YouthBuild will teach residents to rehab Hyde Park
Community activists in Hyde Park, on the city’s North Side, have turned their attentions to the spring construction season, as a just-announced $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will arrive early next year to transform the lives of young people in the neighborhood as they learn skills to transform its buildings and physical environment.
When the North St. Louis YouthBuild program opens for business in spring 2007, up to 40 economically disadvantaged young people between the ages of 16-24 years can earn money while participating in a comprehensive curriculum of classroom-based instruction and on-the-job training in the construction trades.
The program aims for participants to earn a GED certificate, while at the same time working to renovate a historically significant building in the neighborhood into two new units of affordable housing. This will be YouthBuild’s first and only site in North St. Louis.
“We view the YouthBuild model as an exciting push forward for our work in this neighborhood, providing job opportunities, emphasizing the importance of education, and shining a light of hope in a place that’s been long overlooked,” says Rev. Dr. Martha Brunell, board chair of the Friedens Neighborhood Foundation, the grant recipient.
The project centers on the rehabilitation of the historic Old German School Building at 1908 Newhouse Ave., which dates from 1895. The job site is situated directly across from the facility where YouthBuild classrooms and offices will be located, providing easy access and a quick practice area for the academic learning students will acquire.
The building has been vacant for several years, and its return as a productive housing unit could be a catalyst for the neighborhood and the program, as the success it generates can fuel future YouthBuild undertakings.
There’s great need for such a substantial investment in Hyde Park, whose surrounding ZIP code (63107) counts:
? 34.3 percent of families below the poverty level, 3.7 times the national average;
? 22.1 percent of the civilian labor force unemployed, 5.5 times the national average;
? Dropout rates at Vashon and Beaumont, the two general attendance public high schools serving the area, at 23.5 percent and 31.8 percent, respectively, compared to a national average of 4.4 percent;
? 74.3 percent of children receiving food stamps, compared to 13.3 percent nationally.
North St. Louis YouthBuild plans to hire four staff members (program director, construction manager, construction supervisor/trainer and youth services manager) in the coming months, as well as recruit at least 100 applicants to fill the 40 available youth slots.
Key partners in the project include Friedens Church, St. Louis Public Schools, The Commonspace, Life Crisis Services and Ameriprise Financial.
YouthBuild works to unleash the positive energy of low-income young people to rebuild their communities and their lives. The program emphasizes leadership development, neighborhood service and the creation of a strong community. YouthBuild was founded in East Harlem, NY, in 1978 by Dorothy Stoneman. Last year, there were 226 YouthBuild sites in the U.S. The Friedens Neighborhood Foundation incorporated in 2005 as an outgrowth of the 150-year presence of nearby Friedens Church; its mission is to foster a healthy, safe and sustaining neighborhood surrounding the corner of 19th St. and Newhouse Ave. in the Hyde Park neighborhood.