BALTIMORE — The doors to the South Baltimore Learning Center have been closed for about a week.
WATCH: South Baltimore Learning Center faces closure amid funding cuts
Now there is fear that the doors may never reopen, despite this being a pillar in the Baltimore community for over 35 years.
"Childhood education failed me. I was in the system where teachers would tell you, I get a paycheck. It don't matter if you graduate or not," says Brian Rodgers Jr.
Stories like Brian Rodgers Jr.'s happen often, leaving many adults without a quality K through 12 education.
It's the main reason the South Baltimore Learning Center was developed in 1990.
But now, the nonprofit is at risk of ending its services for good because it has lost a majority of its funding sources, like donations and grants from the city, state, and federal levels, and also private donors.
"In the past year, a lot of foundations, they either stopped giving or they shifted their priorities, and some of our top funders told us no," says Melissa Smith, Executive Director.
SBLC needs donations to keep up with the cost of day-to-day operations, including bills, and to pay its staff.
"There are over 91,000 people who struggle with either basic or low or no functional literacy skills. That's a problem, but yet we want to highlight the focus on workforce development, but it begins with education. So where is the investment, where is the care, where's the funds, where is the hope?" says Smith.
"I didn't want to be a hypocrite to my son and tell him to graduate high school, but I never graduated."
Jereme Smith says that's the reason why he came to SBLC.
He wants to create a legacy for his family, starting with a foundation of education, something he didn't have.
"When you have an emotional anger problem, they stick you in special ed because they don't know how to handle you, and having ADHD, I just learned different. So here is where they understood my learning and how I learn, and they basically helped me to get to where I am now," says Jereme Smith.
But after 6 months of going through the program, he may not get to graduate and get his GED if the facility remains closed.
Brian Rodgers didn't even get to start at SBLC before they had to shut down last week, which he says is frustrating because he finally decided it was time to go after his degree.
"And some of us as men, we come to these programs in secret because we're embarrassed a little bit that we had to come at 40-something years old, 30-something years old because we couldn't get the chip off the shoulder of our elementary, middle school, high school teacher telling us we weren't going to be nothing," says Smith.
Because SBLC caters to the individual learner, it was able to help 800 people annually for a number of years.
Executive Director Melissa Smith wants that legacy to continue.
"And they need people who care. It's just a matter of caring and investing in the right organizations at the right time, and the time is now." says Melissa Smith.
"Let these facilities stay open. You're saving someone's life," says Rodgers.
The South Baltimore Learning Center is hosting a rally Wednesday morning starting at 11 a.m. just outside its center doors on Ostend Street.
If you would like to help out in any way, SBLC has a few ways you can donate to support. Click Here.
You can donate money by clicking here.
