SIL Past Cohorts

Providing young adults aging out of foster care with employment opportunities; helping veterans with resources for life and career success; improving access to locally-grown produce; and supporting high school students to become effective writers. These are just a few examples of initiatives the SIL 2022–23 Accelerator cohort pursued within their Baltimore communities.

The startups’ missions are diverse and include: revitalizing Baltimore’s industries, encouraging healing through movement, ensuring access to period products and breastfeeding, embracing movement as a standard practice in schools, creating social change and job creation through art, developing products and services to decrease dangerous escalations with law enforcement, and providing tools for women of color to achieve career and financial success.

The 2020-21 cohort might have only met virtually, but its members are primed to make a real-world impact. 10 teams worked together from December 2020-April 2021 while receiving financial support, technical assistance, and customized workshops and training on business growth and impact scaling.

For six-months, the 2019-20 cohort grew their ventures while receiving support including funding, mentorship, office space, and training to maximize community impact and sustainability. Our rigorous curriculum challenges the cohort to achieve milestones focused on customer discovery and human-centered design in order to better serve their markets.