August 2006
Contact: Dorothy Wills-Raftery
(845) 255-1400 xt. 1209

Ulster YouthBuild Partnership Heading to Mississippi to Help Rebuild Hurricane-Stricken Community

Five students participating in Ulster BOCES YouthBuild, a comprehensive youth and community development program, are heading to the Mississippi coastline on September 3 where they will use their construction expertise to help rebuild homes in a low-income neighborhood hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. The students, residents of Accord, Ellenville, Highland, and Kingston, will participate in the yearlong construction project for two weeks.

“YouthBuild is working in partnership with AmeriCorps with an ultimate goal of building or rebuilding 300 homes in the Gulfport, Mississippi area,” says Bonnie Landi, coordinator of the Ulster YouthBuild Partnership. “The students are very excited about going down to help rebuild the hurricane-stricken community.”

YouthBuild USA received a $2.9 million grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service to cover the non-construction costs of the YouthBuild AmeriCorps Katrina Rebuilding Project. Home Depot and individual donors have provided additional support. An AmeriCorps group of 35 YouthBuild graduates from across the country have dedicated a year of their lives to leading the project. They will be joined every two weeks by rotating crews of 35-45 current YouthBuild members. “The students will be living and dining at the Gulfport Naval Construction Battalion Center, thanks to the generosity of the U.S. Navy Seabees, but we are looking for donations of items that are not covered by the grant,” Landi says. “They will need sleeping bags, work boots, rain gear, insect repellent, that sort of thing – if anyone would like to donate or fund the purchase of these items it would be very helpful.” During the weekdays, the students will be engaged in construction, rebuilding, and clean-up efforts throughout the Gulfport area. During the evenings and weekends, members will enjoy the majority of the benefits incorporated into a typical YouthBuild program, including college-readiness, life, and work skills training; recreation and artistic expression; and peer counseling.

As part of the project, YouthBuild USA examined hurricane-resistant building systems and consulted with the Mississippi Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal; local officials; and property owners to determine what type of housing should be built and where. To create neighborhoods that blend with community architecture and character, the new housing will be a mix of panelized building, modular housing, and stick-built construction in cottage-style designs with an average square footage of 1,090.

In YouthBuild, a grant-funded program, young men and women ages 16-24 with a sincere desire to continue their education, work toward their GED (General Educational Development) or high school diploma while learning job skills by building affordable housing in their community. Since 1994, more than 15,000 units of affordable housing have been constructed by 60,000 YouthBuild members across the nation. YouthBuild eligibility requirements are based on U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 low-income guidelines. Participants cannot be enrolled in a public school education program. Ulster YouthBuild is a partnership of local nonprofit agencies with Ulster BOCES serving as the lead agency.