2009 YouthBuild USA Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony
As part of YouthBuild’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, YouthBuild USA hosted a spectacular Gala Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Crystal City, Virginia, on March 17th, 2009. Five hundred guests attended the event, which celebrated YouthBuild’s first 30 years, launched YouthBuild International, and honored seven YouthBuild graduate leaders for their achievements. These individuals were chosen to represent the tens of thousands of other YouthBuild graduates who are working to fulfill their own dreams, rebuild their own lives and communities, and do their part to end poverty in America.
The awards were given to the graduates by representatives from YouthBuild USA’s major private and public funders, with the Champion of Hope Award presented by Martin Luther King, III:
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Wilfreid P’Lalum, a 1995 graduate of the Youth Building Alternatives program in Portland Maine, who attained bachelor’s and master’s degrees, after coming to America as a refugee from Sudan, received the Education Award from Stephen Patrick, Senior Program Officer, U.S. Special Initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made grants totaling $18.0 million to YouthBuild USA to support the development of a nationwide network of diploma-granting alternative schools and increase the number of YouthBuild graduates who earn postsecondary education credentials.
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Tiffani Elliott, a 2006 graduate of Glide YouthBuild, San Francisco, California and Gomah Wonleh, a 2003 graduate of YouthBuild Providence, Rhode Island, both of whom overcame personal obstacles to become union members as a painter and carpenter respectively, received Career Achievement Awards from Gregg Weltz, Director of Youth Services, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. Primary funding for local YouthBuild programs comes from the U.S. Department of Labor under the federal YouthBuild program, administered by the Employment and Training Administration.
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Yanitza Tanco, 1999 graduate of Youth Action YouthBuild, East Harlem, New York and owner of her own women’ clothing boutique, Socialite Accessories, located in East Harlem, received the Entrepreneurship Award from Margaret McKenna, President, Wal-Mart Foundation. In 2008, the Wal-Mart Foundation made a $5.0 million grant to YouthBuild USA to assist local YouthBuild programs expand and fill unmet needs, such as attracting young women through health-care career training, encouraging green building and expanding access to green careers, and assisting graduates to build assets.
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Kenneth McLean, 2002 graduate of YouthBuild Brockton, Massachusetts and owner of a condominium in Brockton, which he purchased with the assistance of a YouthBuild USA individual development account and renovated with the skills he learned at YouthBuild Brockton, received the Homeownership Award from Bill White, Chairman, President and CEO, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is one of the early private partners of YouthBuild USA. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has funded YouthBuild USA for 20 years, supporting innovation, replication, evaluation, and program quality, and it made a major founding contribution to our endowment.
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Antoine Bennett, 1996 graduate of the YouthBuild Sandtown, Maryland and member of YouthBuild USA’s Board of Directors, who has continued to help rebuild his Sandtown community as co-executive director of New Song Ministries and director of Eden Jobs (which has placed more than 2,000 Sandtown residents in jobs), received the Champion of Hope Award from Martin Luther King, III, Founder and CEO, Realizing the Dream. YouthBuild USA has been working with Realizing the Dream to promote justice and equality, and to eliminate poverty in America.
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Ely Flores, 2005 graduate of LA CAUSA YouthBuild, Los Angeles, California and current outreach coordinator for GRID Alternatives, a program which helps families obtain and install solar panels on their homes to reduce their energy costs, received the Community Leadership and Green Career Award from Dorothy Stoneman, President and Founder, YouthBuild USA.
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Dorothy Stoneman welcomed the audience to YouthBuild’s 30th Anniversary Celebration and stated “Now we are at a breakthrough moment: in the United States, the appropriation level for YouthBuild has doubled for fiscal year 2009. We must do a better job than ever, to make sure that we open the doors to every youth who is knocking, and to make sure we give them all the tools they need to realize their dreams and contribute too their communities. The doors are opening, we are celebrating, and we are recommitting to excellence on every front!"
Frank Alvarez, a 2004 graduate of LA CAUSA YouthBuild, and Kareema Conda-Barr, a 2007 graduate of YouthBuild McLean County, emceed the event, and Khepe-Ra Maat-Het-Heru, a 1996 graduate of YouthBuild New Bedford performed a song written by her for the occasion.
Additionally, Tim Cross, president of YouthBuild International and chief operating officer of YouthBuild USA announced the launching of YouthBuild International. Youth Build International was formed in response to many NGOs and government organizations wanting to use the YouthBuild model as a solution to train their unemployed youth. YouthBuild International is providing training, technical assistance, resident consultants, and licensing agreements to organizations desiring to adopt either the principles of YouthBuild or an actual program replication to the realities of their own countries.
Malose Kekana, chief executive officer of Umsobomvu Youth Fund, announced YouthBuild International has licensed Umsobomvu Youth Fund as the South African national intermediary to replicate YouthBuild throughout South Africa, starting with four programs this year. Umsobomvu Youth Fund is the large non-profit quasi-governmental organization responsible for implementing South Africa’s national service and youth employment programs. Malose Kekana came to the United States in 2001 seeking models that would be useful in South Africa and chose YouthBuild as an ideally comprehensive approach. He asked YouthBuild USA to assist him in building Umsobomvu Youth Fund's capacity, and we have been partners in that endeavor for eight years. Roy Priest, chairman of the YouthBuild USA Board of Directors, closed the evening’s ceremony by recognizing the graduates who received awards, the YouthBuild AmeriCorps member who were attending the 20th YouthBuild Conference of Young Leaders, and the staff and directors of YouthBuild programs across the country.
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