Youthbuild TBAH is a community-based alternative education program for youth between the ages 16 and 24 residing in Hillsborough County. The Youthbuild TBAH program simultaneously addresses several core issues important to low-income communities: affordable housing, education, employment, leadership development, and energy efficiency. The YouthBuild model balances project-based academic learning and occupational skills training to prepare disadvantaged youth for career placement.
Youthbuild TBAH ensures that Hillsborough’s youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who are high school dropouts, adjudicated youth, youth aging out of foster care, youth with disabilities, homeless youth, and other disconnected youth populations have a program that includes an academic component which assists youth who are often significantly behind in basic skill development to obtain a high school diploma or state high school equivalency credential. The program also includes occupational skills training that prepares at-risk youth to gain placement into career pathways and/or further education or training, and also supports the goal of increasing affordable housing within communities by teaching youth construction skills learned by building or significantly renovating homes for sale or rent to low-income families or transitional housing for homeless families or individuals.
The Youthbuild program contributes to improved long-term labor market prospects of youth, reduced recidivism, heightened community safety, and strengthened capacities of families and reentry agencies to serve the critical needs of our youth.
Target Population: The program serves Hillsborough County youth over the course of two years with an additional 12 months for follow up for each youth who meet the following criteria:
a) is between the ages of 16 and 24 on the date of enrollment; and
b) is a member of a low-income family, a youth in foster care (including youth aging out of foster care), an offender, a youth who is an individual with a disability, a child of an incarcerated parent, a homeless youth, a migrant youth; and
c) is a school dropout, or an individual who was a school dropout and has subsequently re-enrolled (as provided in WIOA 171(e)(1) Eligible Participants);
25 percent of the participants in the program may be youth who do not meet criteria b. or c. above, but they must:
- be basic skills deficient, despite attainment of a high school diploma or its state-recognized equivalent; or
- have been referred by a local secondary school for participation in a YouthBuild program leading to the attainment of a high school diploma or its state-recognized equivalent.
If you are age 16 to 24 and interested in getting credentials for a career in the high demand construction industry, please complete an application by clicking here.
If you are a parent of a youth described above and you would like your youth to complete school and/or receive credentialing for a career, please complete our application by clicking here.
If you would like to volunteer to work with youth by volunteering as a career coach, mentor, life coach or tutor, please click here to complete an online application.
YouthBuild TBAH