Volunteering around UMB and locally benefits the greater Baltimore community.

GreenSON

GreenSON is the School of Nursing's green team. Students, staff, and faculty come together to actively identify, recognize, and promote conservation-minded initiatives and activities. If you would like to join, email Lorrie Voytek at lvoytek@umaryland.edu. Learn more on the School of Nursing's sustainability webpage.

HSHSL Sustainability Task Force

The HSHSL Sustainability Task Force works to implement sustainability projects at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HSHSL) on UMB's campus. If you would like to join, email Jerry Anthony at jlanthony@hshsl.umaryland.edu. 

Via the Office of Community Engagement

Mission: To leverage UMB’s economic resources and human capital to engage with the community through direct service and systemic change to improve quality of life in West Baltimore and beyond.

UMB Volunteer Initiative

UMB will allow full-time faculty and staff to use four hours of paid leave if they wish to volunteer at a qualifying nonprofit organization of their choice during each calendar year. All regular full-time state faculty and staff employees are eligible to participate. In support of this initiative, UMB’s Office of Community Engagement has developed a website capturing potential volunteer opportunities with existing community partners to help employees in identifying appropriate volunteer opportunities close to campus. While faculty and staff are encouraged to volunteer individually, we also encourage staff to volunteer as a group/department for one of the opportunities listed here.

Via Intercultural Leadership and Engagement

Intercultural Leadership and Engagement (ILE) aims to provide academic and social support to historically underrepresented populations while enhancing skills for intercultural development and intergroup dialogue.

President’s Student Leadership Institute (PSLI) is an interprofessional program that creates opportunities for leaders in health, policy, and human services who are increasingly compelled to partner with communities to effect positive change. Changes in health funding and shifting expectations of corporate citizenship demand emerging leaders to integrate social justice and cultural sensitivity with technical savvy. In this track, student leaders will learn from, and with, community leaders about power, race, and positive change.

In the Baltimore Community

4MyCiTy

• Mission: "...our focus is on the importance of environmental sustainability. Primarily the sustainable management of food in relation to reducing organic waste. Our program limits the harmful effects caused by organic waste on our environment while improving food security for families within our communities."

Blue Water Baltimore

• Mission: “...to restore the quality of Baltimore’s rivers, streams, and Harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy, and thriving communities.” 

Friends of Great Kids Farm

• Mission: “...created to support and promote Baltimore City Schools’ Great Kids Farm. The Farm, occupying 33-acres of abundant fields and forest just west of the city, engages students with good food from farm to fork and prepares them to lead sustainability efforts in their communities.”

Living Classrooms

• Approach: “Living Classrooms has developed a distinct competency in experiential learning [learning by doing]...We utilize our environmental campuses, athletic fields, community centers, and historic ships as ‘living classrooms.' We work...to identify existing barriers towards success and provide skills training, resources, and opportunities.”

Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks

• Mission: “To improve the health and wellness of Baltimore through quality recreational programs, preserving our parks and natural resources, and promoting fun, active lifestyles for all ages.”

Baltimore Greenspace

• Mission: “Baltimore Green Space is Baltimore’s environmental land trust. We promote vibrant neighborhoods and a healthy environment through land preservation [of community gardens, pocket parks, and urban forests], research, and community advocacy.”

UEmpower of MD

• "Our flagship program, The Food Project, addresses two key challenges in our community: food insecurity and youth unemployment to help stop the cycle of poverty. The Food Project hires at-risk youth to produce and distribute meals each week and run a popup market to distribute food and resources to the community."