The South Baltimore Learning Center yesterday announced that the Bank of America (formerly Nations-bank) has forgiven a $107,000 lien against the organization’s headquarters building, the former Southern District Police Station on Ostend Street.
Bank of America’s action was matched by a $60,000 donation from Baltimore RESCO (operator of an incinerator on Russell Street), a $200,000 State bond, and a release of liens by the City of Baltimore and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The building previously housed a job training program that ran into financial difficulty. Now, it is effectively owned by the learning center.
The funds will go toward a complete and historically sensitive renovation of the building, with an estimated price tag of $1.5 million. The building will include 4 classrooms, a library, career counseling center, tutoring rooms, and computer labs. By next year, SBLC is projecting being able to place at least 200 people into jobs annually.
The South Baltimore Learning Center (SBLC) has been bolstering the educations and hopes of the poor in Cherry Hill, Brooklyn, Pigtown, and Federal Hill. They have been giv-ing second chances for ten years, with basic education instruction, mentoring, GED preparation, and job training, to name a few of their endeavors.
SBLC has grown from its 1990 roots as a volunteer one-on-one tutoring program with four clients to having an annual budget of $400,000 and the ability to serve 700 students.
Barry Blumberg, the Senior Vice President of Bank of America and life-long resident of the city, spoke eloquently on the reasons his bank forgave the liens, of the good business sense to be pro-active within the community. Patricia Goodyear, a T. Rowe Price Board of Directors trustee and resident of the city, spoke of the need of an educated work force, and the 76% dropout rate at Southern High School, “which keeps people unem-ployed and unemployable.” Both business leaders volunteer with SBLC and serve as directors to its Capital Campaign Committee, SBLC’s financial arm.
The Committee’s chair is George Collins, the former T. Rowe Price executive and owner of “Chessie,” the yacht which competed in the last Whitbread (now Volvo) Race Across The World.
Angela Sutton also spoke. A student at SBLC, she had dropped out of Calverton Junior High when she was
endeavors.
SBLC has grown from its 1990 roots as a volunteer one-on-one tutoring program with four clients to having an annual budget of $400,000 and the ability to serve 700 students.
Barry Blumberg, the Senior Vice President of Bank of America and life-long resident of the city, spoke eloquently on the reasons his bank forgave the liens, of the good busmess sense to be pro-active within the community. Patricia Goodyear, a T. Rbwe Price Board of Directors trustee and resident of the city, spoke of the need of an educated work force, and the 76% dropout rate at Southern High School, “which keeps people unemployed and unemployable.” Both business leaders volunteer with SBLC and serve as directors to its Capital Campaign Committee, SBLC’s financial arm.
The Committee’s chair is George Collins, the former T. Rowe Price executive and owner of “Chessie,” the yacht which competed in the last Whitbread (now Volvo) Race Across The World.
Angela Sutton also spoke. A student at SBLC, she had dropped out of Calverton Junior High when she was sixteen. Now forty, with grown children, she is working toward her “long time goal,” of having her GED. She talked of the times she had been turned down for jobs because of her lack of a high school diploma. What she has not told the staff at SBLC was that when she graduates, she wants to return as a volunteer.
Also present were city councilmembers John Cain, Nick D’Adamo, and Lois Garrey, as was State Delegate Brian McHale.