Donations - Youthbuild
For a young person with no skills and no high school diploma, the future often holds no hope. But Burlington, Vermont’s unique Youthbuild program is providing all three of these essential ingredients for a better life to low-income city residents between the ages of 16 and 24.
One of local social service organization RecycleNorth’s many efforts to help disadvantaged people improve their situations, the 15-year old YouthBuild program has three distinct parts that combine to create opportunity and success for its participants where there was none before. In a classroom over the agency’s retail outlet, experienced RecycleNorth training instructors hold a variety of classes that provide credit toward a high school diploma, help YouthBuild students work toward their GEDs, and teach important but often overlooked skills like problem-solving and interpersonal communication. Across the street, in a warehouse-like facility students call “the cave,” program participants receive training in carpentry and other building arts that provide them with a set of marketable talents. Finally, there is an important community service component in which students select a non-profit agency or neighborhood organization and devote one day a week to helping out their neighbors in need.
At the end of the eight-month YouthBuild program, each participant is well on their way to a diploma or its equivalency and has acquired a set of life and job skills that together give them a much-needed head start on the road to a successful career and a rewarding life.
We think the program is a wonderful example of the many great things that can happen when a creative holistic approach is applied to pressing community issues, and we’re proud to have been able to provide it with some vital financial support.
