The Baltimore Youth Data Hub
Baltimore’s youth receive services from multiple public agencies and nonprofits. All of these organizations collect data, but they don’t—or legally can’t—share that data with other agencies that support many of the same youth. This lack of information-sharing prevents Baltimore from strategically, effectively, and equitably meeting its young people’s needs. This disjointed approach to service delivery coupled with a lack of transparency, only exacerbates the current and historical inequities we seek to eliminate.
To improve quality of life outcomes for all of our young people, an initiative of Baltimore’s Promise, the Baltimore Youth Data Hub (the Hub) is an integrated data system linking data across youth-serving organizations into an anonymous system subject to community oversight and strict guidelines. With the Hub, stakeholders can better understand interrelated needs of communities and compare services and outcomes across groups by gender, race/ethnicity, place, and program-specific subpopulations (e.g. foster youth or youth experiencing homelessness) to address inequities in resources and opportunities.
 On February 7, 2022, Senator Mary Washington introduced Senate Bill 870: Baltimore City Youth Data Hub—Establishment. In summary, the bill establishes an executive committee and a manager to operate the Hub, restricts youth data from the Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act, and authorizes certain entities to provide data to the Hub.
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