The South Baltimore Learning Center was started in 1988 as the literacy
project for the Coalition of Peninsula Organizations (COPO).  In 1990, it became
a neighborhood based initiative providing tutoring to adults in the community and has since
grown to serve hundreds of adults each year offering a variety of services.

Need for Services

Maryland has almost 613,640 adults without a high school diploma. 
In Baltimore City:
  ·  38% of adults are either unable to read or read below the fourth grade level (National Institute for Literacy, 2001).
   ·  Over 142,000 adults do not have a high school diploma (Literacy Works: Moving from the Margins to the Mainstream, 2001)

SBLC serves some of the most challenging and educationally disadvantaged adult populations in the city. SBLC primarily serves the working poor (70-80 percent). Only a small percentage of the remaining 20-30 percent of the Center's adult learners receive public assistance and can be considered welfare-to-work clients. They are all part of an unskilled working class that can no longer survive economically without a high school diploma.