Leaders of the Greater Baltimore Committee called on Baltimore-area businesses to embrace initiatives to hire ex-offenders and city youths as ways to build on slow but steady progress since last year's unrest.
"This is a pivotal time for Baltimore City," Stephanie C. Hill, the committee's newly elected chair, told members at its annual meeting Monday. "But it is also an important time for all businesses and citizens in our area because an economy and perception of a region is only as strong as its central core."
The city, she said, is attracting millennials, high-tech companies and big projects such as the multibillion-dollar proposed Port Covington development of offices, stores, residences and parks, anchored by a headquarters for Under Armour. Moving forward, economic expansion and job creation need to remain top priorities, said Hill, the first African-American woman to serve as the committee's chair.
She highlighted steps the business group has taken since last spring: starting a fund to help riot-damaged businesses recover, increasing the number of hires in the city's Youth Works and private sector Hire One Youth programs to 8,000 young people and launching Coalition for a Second Chance to help ex-offenders overcome job barriers.
She told the more than 760 attendees at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore that it will be "imperative" that the committee quickly joins forces with the new mayor and City Council members who will be elected in November.
"The city's vitality and future depend on a welcoming and supportive environment for business — and a positive business climate is an absolute must to ensure job creation," Hill said.
Hill, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Ship and Aviation Systems line for Mission Systems and Training, has served as the committee's chair since November. She replaced David Warnock, managing partner and co-founder of Camden Partners, who stepped down Nov. 3 to run for mayor of Baltimore.
Donald C. Fry, the committee's president and CEO, urged companies to help break the cycle of recidivism "by offering the one solution all experts agreed actually works to keep people from returning to crime and jail — a job."
He said employers are needed to offer positions to the 9,400 young people between 14 and 21 who have qualified for summer jobs through the city's government and private sector programs.