Young People Learn Job Skills at Habitat Project

Some of the Youth Build participants with a poster board that documents their work.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh celebrated the completion of another home renovation last week – this one built through the sweat and hard work of local teens and young adults.

The Youth Build project resulted from a community partnership that helped transform a blighted historic building at 6 Federal Street into transitional housing units for Habitat families as it also trained the youth for future jobs.

The exterior of the building at 6 Federal Street was also restored.

The pilot project between Habitat, Best Resources and the Laborers’ Local #17, engaged young people ages 17 to 24 in a GED completion program and an apprenticeship program that gave them the skills needed to obtain future employment in the trades.

Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-District 22) secured $210,000 in federal funding for the project and the Orange County Office of Community Development, the City of Newburgh, and Habitat’s donors supplied the rest of the funds required to make the project possible.

Congressman Maurice Hinchey and some of the Youth Build members.

Congressman Hinchey attended the graduation last week of six students who completed a year in the Youth Build program.

The young participants completed general classes provided by the Laborer’s Local 17, including ladder safety, traffic control, scaffold building, fire safety, site maintenance, and construction math. In September, three of the participants went on to complete certificates in the following areas: NYS Asbestos Handler, EPA Renovator, General Construction, Scaffold User, Scaffold Builder, new OSHA Signal Person, Traffic Control, Forklift, Mason Tending, OSHA 10, Hilti, Landscape, and Welding.

GED classes were provided by Best Resources. Two participants passed their GEDs, one has taken his GED and is awaiting his results, and two are still working on their GED. One of the participants has enrolled in Orange County Community College starting in the spring.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh Habitat Newburgh has built or renovated 43 affordable houses in the city since 1999. Over 225 children and adults now call these houses home, and the assessed property values of these homes have increased by over $8.3 million, according to Hinchey’s office.