Building Brighter Futures

The Old Colony YMCA YouthBuild Program is a ten-month community based youth development program serving young men and women, 16- 24 years of age, who have not completed high school.  Students spend half of their time in the classroom working towards their GED and half on a construction site in Brockton gaining transferable on-the-job work skills.

Through collaboration with the local government agencies, housing authorities, and others, students have the opportunity to build and renovate housing units for rental or home ownership.

About YouthBuild Brockton and Fall River:

• We serve a very challenging population and help them with their gang, drug dependency, and court related issues so they can become productive, tax-paying members of society.

• Over 800 at risk students have been served by the programs in the past 12 years

• Over 65% have attained their GED credential

• Currently almost 40% of graduates from both programs are going on to postsecondary education following the program

• Our students serve their communities - we have built 13 single family houses in Brockton and Fall River in the past 12 years for purchase by low income families. In addition, we have renovated 8 rental units and worked on countless community service projects with partner agencies.

• Two years ago we started offering the industry recognized HBI-PACT (Home Builders Institute Pre-Apprenticeship Carpentry Training) certification at both programs. 100% of the students have attained the certificate.

• In Brockton we are implementing cutting edge 21st century educational techniques to help the students think critically and succeed in post secondary education and beyond.

YouthBuild Fall River is a recipient of a $1,100,000 grant from the US Department of Labor – Employment and Training Administration representing 60% of total costs of the program. The remaining 40% of costs is financed from state and local sources.