Initiatives

Since 1994, YouthBuild USA has served as a national intermediary for AmeriCorps funds and education awards, bringing additional resources to local programs.

YouthBuild USA's Asset Building Initiative includes the YouthBuild National Individual Development Account Program,YouthBuild Asset Trust for Graduates, and the Helene D. Stoneman Scholarship and Civic Leadership Program.

The construction of new and rehabilitated affordable housing has remained at the heart of the YouthBuild program ever since the first YouthBuild program in East Harlem rehabilitated an abandoned drug building in 1972. Oftentimes, students and graduates are heard describing the transformation that took place within them as having been akin to their building of homes, like rebuilding the structure and internal furnishings of their lives. 

The YouthBuild Loan Fund offers affiliated YouthBuild programs and other nonprofits the opportunity to obtain loans to address their program and real estate needs. The Loan Fund lends to organizations and projects engaging low-income, unemployed or underemployed young adults in construction work and providing training and education in accordance with the YouthBuild model. The Loan Fund is certified by the United States Treasury Department as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).

YouthBuild USA received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support excellence in diploma granting YouthBuild charter and alternative schools.

Through a three-year grant with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, YouthBuild USA and YouthBuild programs are testing and putting into place a set of interventions that will ensure high rates of postsecondary completion and credential attainment by program graduates.

Youth on Board prepares young people to be leaders and decision makers in their communities, and strengthens relationships between youth and adults through publications, customized workshops, and technical assistance.

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, there was an intense desire from the YouthBuild network of organizations, staff, and youth to use our resources and housing construction expertise to assist the hurricane victims and their communities. The YouthBuild network, recognizing that it is a unique national resource for rebuilding communities, decided to help rebuild the disaster area.

Going forward, YouthBuild USA will be investing in efforts to secure the future of the YouthBuild movement by improving the movement’s ability to capture and communicate the impact it is having in the lives of young people and in the development of local communities. We will accomplish this by signifi cantly improving the YouthBuild network’s ability to track and analyze the outcomes that best tell the story of our effectiveness and of our commitment to continually improve the quality of each and every YouthBuild program. Equally important, YouthBuild USA will be collecting regular feedback from the fi eld on the quality, relevance and impact of the services we provide.

YouthBuild programs are increasingly recognizing the value of health-care training in creating career and educational pathways for young people. Through the YouthBuild Health-Care Initiative, YouthBuild USA seeks to help YouthBuild programs as they conceptualize, develop, and implement their own health-care training and exploration programs.

YouthBuild International, a Boston-based non-governmental organization (NGO) supports the adaptation replication of the YouthBuild model around the world. In addition, YouthBuild International provides training, technical assistance and consultation to governments, bi-lateral and multilateral donors, public and private sector employment systems, schools, NGOs and youth groups in the areas of youth employment training, applied basic education, youth enterprise development, leadership and citizenship, construction and community revitalization. YouthBuild International’s success draws on field-tested strategies, effective partnerships, access to broad based public and private resources, and a development approach that is informed by the experience and perspective of young people.

The YouthBuild Rural & Tribal Development Initiative was formally launched in 2007 to link the work of two previously separate, but related Initiatives: the Rural Initiative and the Tribal Initiative.