The MASSB Minute

Greetings Everyone! Thank you for your continued energy and commitment with respect to your work on your respective advisory boards and communities. Because of your collective efforts, 2025 marked our most impactful year to date, with a significant increase in both revenue and individuals served, supporting nearly 4,000 Marylanders through various initiatives focused on basic needs, health and safety, and pathways to growth and opportunity.

I also want to highlight our Annual Conference on October 9 at Rocky Gap Casino, Resort & Golf, themed "From Policy to People: The Power of Partnership in Advocacy and Beyond," which will build on the strong engagement from our Legislative Conference and ongoing advocacy efforts statewide. As always, your volunteer leadership remains the foundation of this work.

Best,
Tony

Thank you for making 2025 our most impactful year yet! We experienced amazing growth of 40% over last year's numbers in both revenue and people helped — assisting almost 4,000 Marylanders with basic needs, ensuring their health & safety, and providing opportunities for growth.

In 2011, Washington County DSS opened the Sunshine Center Family Visitation Program to offer families and children in foster care a more home-like environment for visits — where families can engage in familiar and comforting activities such as family meals, crafts, outside play, and pet visits.

The Sunshine Center receives approximately $2,500 per year from jurors who choose to make a tax deductible donation of their per diem, mileage reimbursement, or both, to the MASSB Foundation. We recognize this innovative partnership between Washington County's DSS and Circuit Court during National Foster Care Month. Could a partnership like this work in your county?

Congratulations to the winners of our first annual NCAA MASSB Madness pool! We appreciate your participation and hope you had fun. Best of all — together we raised $590 for families in need. Our thanks to Nate Poerio for this great idea and for managing the madness!

Over the past few years, local boards have been requesting more focus on their roles as advocates for social services needs and programs. In response, our recent Annual and Legislative Conferences offered specific training and discussion to better equip local boards for their advocacy efforts.

The advocacy survey released in March was intended to gauge whether these trainings were having an impact. The results are impressive! MASSB boards are advocating in every region of the state for policy and programs relating to Foster Care, Elder Care, Food and Shelter Insecurity, Job Training and Employment, Community Resource Centers, Mental Health, and Juvenile Justice. Boards identified barriers including identification and coordination with other organizations, board member interest and capacity, and understanding boards' role within legal and ethical guidelines.

We're keeping the focus on this important initiative with our upcoming conference: "From Policy to People: The Power of Partnership in Advocacy and Beyond." We hope you'll join us at beautiful Rocky Gap Casino, Resort & Golf on October 9th to continue the discussion.