St. Joseph Youth Alliance will begin a youth workforce development program this summer.
Anita Jolly with St. Joseph Youth Alliance is the local project director of YouthBuild.
Through YouthBuild, young people learn construction skills through building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people in their community.
Jolly said the program focuses on youth who have dropped out of high school, are between the ages of 16 and 24 and may be low income or have some other barrier.
“We would work with that youth to focus on their education, so we need them to get their HiSet, or their GED, and earn some kind of skills training. The Department of Labor is really focusing a lot of effort on apprenticeships and everything right now,” Jolly said. “YouthBuild started out only being construction, but now we have a Construction Plus Grant which means that we have another occupational track as well, but we’re primarily focusing on construction with the majority of the youth.”
The project is possible because of a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and Jolly said they are working on a Certified Nursing Assistant option to go along with the construction option.
Jolly said students will be in the program for about six months, attending some kind of training or education component for 35 hours a week and they will earn money through the program.
“Fifty percent of that time they’ll be focusing on studying for their HiSet, so they can get that GED and be able to advance further educationally, if that’s what they want,” Jolly said. “Forty percent of the time, they’ll be earning their industry recognized credential and then 10% of the time we’re going to be doing service, like community service, and leadership development, so we have a really well-rounded student by the time that they’re completed.”
Jolly said transportation to and from the program will be taken care of for students, if needed.
The program begins later in June and recruiting for the program is underway through Youth Alliance. For more information, contact St. Joseph Youth Alliance at (816) 232-0050 or click here.