Youth organizations in Baltimore are worried summer programs in the city are in jeopardy.
Baltimore's Promise, a city-wide collaborative organization, held a town hall Thursday night.
Many people, like Debbie Dininno, Chief Program Officer with the nonprofit Let's Go, made their voices heard.
"We run a program for about 25 young people, and at this point we are deciding if we can run the program or not," Dininno said.
Ellie Mitchell, Director with the Maryland Out of School Time Network, told WMAR 2 News that's because of a lack of funding.
"It's a combination of public dollars, the end of the recovery fund, and also private dollars not being invested in the same way they've been invested in the past," Mitchell said.
Baltimore's Promise's projections show the city will lose at least 12,000 opportunities this summer because of the end of COVID-era investments.
This includes the Summer Funding Collaborative.
"This was probably 75% of our funding that we did not receive, so we are now kind of in that process after learning yesterday of not receiving funding what our options are," Dininno said.
Mitchell stressed the importance of summer programs for kids.
"Summer learning loss is one, but also these are places that kids go to access food, they access support, they're safe spaces, they're places kids can go, and their families can work."
They call on the city to act; however, Mayor Brandon Scott has recently announced investments into the city's youth.
Last week, Mayor Scott saying the city will invest $500,000 into youth athletics, $6 million into YouthWorks, and $1.5 million into his summer youth engagement strategy.
But Debbie said more must be done on the city and state level to generate permanent and abundant funds for youth programs.
"I think we need to allocate city dollars, state dollars, to really invest in our young people. We've made a commitment that we want workforce development programs for 14-24-year-olds. Those programs need to be highly funded if we're gonna really give students an opportunity to create economic success."
Baltimore's Promise said it can raise $8 million in the eight weeks until Memorial Day; 8,000 kids can enjoy quality summer programs.
WMAR 2 News reached out to the mayor's office for comment but hasn't heard back at the time of publication.
