Overview

The YouthBuild program consists of five components that comprehensively address the livelihood needs and aspirations of young people while addressing critical community development challenges. These five components, though distinct in their focus and outcomes, are experienced by youth participants as tightly integrated, and working in unison to support each young person’s continual progress and eventual success.

Hands-on Employment Training

Experiential technical skills training is combined with job readiness training to prepare young people for jobs and self employment. These training elements are demand driven and align with opportunities for youth livelihoods in the local market place. This program element enables young people to acquire basic skills for employment and links graduates to existing public and private systems that provide advanced training. The training unfolds on fully operational work sites where teams of young people build permanent community assets, such as housing, community centers, orphanages, playgrounds and an array of green infrastructure projects.

Applied Basic Education

Students recover from lost time and missed opportunities by pursuing academic studies and recognized credentials in formal and non-formal education settings. They acquire basic skills, including literacy and math skills, technical skills related to computers and financial management, and behavioral skills for school, work and life. This component is meant to provide a solid foundation for both post-primary and post secondary education opportunities and maximize a young person’s success in jobs or self employment.

Leadership Development, Civic Engagement, and
Service Building Community Assets

Opportunities to learn and practice leadership skills as engaged, active members of the local civic ‘fabric’ are woven throughout the YouthBuild program design. Leadership competencies are a part of the academic and technical training curricula, and students’ Individual Development Plans. The entire model aims to inspire young people to take greater responsibility to make things go right in their personal lives, in the life of the program, in their families and in their communities. Students practice leadership, team work, project management, communication and conflict resolution skills, while studying the wider political and economic forces at work in society affecting their lives and their families. They come to understand the rationale and origin of priorities driving community development decisions. They demonstrate their own efficacy by building local assets that have been identified as a top priority by community leaders. They combat negative stereotypes by demonstrating their own responsibility and productivity. Their efforts generate social capital by bringing them in direct contact with beneficiaries of their work, local leaders, employers and other important contacts.

Counseling and Support

To support healthy, productive living, basic problem-solving, counseling and other supports are provided to young people to stabilize them as they take on the challenge of YouthBuild and set their goals for the future. Students create Individual Development Plans at the start of the program to guide their efforts in all aspects of the program. Students are provided with services that help them overcome barriers to their development, including substance abuse, trauma and family counseling, and rigorous life skills training. Supports can include, training wages (stipends), food, work clothes, and transportation. The YouthBuild program culture reflects a coherent, cohesive, family-like environment.

Exit Opportunities and Follow Up Support

Upon graduation from a YouthBuild program, young people may go into an existing job, launch a business, enter an internship or apprenticeship training program, or choose a course that combines continuing education and work. This program element emphasizes a focus on placement preparation and placement opportunities from day one, by both providing young people with the skills they will need to navigate employment opportunities, and exposing young people to the range of placement options that might be available to them. The program guides young people to jobs or self employment and provides follow up support and counseling to ensure that these placements are of high quality, productive and retained.