Miniard Culpepper, acting regional director, recently visited a Youthbuild construction site in Brockton, Massachusetts to announce the Old Colony YMCA has been awarded a $700,000 Youthbuild grant. This is the fifth Youthbuild grant awarded to the Old Colony YMCA.

The grants are awarded competitively to give young people who never finished high school a second chance to receive their diplomas. These grants help train them for a future in the construction trades while producing or rehabilitating homes for lower income families, many facing homelessness.

The funding will help young men and women, ages 16-to-24, receive their high school equivalency diplomas and provide them training in homebuilding skills that will qualify them for careers in the building industry. Program participants receive on-the-job training in the building trades and help build and renovate homes that are then sold at affordable prices to low- and very low-income persons as well as to homeless individuals and families.

By partnering with the Brockton Housing Authority and the city of Brockton, the Old Colony YMCA has already completed three homes and is nearly complete with the fourth. The YMCA, which has an exemplary Youthbuild program, will use the newly-announced grant to train 60 youth and construct two new homes.