Johns Hopkins pledges continued commitment to economic inclusion, investment in Baltimore

Johns Hopkins University and Health System reaffirmed their commitment earlier this month to leverage their collective resources to enhance economic growth, employment, and investment in the city via the HopkinsLocal economic inclusion initiative.

The Level Up with HopkinsLocal event at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum featured a career fair for job seekers and workshops for small businesses and design and construction firms about how to effectively partner with Hopkins. Participants had the opportunity to engage with institutional leaders and decision-makers from procurement, construction, and human resources.

The day-long event also provided an occasion for Johns Hopkins to mark the achievements of HopkinsLocal over the past six years while also announcing new, more ambitious goals to build, hire, buy, and invest locally in the coming years.

"As we move forward to our new goals and apply lessons learned," JHU President Ron Daniels said, "we can expand and better target our efforts, creating more jobs and opening more pathways to economic opportunity for our neighbors and their families."

Image caption: Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels (left) and Lisa Ishii, senior vice president for operations for the Johns Hopkins Health System

Image credit: Jim Burger for Johns Hopkins University

Since the launch of HopkinsLocal in 2015, the university and health system have significantly exceeded the program's initial goals. Hopkins has:

• Hired 3,191 Baltimore residents who live in targeted neighborhoods
• Hired 1,533 returning citizens, individuals who were previously incarcerated
• Spent more than $888 million with local businesses
• Committed more than $244 million to minority-owned, women-owned, or disadvantaged businesses and more than $281 million to Baltimore-based businesses for design and construction projects in Baltimore

In the next cycle of HopkinsLocal, dubbed HopkinsLocal 3.0, the university and medicine aim to further increasing spending with both minority- and women owned businesses and local businesses; increase local hiring, with a particular focus on higher-paid positions; and increase spending with local businesses by $25 million.

"At its heart, HopkinsLocal is about uplifting the people of this city, and the work of economic inclusion is carried out by thousands of people across Johns Hopkins," said Lexx Mills, director of economic inclusion and impact for university and health system. "Events like this are critical to bring people together to cultivate the relationships that move this work forward and connect businesses to the resources they need to grow."