Each year, the Social Innovation Lab chooses 10 founders to participate in weekly programming for six months. The cohorts are comprised of a dynamic group of innovative social ventures working toward becoming sustainable startups and fostering a measurable impact within Baltimore’s communities.

2023-24 Cohort
  • Divaneering Impact Hub: Inspires young women to pursue STEM education while learning about how startups work in the beauty industry.
  • JJIM: A commercially viable, sustainable and carbon negative alternative to construction materials, specifically hemp-based concrete.
  • Metallic Luxury, Audience Choice Award winner: Uses shipping containers to create a sustainable community development for those priced out of traditional housing.
  • Nav: Empowers teens to manage mental health challenges and well-being through shared technology.
  • Next Generation Language Access, Audience Choice Award winner: Works to train the next generation of interpreters.
  • NovvaCup: A sustainable and reusable menstrual cup that is easy to use in less than convenient environments.
  • Project Healthy Communities: Aims to drives community engagement and change in under resourced communities by working to alleviate food deserts and other social determinants that adversely affect the health of citizens.
  • Sacred House: A holistic wellness and community hub to create a healing space for Baltimore’s challenged communities.
  • Salama Wellness, Cohort Prize winner: Offers continuous pre-and post-natal care to ensure a safe postpartum for mothers. They are on a critical mission to alleviate instances of maternal and tragically high infant mortality in the U.S., especially in underserved communities.
  • Zroin: Leverages 360-degree Matterport technology to transform brick-and-mortar retail space into smart stores ready for e-commerce.
2022-23 Cohort
  • Baltimore City College Writing Center, Cohort Prize winner: Provides support for high school students to become effective writers. The center hopes to become a citywide workforce development program.
  • Fosterpreneur: Offers foster care youth and alumni employment opportunities, skills training, financial guidance, and counseling to develop a career plan, networking connections and education opportunities.
  • The Kamoky! app: Helps consumers and connect with minority business owners and promotes their restaurants, stores and services.
  • Knowboundary (formerly known as Leaders of Africa): Facilitates a supportive Pan-African community that cultivates impactful and translatable research, amplifies diverse perspectives and leverages creative audiovisual, graphic and technological design.
  • Meridian Health: A Generation Z health app that uses chatbot artificial intelligence and data science to help ensure care continuity, diminish barriers to healthcare and promote preventive wellness habits.
  • Phase 3 Training Corp.: An elevator and escalator repair skills training program for people in marginalized communities. Phase 3’s executive director is Anthony Roberts.
  • Reveille Grounds: Works with veterans to give them a “third place” and to create networking connections for career and life success.
  • RISE Arts Center of Baltimore, Audience Choice Award winner: Provides arts education for youth and young adults to foster personal and artistic growth through visual art exhibits, theater, musical performances, dance recitals and creative writing presentations.
  • Seedling Hydroponics, Audience Choice Award winner: Combats food insecurity, expands fresh food education and builds community partnerships to provide consistent access to healthy, fresh produce across Baltimore neighborhoods.
  • Sew Bromo: A fashion education incubator led by Stacy Stube that provides specialized industry knowledge for hobbyists and startup entrepreneurs.
2021-2022 Cohort
  • Ballet After Dark, First Place Cohort Prize winner: A nonprofit that uses a trauma-informed, dance therapy curriculum and holistic resources to encourage survivors of sexual violence and various levels of trauma to heal their bodies using movement,
  • BOOB’R: Works to challenge and erase the stigma for individuals who want to breastfeed while incarcerated, advocate for change within the prison system and establish lactation support for mothers behind bars.
  • Carlton St. Equine Center: Leads gun violence interruption efforts and administers post-violence trauma care through horsemanship led by the Arabbers, Baltimore’s indigenous horse and wagon produce vendors.
  • Enigma Science and Technology: Developing technology that can be used to reduce the number of arrest-related deaths as part of its overall mission to solve current and future challenges impacting society.
  • Fem Equity: A membership-based platform that strives to make pay equity a reality for women of color by providing the tools and support and inspiring the confidence they need to make empowered decisions for career success and financial security.
  • Glass Recovery and Sustainable Systems (GRASS) Baltimore, Third Place Cohort Prize winner: A zero-waste cooperative that maximizes the value of glass by turning it into artwork and reselling bottles to local breweries. GRASS also will be a space for learning about zero waste, and offer space for local and traveling artists to sell or perform their work.
  • Loam: A social design and facilitation practice that empowers purpose-driven people and organizations to create agency and liveliness where they work, learn, and lead.
  • TamPal, Audience Choice Award winner: A products and services company aimed at making access to tampons and pads as easy as accessing toilet paper.
  • The Puzzling Disorder Project, Second Place Cohort Prize winner: An outgrowth of HGE Designs Co. to offer sensory and kinesthetic support for autistic children through functional fashion, sensory-inclusive products and customized sensory kits.
