From President Daniels: Supporting JHU's neighbor communities

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:

Time and again, I have written about the importance of our university’s relationship with Baltimore, the ways we draw energy from our city and the ways our research and service can advance our urban environment. Our longstanding efforts to improve the health and well-being of our city are motivated not only by a desire to support our neighbors, but by a recognition that the future of our university is inextricably tied to the future of the communities of which we are a part.

A little over a year ago, we started meeting with neighbors in 10 communities around the Homewood campus, from University Parkway in the north to Penn Station in the south. Together, in what we named the Homewood Community Partners Initiative, we looked at how to strengthen those communities and at how Johns Hopkins can help.

Agreeing that we all want more livable neighborhoods with vibrant urban centers, we focused on five key areas – quality of life, housing, public education, retail and commercial development, and job development through local hiring and purchasing. Together, we then developed 29 recommendations across those areas.

Today, I am pleased to announce that the university will commit $10 million over five years toward implementing those recommendations. We will also work with our communities, and with other institutions, businesses, foundations and individuals, to leverage additional investments.

The university has been deeply involved with greater Homewood for decades. HCPI, however, brings our support for and collaboration with our neighbors in northern Baltimore City to a new level. And it follows on our significant engagement in other parts of Baltimore, including a more than $20 million investment in East Baltimore Development Initiative next to our medical campus.

Today’s announcement does not mark the beginning of HCPI’s implementation. We and our partners have already started working on many of 29 recommendations. Specifically, Johns Hopkins is committed to leveraging its considerable investments in hiring and construction, as well as its purchasing power, to promote the growth of local, minority-owned and women-owned businesses and to foster greater diversity at all levels of employment.

Through this commitment, we will set goals to use more Baltimore suppliers and construction contractors, and to find creative ways to support the growth of local companies. As we put this university-wide effort into practice over the next year, it will support not only HCPI, but the entire city.

I want to thank Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for her support of these efforts. And I want to offer my appreciation to the many people who have been involved in HCPI, whether from Johns Hopkins or from our partners in Abell, Barclay, Charles North, Charles Village, Greenmount West, Harwood, Oakenshawe, Old Goucher,  Remington and Wyman Park, and the Waverly “Main Street” business district. I particularly appreciate the tireless dedication that my Office of Economic Development – Andy Frank and Salem Reiner – have brought to this cause.

We at Johns Hopkins are determined to be good neighbors, whether we are based at Homewood, East Baltimore, Mount Vernon, Dupont Circle, Montgomery County or elsewhere in the Baltimore-Washington area or around the world. Today’s announcement is just one more example of how we will put that determination into practice.

More information is available on the Hub, on Twitter  (#hcpi) and on Facebook.

Warm regards,
Ronald J. Daniels