Clarification

An article in The Sun yesterday may have left the impression that Tammy Pinchin, who was awarded a community fellowship by the Open Society Institute, would find jobs and housing for people with criminal records. Pinchin will help people remove barriers to jobs and housing by aiding them in expunging their records and through other means.

A year ago, Leonard Sparks was headed back to drug treatment, demoralized by a relapse into crack cocaine use but determined to get his life on track.

Today, Sparks completes a rebound from being down-and-out to singled out for recognition.

He will be one of 10 recipients of coveted "community fellowships" from the Open Society Institute-Baltimore -- a fellowship that will pay him $48,750 to work full time for 18 months publishing a monthly newsletter for homeless people and recovering addicts.

Sparks, 37, can't quite believe his rapid change of fortune. He lives in transitional housing at Earl's Place in East Baltimore and is thankful to the director there who suggested he try for the fellowship.

"I applied for it with no intention of ever getting it," Sparks said. "There's kind of two emotions, of fear and excitement, competing for each other."

Diana Morris, director of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, said Sparks "is a concrete example of someone who has great intentions and a good deal of legitimacy because of his own experience."

The fellowships, to be announced at a luncheon today, are among the most experimental grants for the foundation, which is funded by billionaire George Soros.

Unlike most awards, which are given to organizations, the fellowships --in their fifth year -- go to individuals who have little more than an untested but provocative idea.

"It's a way to empower a whole new set of players in Baltimore," Morris said.

It's risky, too -- but Morris said that is OK. "Foundations should take risks ... and in the community fellowship program, we definitely do that," she said.

Sparks tentatively plans to call his newsletter "The Visionary." He wants to send it to policy-makers as well as residents of shelters, and hopes to recruit other recovering addicts as writers.

"Part of the impetus for the whole thing is knowing that addicts are still kind of stigmatized, and part of that is just from ignorance," Sparks said.

"You hear people saying it's a moral choice, and I don't believe that. Nobody in their right mind would do that. It really needs to be looked at as a health issue."

Media projects

Sparks is one of several fellowship recipients who are starting media projects for the disadvantaged.

Afefe Tyehimba, a writer for City Paper, will start a writing program for young people from ages 14 to 24 "to foster cultural, political and social change."

Paul Santomenna, a freelance media producer, will run the Megaphone Project, a low-budget production service to help advocates for minorities.

Elissa Leif, who has been the literacy coordinator for the Sacred Heart Adult Education Center, will start a community newsletter for pupils in grades three through seven at St. Veronica's After-School Academy.

School, art ideas

Other fellows include:

Rebekah Burgess, a graduate student in social work who has worked in the Hispanic community, will assist a Hispanic parent-teacher group at Patterson Park High School and help form similar groups in other schools.

Keri Burneston, a worker at the Living Classrooms Foundation, will try to involve community residents in creating art.

Tracey Oliver-Keyser, an independent fund-raising consultant, will start a savings club for working families.

Avis Ransom, a consultant who has worked with Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, will help low-wage and underemployed workers form cooperatives.

Two fellows, Jacqueline Robarge and Tammy Pinchin, will work with former prisoners. Robarge, who has been a community organizer helping women in the Baltimore City Detention Center, will start a network for women being released from jail and prison. Pinchin, a law student and clerk, will help people with criminal records find jobs and housing.