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On a quiet side street in the Dorchester section of Boston, Matthew
Vernege and other members of YouthBuild Boston's work crew are busy
renovating a dilapidated brownstone. The young workers are plastering
walls and repairing masonry in a formerly city-owned building that
will soon be sold to a first-time home buyer.
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| Construction
workers at a YouthBuild Boston project in Dorchester. |
Before Mr. Vernege joined the YouthBuild crew, he says his life
was moving in the wrong direction. He was a full-time father but
he didn't have a high-school education. "I needed my high-school
diploma," he says. "You can't do much without a high-school
diploma."
For Mr. Vernege, participation in the YouthBuild program has introduced
him to the building trades and a new way of life. "It opened
my mind to a lot of things and gave me a lot of skills," he
says. "YouthBuild got me off the street."
Mr. Vernege entered the YouthBuild program in October of 2004 and
will complete 900 hours before graduating. The nine to 11-month
YouthBuild Boston program gives young people the chance to serve
in their communities, build affordable housing, and transform their
lives through education and counseling.
Open to low-income young people — most of whom have not finished
high school — YouthBuild alternates between work at construction
sites and time spent in classrooms preparing for a GED or high-school
diploma.
After completing the program and his GED, Mr. Vernege hopes to attend
college and improve his carpentry skills. "I might want to
be an architect," he says. "I'm ready to build my own
house."
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the left, Joseph Diaz, construction manager for YouthBuild Boston;
Evelyn Friedman, executive director of Nuestra Comunidad Development
Corporation; and Gregory Mumford, deputy director of YouthBuild
Boston, in front of a house the two groups renovated in Boston.
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"I witness the transformation of these young people all the
time," says Gregory Mumford, YouthBuild Boston's deputy director.
"When he first came in here he couldn't sit at a computer;
now he's at the computer every day."
Mr. Mumford says YouthBuild participants often bring with them
problems from their previous lives. Many haven't had real conversations
with adults or guidance from them until they enter the program.
The goal of the program is to help them develop into "decent
young people who have a goal in life," he says.
A partner with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston on Affordable
Housing Program (AHP) initiatives throughout the region, YouthBuild
often collaborates with area nonprofits, including Nuestra Comunidad
Development Corporation in Roxbury, a sponsor of AHP initiatives.
Evelyn Friedman, Nuestra Comunidad's executive director, says the
YouthBuild program offers neighborhood young people the opportunity
to be trained in the building trades and build affordable housing
in their community. "It harmonizes well with the social mission
of our organization," she says.
Founded in 1978 by Dorothy Stoneman as the Youth Action Program
of East Harlem, New York, the program helped local teens improve
their community by renovating vacant and dilapidated buildings.
The organization has since expanded to more than 200 communities
nationwide, says Charles Clark, vice president for asset development
at YouthBuild U.S.A., which provides support for the nationwide
network.
YouthBuild programs — often operated in conjunction with local
community-development corporations and other nonprofits — are
currently active in five New England states and include 11 programs
in Massachusetts. Local YouthBuild affiliates have participated
in AHP initiatives in Portland, Maine, and Cambridge, Holyoke, Lowell,
Roxbury, and Springfield, Massachusetts.
"YouthBuild USA is one of the few remaining nationally funded
organizations that equip low-income young people with the life skills
and counseling services they need to improve their lives,"
says John Eller, senior vice president/ housing and community investment
at the Bank. "Few organizations, for example, are working with
kids coming out of prisons, but, thankfully, YouthBuild is."
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