Mailing Address:

Chesapeake Center For Youth Development
301 East Patapsco Ave.
Baltimore, Maryland 21225

Phone: 410-355-4698

Fax: 410-354-8160

Chesapeake Center for Youth Development

The mission of Chesapeake Center for Youth Development (CCYD) is to make a positive difference in the lives of youth in the Greater Baltimore region who are at high-risk for initial or repeat interaction with the juvenile justice system by providing caring and comprehensive services. Through the provision of educational opportunities, vocational training, and counseling, CCYD strives to be a first-class learning facility and social service organization that will set new standards of success and achievement for disadvantaged youth.

Our programs foster the personal development and positive human relationships necessary for living a socially responsible and personally satisfying life. In fulfilling our mission we focus on a child’s strengths and assets, and encourage the youth to set achievable goals for themselves, both educationally and in their personal lives. Then we work to help them realize those goals. Our own four organizational objectives provide core programmatic direction:

To help youth build strong developmental assets
To prevent the onset or recurrence of delinquency.
To help students attain educational milestones.
To empower and prepare youth for self-sufficiency.

Since 1974 CCYD has invested in the lives of thousands of Baltimore City youth and families through the provision of educational opportunities, vocational training, counseling, after school programming, and recreational activities. Within a broad range of programs CCYD annually serves over 300 youth, ages 13-19. We employ 20 full time and 15 part-time staff at our various sites throughout Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County. Our main offices are located at 301 E. Patapsco Avenue in Baltimore City’s Brooklyn/Curtis Bay community.

Lifting Young Lives

There is an epidemic happening right now. It is called neglectand afflicts thousands of forgotten youth throughout the city and State of Maryland. These are youth who have fallen through the cracks of our over-crowded and under-funded school systems, fallen by the wayside of an overextended social service system, fallen passed the safety net of responsible and caring parenting, and sadly fallen into the lap of the Department of Juvenile Justice. Everyday we work at CCYD to do our part to lift young lives and put a stop to the neglect.

This is the story of Anna:

Anna is a 17-year-old who was referred to CCYD’s Juvenile Intervention Family Independence Project (JIFI) in January 2008 due to assault on a police officer and disorderly conduct charges, while already being on probation for possession of narcotics. She lives with her grandmother because her mother has a substance abuse problem and her father has a history of violence against women. She has witnessed domestic violence on several occasions, and struggled with the unstable presence of both parents in her life. Due to these issues, Anna dropped out of school last year. CCYD’s first step involved helping Anna getting medical insurance. CCYD assisted Anna and her grandmother with the application for medical assistance through the Maryland Children’s Health Program. Once she received her insurance information, CCYD was able to further help the family by making counseling referrals. We then connected Anna with resources for her to continue her education. She is now enrolled in a program through her local community college, which will assist her both with job readiness skills as well as getting her GED. Meanwhile, Anna has also found a job working as a hostess at a local restaurant, and is doing quite well in all areas of her life at this time. She has been very cooperative with the JIFI Project process. Anna has managed to stay clean and has not re-offended since seeking help from CCYD.

The challenges the children CCYD serves are numerous: abuse and neglect, poverty, violence and drugs, lack of access to proper health care, and educational disadvantages resulting from attending failing inner city schools. School suspension and expulsion rates are at a highpoint. Dropout rates for Baltimore city youth alone are nearly 3 times the average of the rest of the State (9.6% compared to 3.5%). Only 39% of Baltimore City youth graduate within 4 years. With too few alternatives to the streets, a child who should be learning can fall into a life crime. The cost to community is tragic and staggering, but preventable:

The average annual per prisoner cost to the taxpayer is $33,000.

Compare this to:

The average annual per child cost of a mentoring program is $1,000.
The cost of providing a year of employment training for unemployed youths is $2,492.
The annual per-child cost of a high quality after-school program is $2,700.

Our Programs and Services

CCYD is committed to developing comprehensive programs that focus on the strengths and assets of youth and delivering these services in a holistic and integrated manner. CCYD currently provides the following services and programs:

“Changz” After School Program: The Changz Program provides award winning after school enrichment services located at Masonville Cove Academy, formerly known as Benjamin Franklin Middle School. The Program gives kids a safe space to access opportunities, skills, knowledge, and relationships that promote positive youth development and social change.

Juvenile Intervention Family Intervention Project (JIFI): JIFI is a unique effort aimed toward young people who are at-risk or have been charged with an offense in the juvenile court. Serving 100 youth a year, the project uses licensed clinicians to link youth and their families, with public and private resources providing social, educational, and health services and thereby preventing the youth from re-offending. While national statistics show that 67% of 14, 15, and 16 year olds with one prior juvenile court referral are likely to re-offend¹, comparable data shows a recidivism rate of fewer than 18% of youth receiving JIFI services are likely to commit another offense.

Chesapeake Alternative School: CAS is an accredited general education alternative school certified by the Maryland Department of Education and Department of Juvenile services. The school serves 100-120 youth per year and provides a community based non-residential alternative to residential treatment and juvenile institutions and has been proven to prevent deeper penetration into the juvenile justice system. Students at CAS typically improve their reading and math levels by at least one grade level for every three months they attend regularly. For example, over the course of a three-month period during the current school year, 73% advanced at least one grade level in reading, 93% advanced at least one grade level in math, and 77% advanced at least one grade level in writing.

Workforce Development: CCYD offers a range of job training and employment assistance programs and services designed to empower and help young people learn skills to become self-sufficient through employment. Approximately 60 youth annually become involved in the program that is designed to focus on post secondary opportunities, provide linkages between academic and occupational learning, and connect youth with local job market opportunities. Of youth receiving services and completing a training program, 65% are successfully able to find employment.

Hollywood Diner: Currently CCYD is exploring management restructuring with the Diner, but expect the program to begin again this forthcoming year. The diner is a component of CCYD’s career development and vocational training program providing year-round in depth experience in the areas of food service and hospitality.

CCYD programs have consistently helped disadvantaged youth improve their school attendance, punctuality, academic achievement and grades, and provided opportunities to build character and acquire skills to decrease recidivism, and enable youth to become responsible and productive members of society.

1 Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report

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