Baltimore chosen for City Accelerator program

Baltimore is among five cities selected for the first-ever City Accelerator initiative.
Run by Citigroup’s Citi Foundation and Living Cities, the initiative is providing money to five cities in order to promote innovation in local government.
Baltimore City will receive $170,000 in financial and “in-kind support” for efforts to help people who are leaving prison. From the release:

Baltimore will engage with people leaving incarceration and their families to develop strategies both to reduce violent crime and to provide better re-entry services and programmatic supports that will help returning residents rebuild their lives.
“In order to make our communities safer and effectively reduce recidivism, we need to be able to partner with people who are rejoining society and support them on their path to success,” said Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “Thanks to Living Cities and the Citi Foundation, we’ll be able to adopt best practices in engaging this vitally important population.”

Atlanta, Albuquerque, New Orleans and Seattle are the other four cities participating in the program.
Citigroup’s announcement follows a $42 million investment by Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic arm to help cities use data to improve government. Bloomberg’s What Works initiative also figures to help Baltimore city with the new Center for Government Excellence located at Johns Hopkins.