On February 10th, HUD Regional Director Taylor Caswell joined Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez to present a $700,000 YouthBuild grant to Co-opportunity, Inc., an agency which works with low-income Hartford-area residents to help them become self-sufficient.

YouthBuild trainee Queinton Wolcott tells Mayor Perez and HUD Regional Director how the program has helped turn his life around.

Partnering with Habitat for Humanity, the City of Hartford, and the Carpenters Union, Co-Opportunity, Inc, will use the funding to train 64 youth and construct four new houses.

The funding announcement was held at a house being constructed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity using funding from a YouthBuild grant awarded in 2003. The house will be completed by April 2006, and will be turned over to a low-income first-time homebuyer. Co-opportunity has partnered with Habitat on several projects, and has also worked with other non-profit developers who provide the building and training opportunities for YouthBuild students.

Over a nine-year period, Co-opportunity, Inc. has received $5,650,000 in HUD YouthBuild funding. Since inception, 302 people have graduated from the program while constructing 34 new housing units and rehabilitating 57 units.

YouthBuild grants are awarded competitively to give young people ages 16-24 who never finished high school a second chance to receive their diplomas. These grants help train these young people for a future in the construction trades while producing or rehabilitating homes for lower income families, many facing homelessness. This $700,000 grant is the only YouthBuild grant awarded in Connecticut in this funding round, and is part of $58 million announced nationwide to help thousands of low-income young people nationwide return to school and begin new careers in the homebuilding field. These grants provide funding to offer job training and leadership skills to an estimated 4,300 young people nationwide while putting them back on a path toward graduation.