As the year comes quickly to a close, it is important to us as a team to take a step back and honor our accomplishments of 2023. We would like to thank your donors for allowing us to expand the reach of our work and our partners for their trust and for being in community with us this year. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge the wins of 2023:
2023 Accomplishments:
Celebrating our first full year as a 501c3!
In 2022, we announced our status as a 501c3 organization. This year, we celebrate our first year as an independent non-profit organization! Celebrating this milestone would be incomplete without celebrating the completion of our first audit (phew)!
We provided free legal services to 187 clients.
This is 112 more than we served last year! This number is not representative of the number of expunged cases or warrant recalls we performed in 2023 as some clients come to us with multiple requests. The only way we were able to provide these services for free is thanks to our donors’ steadfast support.
We welcomed a paralegal to the team!
We are thrilled to welcome our new paralegal, Jamie Grace Alexander, to the team! As we work to build capacity, expanding our team has been of utmost importance and we are honored to have such an experienced and passionate new addition to BALT.
We were privileged to welcome 4 interns through our Summer and Fall internship programs.
Our interns were given the opportunity to work closely with our Legal Director and Community Lawyer to conduct legal research and learn the ropes of record expungement and warrant recall. We would like to thank all of our past interns for their dedication to BALT and our community.
We hosted our second Movement Lawyering workshop.
Through this free multi-day, hybrid workshop, we facilitated the unlearning of cultural norms within the legal profession which stem from white supremacy while building the capacity of legal workers to engage in movement lawyering in their community.
We went to New Orleans with partner organizations.
We had the pleasure of visiting New Orleans in July with our partner organizations Detroit Justice Center, Law for Black Lives, Palestine Legal, and Community Justice Program.
We participated in two days of programing at the PJI office where our interns discussed and had workshops on abolition, Anti-Capitalism and Economic equality, Anti-Global Imperialism and Cross Border Solidarity with Palestine Legal, and movement lawyering
We have been honored to participate in the following coalitions and organize with the following partners this year:
Coalitions: Maryland Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability (MCJPA), Campaign for Justice, Safety & Jobs (CJSJ), Coalition for a Safe and Just Maryland (CSJM), Maryland Youth Justice Coalition (MYJC), BRIDGES Coalition (BRIDGES), Trans Rights Advocacy Coalition (TRAC)
Partners: Out for Justice (OFJ), Citizens’ Policing Project (CPP), Helping Oppressed People Excel (HOPE), Penn North Recovery Center (Penn North)
We got out in the community to provide direct services and education with our partners:
We partnered with Liberty’s Promise to engage youth around knowing their rights in a police interaction.
We provided direct services and information at the following community events: Penn North, Opportunity Avenue, OFJ Night Clinic, Ten City, CPP Juneteenth, Donnell’s Day
Litigation wins:
In September the Maryland Supreme Court ruled Baltimore Police Department’s denial of Open Justice Baltimore’s fee waiver request was arbitrary and capricious. As a result, the Court ordered BPD to reconsider, with the Court’s new direction, whether releasing the files and waiving the fee is within the public’s interest. This ruling comes after four years of litigation on behalf of OJB by BALT’s Legal Director, Matthew Zernhelt.
The end of the year brings with it a time of reflection. While we take time to slow down after a busy holiday season, we reflect upon the lessons we can take with us from the past year.
Reflections:
We are still here. We are proud to have completed our first full year as an independent nonprofit. This is no small feat considering the fact that we started as a volunteer organization and transitioned into a small but mighty team.
It's hard out here. especially for nonprofits that don't do the "safe and neat" work that funders love. Despite not getting huge endowments, we still place ourselves in the exact spot to serve the community. The funds donated to us are swiftly and directly invested into our community.
BALT will do its best to remain adaptive and responsive to the community as we have done in 2023.
Thank you for supporting and following our work in 2023. We wish you a successful and empowering 2024. If you would like to ensure BALT is able to continue our growth into the new year, please consider donating to our Year End Giving Campaign.
Happy holidays and a safe and happy 2024,
The BALT Team