ABOUT US

Founding & Evolution

Bridges was founded in 1993 as a four-week summer enrichment program on the campus of The St. Paul’s Schools in Baltimore County, MD. It initially served 18 elementary school students from a Title I School in northeast Baltimore City. Students were supported by a paid seasonal staff and a handful of high school-aged volunteers from St. Paul’s. Bridges has expanded significantly since that time. 

Today, the three Bridges program locations – Bridges at The St. Paul’s Schools, Bridges at Gilman, and Bridges at Bryn Mawr – work year-round with 330 Baltimore City youth ages 9-23 and engage 227 independent school student volunteers per year. The Bridges program model has evolved to support students for 13 years, beginning from 4th grade on through college and into the start of students’ careers.

How We Operate

Bridges Baltimore is an independent 501c3 committed to sustaining and growing Bridges’ impact in Baltimore. It supports existing program locations, identifies and helps to launch new program locations, enhances the program model, raises funds for all of Bridges programs and activities, identifies candidates for staff openings, provides technical assistance to program locations, recruits students for program locations, and manages marketing and communications functions.

Bridges at The St. Paul’s Schools (est. 1993), Bridges at Gilman School (est. 2014), and Bridges at The Bryn Mawr School (est. 2022) operate as programs of their respective school communities. The St. Paul’s Schools, Gilman School, and The Bryn Mawr School are responsible for operations pertaining to their program locations, including facilities, technology, volunteer recruitment, and more. Each school also makes an annual gift to Bridges Baltimore.

The Need & Our Approach

Bridges works to address two needs in the Baltimore metro-area – the first need pertains to investing in the full success of the Baltimore City youth who participate in Bridges and the second need pertains to building a more inclusive and equitable society.

Investing in the Success of Baltimore City Youth from Title I Elementary Schools

The Need: Children in Baltimore’s Title I Elementary Schools live in communities of limited access and opportunity, creating obstacles to long-term academic achievement and career pathways with financial security. The barriers make stepping stones to careers with financial security, like a college degree, incredibly rare. Historically, 90%+ of students in Baltimore’s public schools do not attain a degree by age 24.

Our Approach: Bridges partners with students age 9 to age 23 and their families. The effort is designed to help students find consistent academic success from elementary through high school, graduate from high school and college, and find fulfilling career paths that lead to financial security.

Building a More Inclusive and Equitable Society

The Need: The Baltimore metro-area remains geographically segregated along lines of race and socio-economics, creating a barrier to relationship building, and limiting understanding and progress on long standing issues of unequal access and opportunity in the City.

Our Approach: Bridges creates a space for independent school students of all backgrounds to build caring relationships with Baltimore City School students, learn about issues of unequal access and opportunity in Baltimore, and be part of building a more inclusive and equitable society.

Expanding our Impact

Over the last 10 years, Bridges has

Looking ahead, Bridges will

Strategic Partners & Supporters

Strategic Partners

Bridges has three types of strategic partners. Strategic partners both enhance programs and operations and provide in-kind resources that keep Bridges cost-effective and cost-efficient.

Independent Schools: As Bridges program locations, The St. Paul’s Schools, Gilman School, and The Bryn Mawr School have made an institutional commitment to Bridges, fully adopting the program as a function of their schools. This commitment includes year-round facility and office space usage, a volunteer base, back-office support, and annual financial investments in Bridges Baltimore.

University Partners:  Loyola University has become an increasingly larger partner over the last few years, providing about 50 tutors a year and summer facilities for our high school program.

YouthWorks, Art with a Heart, The Baer School, the Downtown Sailing Center, and Keswick Multicare provide jobs for Bridges high schoolers as a key part of Bridges high school summer programming.

Our 9 Feeder Elementary Schools in Northeast Baltimore help Bridges to nominate and select new students for the program yearly.

Capital Educators provides in-kind SAT prep to Bridges students.

Supporters

Bridges has 140+ supporters consisting of individuals, foundations, and corporations. These supporters under-write Bridges’ $2.1mm+ annual program and operations budget. Annual donations range from $10 to $167,000 per year, with an average contribution of $10,000.

People

Bridges Baltimore Board of Trustees

Ellen Bernard, Community Volunteer

Flynn Burch, Under Armour – Director of Global Philanthropy

Vickie Cosby, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield – S.V.P. Medicaid and Medicare Programs

Scott David, T. Rowe Price Associates – Former Head of U.S. Investment Services

Nnamdi Etoh, Rock Springs Capital – CFO

Doug Greenstein, T. Rowe Price Associates – Head of Institutional Business Development

Carim Khouzami, BGE – CEO

Josh Levinson, Charm City Run – Owner

Paul F. McBride, Black & Decker – Former Corporate Officer

Mark Neumann, 510 Ventures, LLC (Current Chair)

Rob Paymer, Bridges – Executive Director, Bridges (Staff)

Phil Pine, Capital Educators – Program Director

Dr. Bryan D. Powell, St. Paul’s Pre and Lower School – Head of School

Lynn Rauch, Community Volunteer (Founding Chair)

Roger Schulman, Fund for Educational Excellence – President & CEO

Jim Smith, RBC Wealth Management – Sr. Vice President (Former Chair)

Henry Smyth, Gilman School – Headmaster

Bridges Baltimore Staff

Chloe Baier

Associate Director of Grants, Brand, and Partnerships

Natalie DeCandia

Senior Leadership Associate

Rachel Duden

Chief of Staff

Kevin Eskridge

Senior Director of Operations

Jessica Kuhn

Business Manager

Jonathan Lindsay

Senior Director of Elementary/Middle School Programs

Rob Paymer

Executive Director

View Bridges at The St. Paul’s Schools staff here. • View Bridges at Gilman School staff here. • View Bridges at The Bryn Mawr School staff here.

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