City. Its infection rate increased rapidly through March and into April and May, proving to be 4 times higher among Latino residents and 1.5 times higher among Black residents than the city’s White population. At the same time, the city’s unemployment rate surged from 4.9 percent in March to a peak of 11.6 percent in April 2020. In June, The Rockefeller Foundation supported the Baltimore City government in launching the Baltimore Health Corps (BHC), a pilot program to recruit, train, and employ 275 new community health workers who were unemployed, furloughed, or underemployed, living in neighborhoods hardest hit by the health crisis and especially those residents unemployed as a result of Covid-19. BHC used equitable recruitment and hiring practices to employ contact tracers, care coordinators, and support staff, with a focus on good jobs, fair pay, training, skill-building, and support to improve career trajectories. This report, compiling data and interviews midway through the project, is a look at some of the early successes and the challenges ahead.

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    Tackling the Dual Economic and Public Health Crises Caused by Covid-19 in Baltimore: Early Lessons from the Baltimore Health Corps Pilot

    On March 12, 2020, the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Baltimore City. Its infection rate increased rapidly through March and into April and May, proving to be 4 times higher among Latino residents and 1.5 times higher among Black residents than the city’s White population. At the same time, the city’s unemployment rate […]
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Baltimore Health Corps is supported by a consortium of funders:

Abell Foundation

Annie E. Casey Foundation

Baltimore City allocation of United States’ Coronavirus

Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds

Baltimore Community Foundation

Baltimore Gas and Electric

Baltimore Ravens

Bank of America

Bloomberg Philanthropies

CareFirst

France-Merrick Foundation

Goldseker Foundation

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

Hoffberger Foundation

Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Foundation

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Kaiser Permanente

Leonard & Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation

Maryland Department of Labor

Open Society Institute – Baltimore

PepsiCo Foundation

Rauch Foundation

Rowe Price Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation

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