Chesapeake Center Threatened By Budget Axe BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - Maryland's budget cutting is bone-deep. Students at the Chesapeake Youth Development Center are about to lose their lifeline. The program's budget has been decimated. A school for kids on the verge of serious trouble, mentioned Monday in the first installment of our series "Growing Up Baltimore," has to close. It will be a sharp blow to young people who've been let down before.

Bonnie Brobst, the school's education director, says young people flourish at Chesapeake because they find continuity and caring there.

"These kids have had the breath knocked out of them over and over. This time they're being choked. Where do they go next? We see Chesapeake as the last stop."

Students there, many of whom have rebounded from brushes with the law, talk eagerly about how they came understand the importance of an education - and how the Chesapeake Center keeps them on track.

One young man remembers exactly when he saw the light.


"When I got arrested, the third time around. That's what made me realize I was about to become a statistic, become a number and it's going to get worse if I stay on this path."

Young people arrive at Chesapeake with their defenses way up. They don't deny their mistakes. But some have had a lifetime of broken promises. They have little trust, little confidence in themselves and little knowledge of the world around them. They haven't been to the National Aquarium, the Walters Art Museum or Greektown. They're often way behind academically, but small classes and more attention erases deficits.

One of the teachers, Alexis Knemers, says the patient, one-on-one process at Chesapeake works.

"They don't want to show weakness. If we can't get them to come regularly and we have great success with that, you start to see their defenses fall away."

The young man who realized he was on the wrong path, said he's learned to love reading at Chesapeake, though he says math is his strong suit. He likes the final-answer quality it has. There's just one right answer.

He thinks now of going to college.

"I never thought of college before. I thought I could handle high school but I didn't think I could manage college."

The program's longtime director, Ivan Leshinsky, worries that the budget crisis could end a program he's developed over almost three decades. He knows quite well that similar helping efforts all over the state are in danger - not because they've failed, but because the financial pressure is so intense in the governor's office.

"In the long run, I remain hopeful. I mean, we've been around for 35 years, in one form or another, as a school that provides a safety net for kids who have no place to go. I think in the long run, someone will come through for us - some agency or some private foundation."

"Programs" have a bad name in some quarters. But many save lives. And the Chesapeake Center is one of them.

You've been listening to a commentary by WYPR's Senior News Analyst Fraser Smith. Your comments are welcomed at fsmith@wypr.org.
© Copyright 2009, wypr