  • Yoga in Classrooms and Schools Consulting: Works with schools and school districts to develop tailor-made, impactful and long-term yoga and mindfulness programming for students, staff, and families through a model of long-term coaching and support, cross-curricular integration and the creation of culturally relevant programming aligned to the needs, values, and goals of the school community.
2020-21 Cohort
  • Bloc by Block News: A news media cooperative and civic engagement organization helping people tap into what matters most locally. The co-op offers a one-stop-shop for trustworthy information and news about Maryland towns, cities, and neighborhoods via a weekly newsletter, social media, and a forthcoming mobile app.
  • CovidSMS: A customizable mass-SMS system that provides COVID-19–related information and resources to individuals without reliable access to the internet.
  • Dyslexia Advocation Inc., Cohort Prize winner: A nonprofit that educates, empowers and equips adults and parents of children with language-based learning disabilities, 
  • Elevated Soups: Creates divine soups and stews for the public while reinvesting funds into outreach programs for the homeless in Central Maryland.
  • FAIR Housing: Aims to eliminate evictions in Baltimore City and restore humanity to an industry responsible for providing one of the most critically essential and fundamental human needs — housing.
  • Menti: A teletherapy platform that connects women of color to women of color therapists.
  • Restoring Inner City Hope Inc. (RICH): A nonprofit organization founded in 2011 with the mission to love, inspire and empower youth and families throughout Baltimore City.
  • SpreadKarma: A funding ecosystem empowering positive social impact in underserved communities through crowdfunding and education.
  • Taara Projects: A fashion-based social enterprise committed to perpetuating a transparent cycle of positive social and environmental impact through embracing sustainable and ethical practices along our supply chain, from creation to distribution.
  • The WeGo Foundation: Utilizes telepresence technology to provide hospitalized pediatric patients with live, virtual tours of museums and cultural attractions.
2019-20 Cohort
  • Aquatas: Aims to address the ever-growing problem of lack of clean water in developing regions around the world by providing an efficient and affordable water purification system that promotes the health and societal well-being of low-income families.
  • CLLCTIVLY: Creating an ecosystem to foster collaboration, increase social impact and amplify the voices of black-led organizations in greater Baltimore.
  • HiveLend: Connects beekeepers and farmers for crop pollination.
  • Infinite Focus Schools: Creates mindfulness and socio-emotional learning software. Our mission is to help children self-regulate their emotions, make responsible decisions and cultivate empathy for happier and healthier lives.
  • Le Mondo: Transformed three abandoned buildings in downtown Baltimore into an artist-owned-and-driven arts hub with a multidisciplinary performance venue, neighborhood bar, artist studios, affordable apartments and a cafe.
  • MindStand: Has created an artificial intelligence platform that identifies online harassment, hate speech, suicidality, low engagement and other troubling behaviors within an organization’s internal communications.
  • More Watters Co.’s: “Movement Is Medicine” project uses water, exercise and healthy lifestyle education to help prevent, manage and treat chronic disease while building healthier communities in Baltimore City.
  • Mothership: Works to bridge the gap between health expert and parent friend through a digital health education community for parents and by training health professionals on empathy and empowerment in health practice.
  • Parity, Cohort Prize winner: An equitable development company that acquires and rehabilitates vacant and abandoned properties in distressed neighborhoods to create affordable home ownership opportunities.
  • PrecisionEMS: Develops personalized, community-level, data-driven tools to improve emergency medical system preparedness and readiness.
2018-19 Cohort
  • Ars Medica: A space where doctors and medical students can share their stories and support each other in their journey toward more humane and compassionate medicine.
  • Baltimore Farm to Clinic Project: Provides healthy foods and nutrition education to vulnerable individuals living in underserved neighborhoods.
  • Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group: Assists older, long-term unemployed workers with the social, emotional and psychological pain that comes with mid-career job loss by providing counseling, coaching, information and referral services, outreach and advocacy.
  • Be. Virtual: A youth-built virtual reality technology for social-emotional learning.
  • Happy Teacher Revolution, Cohort Prize winner: An international movement that aims to organize and conduct mental health and wellness support groups for teachers to increase their happiness, retention and professional sustainability.
  • Fight Blight Bmore, Cohort Prize winner: campaign of people working together to cultivate safe, green, economically vibrant communities in Baltimore. 
  • Health 3D: A student-run social venture that creates customized, 3D-printed education equipment for children in hospitals.
  • MOMCares: Provides postpartum doula support to black mothers navigating a NICU experience with their child.
  • Roots & Raíces: A social enterprise geared toward creating a platform for immigrant artists and musicians to come together to support, highlight and celebrate immigrants through the arts and civic action.
  • Rose: A technology-driven mental health company simplifying the way patients experiencing stress, depression and anxiety seek and receive care.