Congress gives YouthBuild new home, room to grow

Dan Devine

The House of Representatives last Thursday passed legislation preserving YouthBuild USA, a Somerville-based program offering education and job training to low-income youth.

The bill also transfers administrative responsibility for the program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), which will bring YouthBuild in line with other national youth employment and training agencies.

Founded in 1990, YouthBuild emphasizes service and leadership development, giving low-income youth who have left high school without a diploma a chance to receive full-time education, personal counseling and training in the construction field. They build houses for homeless and low-income people and earn a GED or high school diploma in the process.

YouthBuild legislative director Sharistan Melkonian said the program was wary of the transfer at first, but after more than two years of negotiations between lawmakers and program officials, she called the YouthBuild Transfer Act an exciting step for the organization.

“We were a little hesitant, because the program had a nice home at HUD with a lot of support,” said Melkonian. “But we took a look at the proposal, talked it over with our National Directors Association, and came to the conclusion that it could be a real opportunity to grow, so long as the legislation maintained the integrity of the YouthBuild program, which it certainly does.”

The bill ensures that YouthBuild will remain a national program, rather than a collection of regional satellite offices, and that neither the number of young people served nor the number of agencies able to participate in the program will be cut.

After passing the Senate last month and the House last week, the bill now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law. The move was originally recommended in the 2003 report of the White House Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth, which cited the DOL’s 30 years of experience working with similar programs like the Nation’s One-Stop Career Center and Job Corps.

The bill received bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. Co-sponsors in the Senate included Democrats Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and Washington’s Patty Murray, joined by Republicans Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Mike DeWine of Ohio. Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Mike Castle, R-Del., led the charge in the House.

“YouthBuild helps young people, in Massachusetts and across the nation, who have lost their way to turn their lives around,” said Kerry in a statement. “Young people across the country will have brighter futures thanks to the leadership of my colleagues in both the House and the Senate.”

Without that leadership, Melkonian said, the bill may never have seen the light of day.

“The bill is really a reflection of the commitment and dedication of so many people across the board,” she said. “It’s not often we see this kind of consensus in Washington, and we’re really happy that YouthBuild could be one of the things that brings people together across the aisle.”

Politicians of all stripes recognize the severity of America’s dropout and criminal re-entry problems. According to statistics provided by YouthBuild, 32 percent of American youth drop out of high school without a diploma, with the figure jumping to 50 percent in inner-city neighborhoods. At the same time, 365,000 16-24 year-olds are in prison, leading to a steady flow of young ex-offenders who re-enter their communities with limited prospects. For these young people, YouthBuild offers an attractive alternative, presenting new possibilities without passing judgment on their pasts.

And by all accounts, the program works. YouthBuild says only 15 percent of graduates previously convicted of a felony return to prison, compared to 65 percent nationwide, and a 2004 Brandeis University study of 900 YouthBuild graduates found that up to seven years after graduating the program, 75 percent were either enrolled in college or employed at jobs that paid an average of over $10 per hour.

But even with a Congressional vote of confidence, expected cooperation from the White House and improving prospects for expanded partnerships, YouthBuild still has to overcome one significant hurdle: funding.

While the bill ensures the program will not experience further cuts, appropriations committees in both houses of Congress have reserved $50 million for YouthBuild pending the passage of the transfer bill, a 23 percent decline in funding from 2004. Last year, YouthBuild programs had to turn away 14,000 young adults, and Melkonian said that unless more money is found, the story will be the same this year.

“It’s a little disconcerting,” Melkonian said, “because the appropriations have been in the recommendation stage for two months and, as presently constituted, will keep that 23 percent cut, which means that we’ll have to continue turning away about 14,000 people a year.” She remains optimistic that earmarked funds will increase once DOL takes complete control of the program, which she expects to happen in fiscal year 2008.

Other aspects of the legislation:

• About 10 percent of the overall appropriation can be used for building public community facilities, which Melkonian said will increase involvement in areas where public housing is not available for rehabilitation. It also allows up to 25 percent of an individual YouthBuild program’s enrollment to be comprised of public school transfers, preventing students from dropping out and letting schools get credit for transferring them.

• The Secretary of Labor will have new criteria to take into account when determining which organizations will receive federal grants to start their own YouthBuild programs. An increased emphasis on employer involvement and collaboration with workforce investment programs aims to improve students’ chances of finding jobs or educational placement after graduating. The Secretary will also consider states that do not already have YouthBuild programs, opening the door to further national growth.

“I know that there are a number of members of Congress that have been interested in bringing the program to their states, and it’s good for them to know that there will be someone looking out for them when decisions are being made,” Melkonian said.