Standing in Frederick alongside city and county leaders, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced $32 million in state grants aimed at combating child poverty across Maryland. The money will be shared among community agencies and affiliated nonprofits statewide, with a specific slice earmarked for Frederick County programs serving children and families.
The announcement, first reported by DC News Now, ties the funding to the state's ENOUGH initiative, which officials describe as designed to promote economic mobility. In Frederick County specifically, the funding will go toward county nutrition programs, childhood recreation and health services for families, according to the same report.
Leshia Chandler, director of Frederick County's Division of Family Services, is among the local officials connected to the rollout, the station notes. Broader messaging around the funding emphasizes support for children's well-being, including mentoring, scholarship opportunities, basic necessities and immunizations, per the station's report.
A Program Built Around Children, Families and Communities
ENOUGH — short for Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Universities, Governments and Housing, according to a program overview from the Governor's Office for Children — is billed as the first-of-its-kind, state-led, place-based strategy built around communities' lived experience, expertise, data and cross-sector partnerships. The initiative is organized around three pillars: children, families and communities, according to Urban Institute analysis of the program.
That same analysis frames ENOUGH as a place-based, community-driven antipoverty grant program that targets communities with high rates of child poverty across the state. The stakes behind that framing are stark: in 2023, 11 percent of all children living in Maryland — including more than one in four in some counties — were living in poverty, Urban Institute reports.
Building on Prior Rounds of Funding
This is not ENOUGH's first infusion of cash. In 2024, the initiative funded 24 communities with planning grants and backed three well-established collaboratives with $3 million in implementation grants, per the Urban Institute's reporting. Those implementation grantees reported disbursing cash or housing assistance to hundreds of families and hosting well-attended early childhood initiatives and out-of-school-time programs, the same analysis found.
The Governor's Office for Children also announced another round of ENOUGH funding in December 2025, according to Urban Institute. A separate governor's office release describes a related announcement of more than $19 million to communities for what it calls year two of the ENOUGH Initiative, though the available material does not clarify how that figure relates to the $32 million total announced in Frederick.
Accountability Built Into the Awards
Grant recipients aren't just handed a check and sent on their way. Program guidance from the Governor's Office for Children requires grantees to track and report data across outcome indicators and progress measures, and to support community groups in building the capacity to participate in ENOUGH, according to a funding opportunity notice from goc.maryland.gov. Separate state budget testimony indicates recipients have used the grant funding to administer evidence-based programs aimed at addressing the root causes of child poverty, per the Maryland Department of Budget and Management.
For Frederick County, the practical result is money flowing into nutrition, recreation and family health services — the kinds of everyday supports that state officials frame as central to the broader goal of promoting economic mobility for Maryland children and their families.
