Unusual nonprofit makes youth dreams come true

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - At Youth Dreamers, it’s as if the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. has migrated to recurring classes of Stadium School sixth- through eighth-graders. They’ve taken up the slain civil rights leadera’s dream of a better, more equitable society.

“It all began in 2001 with nine students who were in an elective course of mine called Community Action,” 11-year language arts teacher Kristina Berdan said of Waverly’s youth-run, adult-guided nonprofit, where she now is executive director and the sole employee.

“They were concerned about the lack of after-school opportunities [and negative neighborhood influences], and felt that if they had a place to go ... [negative] things wouldn’t be happening. Their solution was to create a youth center ... where teenagers would be employed to mentor and teach younger children, giving them [outlets and] positive role models.”

That at least was what Cierra Cary, now a freshman at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, had proposed — and which she now credits for her current success. But even Berdan thought the purchasing, remodeling, outfitting and staffing of a neighborhood youth center/cybercafe might be a stretch for her preteens.

But her students persisted, and Berdan, whose Open Society Institute-Baltimore stipend pays her Youth Dreamers salary, relented, suggesting a letter-writing campaign to test the waters. Out of 70 letters sent, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was one of three to respond — and she followed with a $70,000 federal grant, Berdan said.

That was 2003, and now after much adult technical assistance and “whippersnapper” volunteer work — fundraising, proposal writing, nonprofit chartering, homebuying, community organizing and hands-on remodeling — the 10-room, three-story $324,000 dream center is under construction and slated to open in April 2009.

“It is my favorite nonprofit, and I see a kabillion nonprofits in my job,” said Kate McShane, director of community partnerships at Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse, a Baltimore real estate development, construction and property management company that provided technical assistance.

“They’re fabulous, really,” said Brenda Bratton-Blom, director of the University of Maryland’s clinical law program. “This has been an incredible blessing for me as an attorney to be asked to work with this group. They’ve raised all this money ... and they totally undermine the assertion that this generation of kids isn’t fabulous, isn’t wonderful.”

As for Berdan, she said she hopes to eventually resume teaching with Baltimore’s public school system — and somehow stay involved with Youth Dreamers.

“You can say it changed my life completely,” she said.

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