History of YouthBuild

In various policy-making circles, people often express the opinion that each urban and service corps must be integrated by race and class in order to reach the goals and be consistent with the mission of the service community. Sometimes funding decisions are made with this consideration as the determining factor.

In 1978, as a New York City schoolteacher hoping to mobilize low-income youth into a force for change, I asked informal focus groups of East Harlem teens how they would improve their community if adults provided the resources.  They all said the same thing: They would rebuild run-down houses to create homes and take empty buildings back from the drug dealers.  At that time more than 300 abandoned buildings blighted East Harlem, and thousands of idle teenagers and hundreds of homeless people roamed the streets, so their answers were compelling.

provides a fundamental overview of the history, underlying philosophy, and basic program design of the YouthBuild model. Participants gain a basic understanding of the five components of YouthBuild (Leadership Development, Construction, Education, Counseling and Graduate Resources) and learn about the essential elements necessary to create an environment of success for young people.

Many of the young people who find our various programs have been thoroughly “dissed:” disrespected, disempowered, disenfranchised, disadvantaged, disappointed, disregarded, discounted . . .

There has been some discussion among advocates for youth services about whether lack of resources, lack of knowledge, or lack of will is the key factor explaining the lack of a comprehensive and effective system of youth services in the United States.  It is, therefore, time that those of us who have devoted ourselves to building good youth programs outside
the public schools stop ignoring the central problem of the schools’ failure.

Dorothy Stoneman addresses Clinton Administration Round Table on Race Relations, 1996.

After Receipt of the John Gardner Leadership Award
October 23, 2000

YouthBuild is not as much about social service as it is about social change.  We think of YouthBuild as part of the broad struggle for human liberation.  So as we immerse ourselves in the daily details of YouthBuild, it helps to keep the long range goals in mind.  As a friend of mine likes to say: "On foot or horseback, rocketing or rowing, it helps to give some thought to where we're going!"
 

Dorothy Stoneman had been teaching school in Harlem since 1964.  Some of the children she had taught and loved in second grade in 1965 had already died on the streets as young teenagers.  She thought the waste of their brilliance and goodness was a national shame that could and should be reversed. Chantay Henderson Jones was 14 years old in 1978 when Dorothy asked her and a group of her teen-aged friends in East Harlem a question:  "What would you like to do to improve the neighborhood if you knew I would do everything in my power to help you succeed?  If  I  got other adults to support you, helped you raise money, and helped you think through the project - what would you do?"

John Bell talks about his vision for YouthBuild.  YouthBuild is a step toward the long-range goal of fundamental societal change, globally. 

The story of YouthBuild's first 20 years.  YouthBuild started from a seed planted in East Harlem, far from the seat of power, and propagated slowly, carefully nurtured by dedicated people in location after location. It has taken the work of literally thousands of people over 20 years to bring the YouthBuild program to its current position as a national network of exciting programs engaging 5,000 young people each year, contributing to community development in 129 urban and rural communities, and growing every year.

Learn more about one of the following programs: YouthBuild St. Louis, Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia. Each program has had continuous HUD and AmeriCorps funding as well as stable executive leadership. Each program either is a charter school or is in the process of becoming a charter school. Pittsburgh is deeply rooted in a particular neighborhood, St. Louis is sponsored by a 30 year-old community development organization, and Philadelphia is now the largest YouthBuild in the country, with three locations around the city.