Highlighting Our Partners: No Boundaries Coalition

What is the No Boundaries Coalition and what is its mission?
No Boundaries Coalition is a resident led organization in 21217 Central West Baltimore, serving 7 neighborhoods (Reservoir Hill, Bolton Hill, Madison Park, Upton, Penn North, Druid Heights, and Sandtown). We give people the knowledge and tools to break down imaginary barriers and physical barriers in our community. We really emphasize our mission and our goal to bring people together and to do that through learning, with material and trainings that can help people elevate and grow not just in the community, but within themselves, taking them far as community advocates and community organizers. We have four main departments, the Health and Food Justice Department, our Community Membership, the Civics Department, and the No Boundaries Youth Organizers (NbYO).

The Health and Food Justice Department has a 12-week workforce development program that teaches people culinary arts, and they get their operations manager certificate at the end. We also have the Fresh at the Avenue Market on Pennsylvania Avenue. Our Community Membership is our community organizers program. It allows individuals to join our coalition as a member to help serve the Central West Baltimore neighborhoods we serve daily. The Civics Department gives an opportunity to a grant for safety or beautification in the community, and to be a year service Block Captain with us and earn a monthly stipend. The NbYOs go through civic education trainings, community organizing youth advocacy, career training, as far as their resumes being built and things of that sort, they get job opportunities and the chance to receive a stipend. Each program has something that we are teaching out in the community to break down those barriers that are mentioned in our mission statement. They really are hyper focused on making sure that the community gets the tools they need to excel and succeed within themselves, with their families, with their friends, and their neighbors.

What is the organization's biggest goal?
Our main goal is to continue to raise awareness with the programs and the trainings that we have. Continue to grow the partnerships and collaborations that we have in order to reach more people in our neighborhood and in our community, and continue to stay true to our mission statement of breaking down barriers.

What can other similar organizations learn from you?
I don't want to sound biased, but I feel like there's so many things that a similar organization can learn from us. One thing being our kinsmanship and how we present ourselves to the community. We always have top tier events. We always make sure that we have good service and that we're truly and genuinely connecting with the people that we come across. We do follow-ups, we make true connections and invite them back. So just being true to who you really are as yourself and as an organization, and genuinely connecting with people in the community.

How has working with the Injury Center helped you achieve this mission?
Johns Hopkins University has done so much for us in terms of helping us fund a lot of the things that we envisioned, and really giving us that opportunity to show them what we're capable of. I'm sure that we all show our most gratitude for that true camaraderie and partnership and collaboration, and really believing in one another.

What would you like our readers to know about your work?
I would like the readers to know that No Boundaries Coalition is an organization that stands very strong about staying true to our word and genuinely connecting and breaking down those barriers. We're always looking for volunteers. We're always looking to connect with people. We're open to pretty much anyone who has the same mission as us and affect the same neighborhoods as we do. Anyone interested in our work that would like to partner with us or even just want to check us out at a membership meeting, our membership meetings are the second Tuesday of the month from 6:00 to 8:00pm. And they can go to our website at noboundariescoalition.com to find information about any one of our departments or programs.

Tell us a fun fact about your organization. 
We love celebrating things that have themes and like wearing costumes, and really just lightening up the place and making it a really fun space as we do very serious and important work. It's always a fun vibe. We're always laughing and just having a good time while we're actually doing work that is very impactful.