A Lynchburg nonprofit is growing its STEM education and skilled workforce development programs, as an expansion project gets underway on Florida Avenue.
The Jubilee Family Development Center is a nonprofit that provides academic, athletic and occupational programs for Lynchburg children and adults. Its Astronaut Leland Melvin STEM Center opened in 2021, and since then, demand for its services has exceeded classroom space.
The expansion project, kicked off at a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, will add five classrooms, a patio, a garden and a ramp for accessible entry to the existing STEM center.
“I want to get to the point where we can break those cycles of poverty. And the best way to do that is with careers — to get people in good jobs, whether it’s welding jobs, whether it’s nursing jobs,” said Sterling Wilder, executive director of Jubilee and city council member for Ward II. “Where they can continue to thrive to the next level in life and get a sustaining job that has a good pay in our community.”
The STEM center offers programs for adults — including college classes and certification training for cybersecurity, building trades, machine trades, health fields and more — offered via partnerships with Central Virginia Community College and Adult and Career Education of Central Virginia. The center also hosts STEM opportunities for kids, many of which are incorporated into Jubilee’s existing after school and summer tutoring programs.
Classes will continue to be held in the STEM center while construction is in progress, and the project should be completed by the summer of 2027, according to a news release from Jubilee.
Leland Melvin, a former NASA astronaut who was born and raised in Lynchburg, is the namesake of the center, and he served as chairman of the capital campaign committee that raised $1 million to make the expansion possible. He said at the groundbreaking ceremony that, in his mission to the International Space Station, he saw the power of STEM at work.
“That instinct to problem solve under pressure is STEM,” he said. “Not memorizing formulas — building the confidence to face something you’ve never seen before and figure it out anyway. That instinct is exactly what this community needs, because the opportunities are real, and they are right here.”
Melvin said Lynchburg employers such as Centra Health, BWXT and Framatome “need people with exactly the skills a room like the ones we’re building will teach,” he said.
William Cook, president of Jamerson-Lewis Construction, which will build the addition, said that having Melvin’s name on the door shows “every child who steps on campus that their starting point does not limit their reach.”
“The true impact of Jubilee isn’t measured in square footage. It is measured in the young people who walk through its doors and leave equipped to shape the future of our city,” he said.
One of the five new classrooms will become the home of the Mark Spain Media Center, which will teach kids the skills necessary for careers in digital media, including photography, videography, podcasting, graphic design and journalism. The center is named after Mark Spain, a news anchor for ABC 13 who helped raise $75,000 for Jubilee before dying of cancer in December 2024.
Lynita Spain, his widow, said at the groundbreaking ceremony that she could feel his impact all around the Florida Avenue campus.
“It’s in the relationships he built, the young people he encouraged, and the people who believed a little more in themselves because Mark believed in them first,” she said. “And today, we get to see that impact continue through this incredible new space.”
Jubilee offers other programs, including GED classes, home ownership seminars, parenting workshops and more at its development center adjacent to the STEM center. There’s growth expected there, too, as Jubilee is gearing up to open a satellite site of Community Access Network, a Lynchburg nonprofit that provides healthcare regardless of patients’ ability to pay. The satellite is set to open in November, according to a news release from the nonprofit, and will offer primary medical care by appointment and walk-in five days a week.
“We have health needs. We have education needs. We have adult needs for the STEM center for careers,” Wilder said of the neighborhood around Jubilee and Lynchburg as a whole. So all the growth “is exciting — it’s a natural fit for us,” he said.
