“Baltimore Corps announced plans for sharing its model for service with other cities and communities throughout the nation with its first-ever expansion site in Birmingham, Alabama.”

City Corps is a national platform for Baltimore Corps to share its model for service and essential practices. Fagan Harris, the nonprofit’s founder and CEO, says the decision behind City Corps builds on 10 years of proven experience creating pathways to high-mobility careers.

Baltimore Corps announced plans for sharing its model for service with other cities and communities throughout the nation with its first-ever expansion site in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Cities are a great source of untapped talent living in places that are chronically overwhelmed by our biggest challenges while also being historically underfunded,” Harris said. “Baltimore Corps has been doing this work for a long time, and we’re ready and excited to share our more equitable model for service with other cities across the U.S. as well as lessons we have learned.”

Baltimore Corps recruits and activates talented people who are often overlooked or underestimated and connects them to high-growth career opportunities in public service and social entrepreneurship. Today, the nonprofit is one of the largest recruiters of diverse, underestimated talent in and for Baltimore City, as well as the city’s largest grant maker and lender to early-stage social entrepreneurs and Main Street businesses.

In January 2022, Baltimore Corps launched a three-year, $30 million campaign to significantly expand full-time service opportunities in Baltimore with a focus on healthcare and public health. In partnership with the City of Baltimore, the Campaign for Citywide Service brings together over a dozen local and national program and philanthropic partners.

As the citywide campaign launched earlier this year, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott shared: “Baltimore Corps has been a steadfast partner in operationalizing our shared vision for a better, more equitable, and thriving city. Only together can we realize our shared vision for Baltimore’s future.”

On June 13, 2022, officials from Baltimore Corps convened in Birmingham with over 50 local and national partners to officially launch Birmingham Corps. Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin and Michael D. Smith, AmeriCorps CEO, was also in attendance.

Fagan Harris says several factors went into selecting Birmingham as the first U.S. city to share its model, including its outstanding community, civic, and public leadership. Birmingham Corps also builds on the success of the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic through BhamStrong which re-deployed displaced workers as contact tracers and care coordinators through creative and innovative service partnerships. During an informal roundtable over Zoom in April, Mayor Woodfin applauded Baltimore Corps’ investment in Birmingham and called the City Corps model transformational.

City Corps collaborates with city leaders, nonprofits, philanthropy, policy makers, and corporate partners to build equitable, place-based ecosystems that turn service opportunities into sustainable careers for underestimated talent.