GREENSBORO — A program run by The University of North Carolina at Greensboro that offers job training and education opportunities to unemployed young adults in High Point has received a $593,000 federal grant.

YouthBuild, a nationwide public-private partnership, teaches carpentry skills to 16- to 24-year-olds who build and rehabilitate affordable housing in their own communities. The Center for Youth, Family and Community Partnerships administers the branch of the program at UNCG with a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Participants attend Guilford Technical Community College for GED classes on Mondays and Fridays, and carpentry lessons on other weekdays. The High Point Housing Authority provides the land and supplies to build the houses, typically two each year. The youths do all the carpentry, and contractors handle the masonry, plumbing, wiring, ductwork, drywall and painting.

“This really is one of the best examples of university and community partnerships,” said Dr. Margaret Arbuckle, associate director of the Center for Youth, Family and Community Partnerships.

Many local participants dropped out of school after the eighth or ninth grade and perform at a second- or third-grade level on tests, said Reginald L. McNeill, director of YouthBuild/High Point. Some have had brushes with the law. In addition to learning valuable job skills, they are exposed to a community college campus and can earn 30-40 credit hours in the course of the yearlong program.

“What we are doing is reawakening minds,” McNeill said. “We are asking these young men and women to make progress or obtain a GED, go to work every weekday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., learn construction skills and use those skills to build two houses.”

The YouthBuild program administered by UNCG enrolled its first students in August 2000. The program sought students and built houses in High Point, first in a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and, more recently, with the High Point Housing Authority. Over the years, the program has supplied technical assistance to other YouthBuild programs in this state and South Carolina.

Alesha Cucrera went through the program in 2002. The 22-year-old is still working on her GED, but hopes to complete it by the beginning of April. “You need education to get any job out here now,” she said. Last year she worked as a mentor to other young adults in the program.

“YouthBuild is a program where you turn your life around,” she said. “… I learned how to build a house, how to read blueprints, how to do estimates.”
Fifteen young adults are enrolled in the current session, which runs from January through December. Participants are provided with books, tuition, some tools, transportation and a wage.

Nationwide, 89 percent of participants enter YouthBuild without having earned a high school diploma. Nonetheless, 60 percent complete the program, and 86 percent of graduates go on to college or jobs with wages averaging $7.61.

In 2001, YouthBuild involved 6,000 young adults – 73 percent of them young men, 28 percent of them parents and 90 percent from very low-income families.

“YouthBuild grants help young people get back on the right track by not only providing them the education they need but the training they can use for careers in homebuilding,” said HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. “It's a wonderful feeling to know these young people discover the satisfaction of a job well done and local communities get more affordable housing in the process.”

By Dan Nonte
Posted 2-18-04

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