Donned in caps and gowns, 15 young men and women will walk across the stage of the James A. Henry Resource Center to receive their framed certificates from Chattanooga Housing Authority’s YouthBuild program. The ceremony will take place on Thursday, Aug. 3, at 6 p.m.

CHA’s program is part of a national job readiness initiative called YouthBuild. The program targets youth ages 16-24 that have dropped out of school and come from low-income backgrounds. Participants learn a construction trade, work toward earning their GED and receive a bi-weekly stipend.

“YouthBuild challenges the negative, self-limiting attitudes and behaviors of the young people and helps them focus on more positive outcomes,” said Bryant Lowery, CHA’s YouthBuild Program Manager. “The program empowers and challenges youths to take control of their lives.”

During a nine-month cycle, YouthBuild participants are taught basic skills in carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, painting and landscaping – all while simultaneously working toward their GED. Mr. Lowery said the program began as a job training opportunity for Alton Park residents. But today, YouthBuild is open to all young people in Chattanooga with preference given to public housing and Section 8 residents.

In addition to learning educational, personal growth and job skills, YouthBuild participants are expected to build homes within the communities where they live.

“To date, our young people have constructed four single-family homes through YouthBuild,” Mr. Lowery said. “Three of those homes are located in the Villages at Alton Park, and the other one is in the Alton Park community. These young men and women are not only transforming their lives, but they’re revitalizing their neighborhoods.”

Willis Newby was a dropout from Brainerd High School, but now the 24-year-old is preparing to enroll in Chattanooga State this fall and major in computer programming.

A participant in the YouthBuild program, Mr. Newby was the first student in his class to earn a GED. He was recently accepted into Innovative Processing Solutions’ new UrbaCore program, which prepares inner-city youths for careers in technology and software by paying for their college education.

UrbaCore also provides on-the-job training and compensates participants for their work. In turn, the students sign a four-year contract committing to the guidelines of the program.

Mr. Newby said he heard about YouthBuild from one of his church members at Chattanooga Metropolitan Church who introduced him to the program’s assistant manager, Kelcey Watson.

“Mr. Watson told me that YouthBuild was designed to help create educational and job opportunities for low-income youth. I already had a background in construction, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he said.

Mr. Watson, whom Mr. Newby calls his mentor, also encouraged him to look into the UrbaCore program.

“You could just see the potential in him and his passion for learning,” Mr. Watson said of Newby. “We’re all proud of what he’s been able to accomplish through YouthBuild, and we know he’s destined for greater things with UrbaCore.”

Mr. Newby said earning his GED was important “because it allows me to further my education by going to college, which helps provide me with more career options. A GED also enabled me to work toward a better life for my two-year-old son, James.”

Upon completion of UrbaCore, Mr. Newby said he wants to work in the corporate world where he can put the educational and life skills he’s learned through UrbaCore and YouthBuild to good use.

Mr. Newby also has some practical advice for any young person considering dropping out of high school: “Stay in school – no matter how hard it gets,” he said. “In YouthBuild we discovered the difference in income between someone that has a GED or diploma and someone that does not. After seeing that, it just didn’t make sense to drop out of school.”

Since CHA launched the local program in the fall of 2002, 14 other participants have successfully completed the YouthBuild requirements. Applications for the next cycle of students will be available July 28 - Aug. 2. For more information, contact Assistant Program Manager Kelcey Watson at 595-9379 or Construction Training Coordinator Jarred Gooden at 421-2960.