While the University of Maryland has led the Center for Educational Partnerships in Riverdale for the last 10 years, officials announced during a ceremony July 14 that it will transfer leadership to Prince George’s County, said Gloria Aparicio Blackwell, the university’s community engagement director.
The decision was announced in a timeline illustration during the 10-year anniversary celebration of the center’s opening. This university and the Maryland Multicultural Youth Center founded the center — which allows for non-profit organizations to provide after-school programs, English classes, recreational and cultural programs, and more — back in 2006, Aparicio Blackwell said
The 100 people in attendance at the ceremony included county council members, Maryland Sen. Paul Pinsky, university faculty and staff, non-profit organizations and community members.
“Part of the building still needs renovations, and we have been getting a lot of requests from non-profit organizations that they want to be apart of the building,” Aparicio Blackwell said. “But [the university hasn’t] been able to find the funding sources to open up the rest of the building.”
Dannielle Glaros, county council vice chair, said the county is excited to continue the university’s success with the center by funding the rest of the building, and plans to take over late summer to early fall of this year.
“We were very involved in some of the early stages of seeing non-profits move into the building, the parks and planning playground that is outside of the building, the additional gardens,” she said. “We have been sort of involved and following up for quite a long time.”
The center has been a “phenomenal” place for a “transformational” set of programs that has really anchored itself in the community and become a place for community members to gather to learn skills, Glaros added.
Some of the organizations that work within the center include the Latin American Youth Center, School of Public Health, Behavioral and Community Health, Legacy Leadership Institute, UMD Extension and the Gap Buster Learning Center, according to center’s website.
Over the past decade, the center has allowed students to become more successful because of the programs offered and has attracted many students, faculty and staff to help volunteer, Aparicio Blackwell said.
Lori Kaplan, the Latin American Youth Center president and CEO who was also in attendance on July 14, said her organization was one of the first non-profits to join the center. Only two organizations, GapBuster and the Maryland Multicultural Youth Center, at the center are non-profits, while the rest are profited organizations, Aparicio Blackwell said.
“Ten years ago, as we saw Columbia Heights being gentrified and people being pushed out of the rental market [in Columbia Heights] a lot of these people moved to the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia,” Kaplan said. “We saw that there was a need in these communities, so we started sites all over, including have a site at the center in Riverdale.”
It wasn’t the announcements of leadership transfer that stole the show, however, but rather the testimonials of those who partook in the center’s opportunities to create a better future, Glaros said.
“The people that spoke at the event, they were so powerful,” she said. “Oftentimes as a council member you look at the steps, the data, the place … but at the event you heard the stories of the people who have been impacted and not just their stories but the story of their kids and their family because of their ability to access these resources in their community.”
While the university will no longer be the leader of the center, it will still be in charge of finding more programs that will be beneficial for the Riverdale community at the center as well as student, faculty, staff and alumni volunteers, Aparicio Blackwell said.
