A city-funded initiative will graduate 37 teenagers and young adults Wednesday from alternative education centers operated in East and West Baltimore.
The centers, run by the Mayor's Office of Employment Development, serve students who faced challenges in a typical school environment. The students will graduate with Maryland high school diplomas earned through the General Educational Development exam, or GED, said Ernest Dorsey, assistant director for youth services.
Some of the barriers this year's graduates faced included unstable housing, limited support systems and early parenthood, officials said.
Twenty-four students will come from the Westside YO Center in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, and 13 will come from the Eastside Center in the Broadway East neighborhood.
The figure represents a return to typical commencement figures for the school after graduating just 16 in 2015 from the two centers. The two centers had 36 graduates in 2014, 34 in 2013 and 28 in 2012.
Dorsey said the drop in graduates in 2015 came after a major change to the GED program.
"We're just beginning to turn the curve now in instructors beginning to understand the new GED exam, and young people beginning to understand the new GED," Dorsey said. "We believe we are now turning the corner and hopefully see those numbers go back up."
The centers were started through federal funding from a Youth Opportunity Grant in 2000 from the U.S. Department of Labor. The short-term grant was stretched into funding for Baltimore for six to seven years, said Brice Freeman, a spokesman for the centers. For about the past 10 years, the centers have continued to operate while transitioning from federal funding to city funding, Freeman said.
The students' graduation is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Shriver Hall on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. Calvin G. Butler Jr., CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., will be the main speaker.