No author stated, from the Arizona Daily Sun www.azdailysun.com

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Thirty-six young adults from Flagstaff's two poorest neighborhoods are about to get a little greener -- both in their wallets and in their job skills.

As for the community at large, it's about to get two new affordable houses and eight weatherized units.

The program is called YouthBuild, and Coconino County Supervisors are set tonight to accept a $1.1 million federal grant that will make it happen.

The program -- only the second in the state -- trains disadvantaged youth ages 17 to 24 from Sunnyside and Southside in green construction techniques by building or repairing housing for low-income families in their own neighborhoods.

The students will divide their time between the construction site and the classroom, and they will earn either a GED or a high school diploma, along with an Alternative Energy Technical Certificate from Coconino Community College. They will be paid a stipend of $175 a week, and at least a quarter of the group will be women.

The program will be managed by the county Career Center and will help the county to come up with solutions to issues like affordable workforce housing, training youth for high-paying construction jobs and in green-construction techniques. County officials also want to reverse the trend of local youths who leave town to pursue education or employment.

YouthBuild will partner with Bothands, a nonprofit community housing agency, to build and weatherize the houses of low-income residents. In the addition to the stipends, the grant will help pay for staff to train the young builders and supervise the work sites, housing materials and ongoing support for the enrollees, such as child care and counseling.

The first class of 18 participants has been filled, with the one-year program to start Jan. 18. A second, 18-member class will start up in January 2009 and finish the projects begun by the first group. The third year of the three-year grant will be devoted to follow-up job placement and education for the participants.

The goal is that by the end of the 36 months, 85 percent of the group will have completed their high school education and either gone into the construction trades or other local employment or continued with postsecondary education.

For more information on the program, call Career Center Director Carol Curtis at 522-7900.