YouthBuild Benefits Entire Community

Graduates prepare for new careers.

Sixteen young men and women in Albuquerque are about to beat the odds. Instead of a cycle of low-paying jobs and under achievement, these young people are rebuilding communities while rebuilding their own lives.

YouthBuild is a comprehensive youth and community development program as well as an alternative school. YouthBuild offers job training, education, counseling, and leadership development opportunities to unemployed and out-of-school young adults, ages 16-24. The students work with the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing in their own communities. Many graduates go on to construction-related jobs or college. Alumni receive post-program counseling. The buildings that are rehabilitated or constructed during the program are usually owned and managed by community-based organizations as permanent low-income housing.

HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development administers the YouthBuild competitive grants that make this program possible. For More information on the Albuquerque YouthBuild Program, please contact Rosa De la Vega (505) 765-5517. You may also visit YouthBuild's national website (http://www.youthbuild.org/).

HUD congratulates each graduate of YouthBuild's Class of 2002:

Joseph Anderson
Robert Avila
Brooke Bender
Abram Chavez
Ashley Donaldson
Whitney Donaldson
Fernando Esquivel
Brian Gallegos
Marc Gonzales
Michael Hernandez
Valerie Lovato
Alexandria Lucero
Marissa Lucero
Martin Romans
Carlos Ruiz
Justice Whittington