Getting more people to 988
Together with our local and statewide partners, we know we have made great progress to make mental health services more accessible, and yet, we know we have so much more work to do. Our county’s most recent health assessment survey shows that mental health challenges continue to rise, especially for our youth, people of color and low-income households. And while calls to the state’s 988 Crisis Lifeline continue to rise as well, it is still not used, and behavioral health services deployed, enough as a resource – sometimes with tragic consequences. Read this month’s blog, featuring interviews with Melissa Rosenberg from the Autism Society of Maryland and Adrienne Breidenstine from Behavioral Health System Baltimore, about the work that remains to build an effective, sustainable mental health crisis system.
Register Now: Hopeful Voices
Embracing the power of storytelling helps change lives and communities for the better. Join us and our mental health grantees, the 2026 Howard County Mental Health Alliance, for a free and inspiring community event to inspire hope, healing and conversation.
Hopeful Voices will bring communities together using the power of creative expression and storytelling to spark important conversations and fight stigma around mental health and wellness. The event will feature inspiring artwork created by youth and community members, powerful personal stories of hope and recovery and opportunities to connect with mental health resources and view short films. A meal will also be served while attendees enjoy a meaningful conversation with one another that builds understanding, collaboration and hope. Grab your spot today!
New policy ideas report: Building a Movement for Housing Justice
Where we live impacts our quality of life and how healthy we are – and we all want to live in vibrant neighborhoods full of opportunity. But for many Howard County, Maryland residents, our community is becoming an increasingly unaffordable place to live – and our housing system is a major reason why. Rents and home prices are too high; many apartments are aging and rundown; our zoning laws are outdated; and we are not building enough places to live that people of all incomes can afford.
To find solutions to these problems, the Foundation has been working with Howard County housing service providers and has compiled their policy change ideas into a new report. The report shares the Service Provider Workgroup’s vision for improving the housing system in Howard County, identifies lessons learned, barriers and levers for change and outlines priorities providers believe are critical to advancing housing justice. We had a fantastic discussion about these ideas with the community at our latest Renter Town Hall where we offered a call to action for providers, advocates, community members and decision makers to lay the groundwork for future policy campaigns.
One of the biggest issues that we need to address? Junk fees. Learn more about this problem facing Howard County renters, and other issues we discussed at our Renter Town Hall, in this article from the Baltimore Banner.
Read the Service Provider Report>>
Read the Baltimore Banner article>>
Making our voice heard at the federal level
Though the Horizon Foundation focuses much of our advocacy work at the local and state level, we recently weighed in on proposed regulations from the federal government that we believe would be harmful to Maryland residents. We urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reject their proposed rule around Medicaid work requirements that further restricts the medical frailty exemption beyond what Congress enacted in H.R. 1. If the rule is finalized, Maryland projects that over 150,000 residents would lose their health care coverage by June 2028. We also joined 25 other health funders in signing on to a comment letter for the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposed guidance that would place federal grantmaking decisions in the hands of political appointees and make substantial changes to the federal grantmaking process.
The Foundation will continue to stand up for the health and wellbeing of Maryland residents and our nonprofit community in all halls of power.
First Thursdays – September 3
|
|
|
Staff Picks & Resources: Check out what we’re reading, watching & learning
- Are you excited about the World Cup? It’s because you belong. (Othering & Belonging Institute)
- Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
- Advancing Economic Justice in Reactionary Times (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
- The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza
