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YouthBuild McLean County
(Bloomington, Illinois)
Summary: Overview of the Strategy
YouthBuild is a comprehensive youth and community development program.
YouthBuild simultaneously addresses several core issues facing low-income,
at-risk young people. Education, affordable housing, job training, and leadership
development are the main components. The program uniquely addresses the
status of unemployed young men and women who have dropped out of school
and have no apparent path to a productive future.
YouthBuild is a 35 hour per week program targeting youth ages 16-24. There
are three main components to the program:
- youth spend 50% of their time in a classroom
- youth spend 50% of their time on a job site learning how to build homes
which are then sold to low-income members of our community
- youth participate in leadership development activities, which are integrated
throughout the program.
All participating youth receive a small stipend, which helps them to
provide for themselves and their families while participating in this extensive
program. The YouthBuild program is a number of things at once:
- It is a job training program, in which young people receive
on-site training in construction from qualified instructors. Then if they
choose, they are placed in construction-related jobs. The construction
projects are the result of a collaborative effort of the City of Bloomington,
the Office of Community Development, and Illinois State University. These
organizations provide us with the property where we build or rehabilitate
homes, zero interest loans to purchase materials, and interns from the
Construction Management Program.
- It is an education program, in which participants pursue academic
goals, which may include vocational and remedial education, study toward
a general equivalency diploma, and preparation for higher education. Each
young person is seen as an individual and independent learner and every
young person has a say in creating his or her learning path. Cooperation
with the GED/Adult Literacy Program, Regional Office of Education, Heartland
Community College, and generous speakers within the community help our
young people achieve educational success.
- It is a leadership development program, where the young people
share in the governance of their own program, participate actively in community
affairs, and learn the values of being a leader.
- It is a youth development program, in which young people participate
in personal counseling, peer support groups, and life-planning processes.
This in turn, assists them in healing from past hurts, overcoming negative
habits and attitudes, and pursing achievable goals to establish a productive
life, while sustaining themselves and their immediate families.
- It is a community development program, in which YouthBuild helps
provide the resources to tackle several key community issues at once, strengthening
capacity to build housing, educating and inspiring youth, and creating
leadership for the future.
The Need
YouthBuild's Mission:
- To offer young people a once in a lifetime opportunity to build their
futures and their communities through: education, leadership development,
job training, and the rehabilitation and production of affordable housing,
while keeping a profound respect for and a commitment to real partnership
with youth.
The mission of the organization aptly describes our commitment to work
with young people to help them improve their lives and their communities.
The program is specifically designed to help disadvantaged young people
with myriad problems and at the same time, to educate a society, which views
these youth solely as a problem and not as part of the solution. YouthBuild
views them as part of the solution.
YouthBuild McLean County recruits and accepts young people ages 16-24. 75%
of the young people accepted have dropped out of high school and are considered
to have very low incomes. 25% of the youth may have a high school diploma,
however must still have educational needs or be from within a certain income
level. The majority of youth have a criminal history, have used drugs, and
many are gang members. Approximately one-half are parents. We accept youth
from throughout McLean County. This includes young people from the urban
areas of Bloomington/Normal and young people from the rural surrounding
areas.
Meeting the Need
YouthBuild McLean County has formal ties with several local agencies
and informal ties with many more. These include:
- City of Bloomington (Community Development Division) - donate land
to YouthBuild on which to build as well as zero interest loans to purchase
building materials. They also donate any proceeds from the houses back
to the program. YouthBuild is formally included in the Consolidated Plan
for the city of Bloomington and the state of Illinois.
- Illinois State University (Department of Social Work) - collaborates
and does the evaluation of the program at no charge.
- Illinois State University (Department of Vocational Technology) - provides
YouthBuild with construction management interns to help with instruction
on the job site
- Bloomington Housing Authority - provides referrals and classroom and
office space rent free
- GED Office - provides materials and special classes for youth
- Heartland Community College - provides on-site classes for youth who
have their GED Project OZ, our local drug education agency, the Illinois
National Guard, our local marine recruiting center, the local high schools,
and the McLean County Probation Office collaborate with YouthBuild to provide
referrals and programs for the youth
All of the above agencies, as well as many others, have an interest in
helping disadvantaged young people attain self-sufficiency and are willing
to help us in any way they can.
Our collaborations and program design come from the basic YouthBuild
model and program refinement over a five year period. Initial funding came
from a HUD Youthbuild grant of $988,000. Other funding comes from AmeriCorps,
the State of Illinois, Mitsubishi Motors, Blowitz/Ridgeway Foundation, and
individual donors and fund raisers.
The Results
YouthBuild's youth development component is replete with success stories.
Youth who have served on policy committee have gone on to participate in
significant ways in the community. One member petitioned his drug ridden
neighborhood to get an additional street light put in. Another youth won
the YouthBuild USA National Leadership Award. Another served on a youth
panel for the local United Way. Several youth have spoken before the city
council and our state legislators. Being drug free is a requirement for
staying on policy committee, one which the members take very seriously.
They also take their jobs as policy committee members seriously.
After graduating, 89% of the young people have been placed in jobs that
average $8.92 per hour, many with benefits. And 5% have continued their
education in college or trade school. One young person was a recipient of
a significant scholarship covering tuition at a local community college.
The young people have also witnessed the completion of five homes which
have subsequently been sold to low-income families or in one case been used
as transitional housing for the homeless. The connection the young people
feel to a project of this magnitude is definitely a self-esteem builder.
This is one of very few programs that truly feels that youth are best
suited to design how they can be helped. It is also one of the very few
programs which believes that disadvantaged youth are an important under-utilized
resource in their communities and that they can have a significant impact
on their own lives, their peers, and the neighborhoods where they live.
YouthBuild has documentation of all the graduates and their employment
history. This is entered into a Management Information Systems Program.
This MIS program is designed by YouthBuild USA and is of standard use among
the Affiliated Network across the country.
The primary purpose of the Affiliated Network is to ensure that there
is a cohesive core group of YouthBuild programs which are committed to a
faithful and effective replication of the YouthBuild program model, and
to the continued development of the YouthBuild movement. They set standards
by which each program must adhere to, and monitors the statistics such as
retention rates, GED success rates, attendance percentages, and average
number of youth placed in jobs. This will ensure that the young people served
by the program, and the communities which host the program, benefit from
the full positive potential of the program model and that this opportunity
expands to new communities.
YouthBuild is deeply concerned with closing the gap between theory and
practice. Drawing connections between work, school and community is a primary
focus. Providing all participating youth with academic skills, trade skills,
(including such topics as work ethic and task completion), and constructive
life strategies sets the tone and the daily pace.
Reflections on Our Strategy
All youth in the program participate in the building of one to two houses
per year. They spend half of their time on the construction site. We help
all learners in any type of career path that they choose, however our focus
is construction. Our planning for the future includes diversifying career
path training in order to attract more females and better help youth develop
for the careers that they choose. Computer training is an area specifically
that we would like the expansion to include.
Another area we are focusing on for reflection and change is our service
learning component. Youth have a poor concept of community service. They
see it as a punishment versus a wonderful way to improve their own and others'
lives. We are trying several strategies to help our youth to better understand
service learning and ways in which we can make it real to them. In the past
our service learning component has not had the strong life changing impact
that we have hoped.
Another area for expansion and improvement would be in making a better
connection with our local schools. Training school and community personnel
in various components of our model could be a very effective preventative
measure to take and replicate while students are still in school - before
they have dropped out.
The most critical aspect of making this model of learning work is LEGITIMATE
INVOLVEMENT OF YOUTH in the whole process. We focus on bringing out leadership
in the youth and giving them the opportunity to show leadership in every
aspect of their lives and within the program. Youth, through their policy
committee have a say in everything that goes on in the program from the
agency budget to field trips. Graduates sit on the Board of Directors and
help develop the curriculum for the whole program
Examples of Learners
YouthBuild McLean County is replete with examples of how the program
works.
Example 1
Eric is a young person who graduated from the program in 1995. Previously
a gang member as well as drug and court involved, Eric came into the program
and chose to change his life. He served as a leader in the program as a
member of youth policy committee and speaker in the community. He participated
in parenting classes and took his GED five times - passing it on the fifth
try. He obtained a job with the Bloomington Housing Authority in the maintenance
Department and earns approximately $12.00 per hour with full benefits. He
and his wife purchased a home in West Bloomington. Eric serves on the YouthBuild
Board of Directors.
Example 2
Darrell is a graduate of our program who now is a Union Apprentice in
the Painter's Union, making over $12.00 per hour with benefits. He came
into the program in 1994 and graduated in 1996. Darrell's disability was
a drug addiction to crack cocaine. While in the program we helped him obtain
treatment a nearby treatment facility. While in treatment he received a
small stipend and we were in constant contact with his counselors. We visited
him in the facility and helped him through his return home. Darrell received
his GED, and now serves as speaker for the program and mentor for new youth.
He is self-sufficient and has held his job for two years. He will be teaching
our current youth dry walling this spring.
Example 3
David was a graduate of YouthBuild in 1996. He made the decision to stop
using marijuana while in the program. After this life changing decision
he achieved his GED and upon Graduation and moved to Texas with his fiancee.
He graduated from DeVry technical school in 1998, obtaining his engineering
certificate, while still working full time at the Houston Airport. Dave
is now working at Nokia Corporation earning $35,000 per year with benefits.
He is the father of one daughter, and recently accepted an award from the
Department of Labor (PEPNET) in Washington D.C. on behalf of our Youthbuild.
Recruitment
We are actively recruiting women for our program. Collaborations with
the Illinois Department of Human Services (formally Public Aid) and the
Housing Authority of the City of Bloomington have facilitated the recruitment
of women into the program. We advertise throughout the entire county, recruiting
young people from the City and young people from the rural surrounding areas.
Our population includes: 70% African American, 25% Caucasian, 5% Hispanic,
20% Women, 80% Men, 25% rural and 75% urban.
For more information on YouthBuild McLean County, contact:
- Suzanne Fitzgerald or Susan Dornbush
- YouthBuild McLean County
- 802 North Clinton, Suite C
- Bloomington, Illinois 61701
- (Phone) 309/827-7507
- (E-mail) youthbld@ice.net
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