The YouthBuild program targets inner-city young adults struggling with unemployment, lack of job skills and other challenges.
Mary Reardon JohnsonSPRINGFIELD – The YWCA of Western Massachusetts expects that a new, three-year $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor will help the organization double the size of its YouthBuild program that focuses on providing education, employment skills and leadership skills for at-risk young adults in Springfield.
The grant was formally announced Thursday at the YWCA at 1 Clough St., and follows two years of unsuccessful applications for the federal grant aid, said Mary Reardon Johnson, YWCA executive director.
The YWCA YouthBuild Springfield program is a 12-month job-training program that targets inner-city, high school dropouts, ages 18-24, who are unemployed, unskilled, and might have various other challenges in their lives such as struggling with substance abuse or as young parents, Johnson said.
“YouthBuild is an opportunity for them to start again,” Johnson said. “To start again in a caring but demanding environment.”
With the grant assistance, spread over three years, the YWCA expects to increase from about 30 participants to almost 60 participants and also increase program staff, Johnson said. Applications are now available at the YWCA, for the next one-year program expected to begin in November.
YouthBuild is designed as a comprehensive and transformational program that provides both on-site construction work experience and GED academic and job skills training and job placement, primarily in construction, Johnson said.
“As one young woman said to us, she likes to drive by the house and be able to say to people, ‘I built that,’” Johnson said.
YouthBuild in a national model, “but we have a Springfield flavor,” Johnson said.
The YWCA, in reviewing applicants for the YouthBuild program, strive to ensure that at least 51 percent of the participants are young women in keeping with its mission to provide services and tools for self-sufficiency to women and girls, Johnson said. Nationwide, the bulk of YouthBuild participants are young men, she said.
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and state Sen. James Welch, D-West Springfield, praised the YouthBuild program in Springfield and the federal grant assistance.
The program, with an annual budget of more than $800,000, has received financial support from various sources including the Hampden County Regional Employment Board, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the city of Springfield through its Community Development Block Grant and Shannon Grant programs, Holyoke Community College, YouthBuild USA, Americorp, the Community United Way of Pioneer Valley, and the YWCA. In addition, YWCA YouthBuild has partnered with other local organizations.
Over the past 14 years, the YWCA YouthBuild program has served over 500 Springfield participants, Johnson said.
The Department of Labor awarded $75.7 million in YouthBuild grants nationwide, according to a press release.