YouthBuild program turns house into a home

By Kendra Simpson

The Youth Alliance of St. Joseph hosted an open house Wednesday, but the home wasn’t worked on by a construction company. The renovations are thanks to the efforts of local teens.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, YouthBuild is a community-based pre-apprenticeship program offering job training to at-risk youth.

It helps people aged 17 to 24 earn the equivalent of a high school diploma as they take part in the program while also instilling leadership skills and a sense of community involvement. While renovating the house, participants received hands-on training in construction, helping them earn their GED. The program also teaches critical aspects of the workforce such as financial management.

With more than 3,000 hours of hard work completed, the house is now available for sale to a local family.

“It feels good, it really does,” said Sean McCush, a member of YouthBuild. “Not a lot of people get to live in something, you know, this nice. Being able to do this and allow somebody who might not be able to afford a house like this, be able to afford a house like this.”

McCush was able to earn his OSHA certificate through the experience, which works in his favor considering he hopes to one day work in construction.

“I’ve always wanted to be in construction a little bit and you know, work with cars,” McCush said. “Anything along those lines. So this was kind of a a fun little thing for me to be able to do that when I get older.”

Those in the program worked on renovating the home for just under two years. Now, it’s on the market at a lower cost for low-income families.

“There’s a lack of housing in our community that is affordable as well,” Youth Alliance Executive Director Robin Hammond said. “So this is a great opportunity for a family to be able to afford a really, really nice home. We also know that just the construction trade in general really needs more workers. And so this is an opportunity to train young people and get them into the field so that we all have houses to live in”

Youth Alliance hosted the open house and blessings at the final steps in making the house into a home.