Press release
Announcement Date: December 7, 2015
Today, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced plans to restructure the Baltimore Sister Cities Program (BSCP), aiming to expand the program’s focus on developing significant opportunities for economic partnerships, more cultural and educational exchanges, and health and environmental initiatives.
The BSCP is currently a series of committees, reporting directly to the Office of the Mayor. The program will be restructured as an independent 501(c)(3) corporation to be named Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. (‘BSC, Inc.’).This will provide greater stability and consistency during administration transitions.
View full press release
Working Group Report
Baltimore City Sister Cities Program Working Group Report (pdf)
Report Date: October 2015
Excerpt from the Executive Summary:
The City of Baltimore established its first Sister City when Mayor William Donald Schaefer founded the Baltimore Sister Cities Program (BSCP) in 1973. During its 42 years of existence BSCP volunteers have conducted activities and exchanges with Sister Cities focused on education, arts & culture, health and tourism, and more recently economic and business development. BSCP activities have in turn engaged Baltimore’s leaders, citizens and neighborhoods in the global community and continues to promote “Peace through People.”
With varying levels of activity amongst our Sister City relationships, there is a renewed goal to reestablish the Sister Cities Program as a strong and vital component of the City’s international identity and economic development agenda.
To explore how to make BSCP more effective, a working group was established by the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Neighborhood Development in April 2014. This working group was comprised of representatives from the Office of the Mayor, Maryland Sister States Program, Baltimore Development Corporation, Baltimore Sister City committees, the State of Maryland’s Office of the Secretary of the State, the local business community and Baltimore City Public Schools.
The working group met throughout the year in order to research and produce the next steps, and prioritize recommendations and actionable items.
Explore Baltimore’s sister cities at baltimoresistercities.org:
- Alexandria, Egypt
- Kawasaki, Japan
- Luxor, Egypt
- Piraeus, Greece
- Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Xiamen, China
