The long, difficult recession has taken a toll on nearly everyone across our community. But for low-income youths, the effects are particularly dire as jobs become increasingly scarce in Lewiston-Auburn and surrounding rural communities. Among local 16- to 24-year-olds, the unemployment rate stands at 41 percent. For youths seeking to escape poverty and establish successful futures, the opportunities are rare. For youths who have dropped out of high school and experienced homelessness, incarceration, teen pregnancy or foster care, the opportunities are even more rare.
At YouthBuild Lewiston, a program of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, we have seen our community’s most vulnerable youths turn their lives around when given the right opportunities and support. Throughout our history at Goodwill, we have seen firsthand the power of work to eliminate barriers to opportunity and independence — and we are proud to host the YouthBuild program as part of this effort.
Through YouthBuild, low-income youths can earn their GEDs, gain job skills and serve the community by building affordable housing. Since 2003, YouthBuild Lewiston has helped 133 young people — nearly all of whom live in poverty and the vast majority of whom have dropped out of school — to improve their respective futures.
For 20-year-old Lewiston resident Meghan, the opportunity to enroll in YouthBuild has made all the difference. After dropping out of high school her senior year and becoming homeless within the next month, Meghan got connected to a homeless youth program at Volunteers of America Northern New England, where she found out about YouthBuild Lewiston.
Through YouthBuild, Meghan not only learned construction skills while renovating a low-income housing unit, she also gained valuable life skills, found a caring group of mentors and peers and earned her GED. She says the small class size, teamwork experience and dedication of the staff helped her finish the program successfully and changed her outlook for the future.
“If it wasn’t for YouthBuild, I’d be nowhere,” said Meghan, who graduated from the program last year. “I wouldn’t have my GED, I wouldn’t have my license … I would have absolutely nothing.”
Today, Meghan is engaged to be married to a fellow YouthBuild graduate and enrolled in cosmetology school. She plans to one day open her own salon or spa.
Many youths in our community want the chance to transform their lives as Meghan did. Yet, because the need is so high and resources are so limited, we have had to turn away dozens of youths seeking the opportunity. In the most recent admissions cycle, 45 youths applied to the program but only six could be accepted to join the others in the class.
Lewiston is not alone in facing this need. In 273 YouthBuild programs across the country, nearly 14,000 young people each year are turned away because there isn’t enough funding to accommodate all of them.
Thankfully, Sen. Olympia Snowe recognizes the need to expand opportunities for struggling, low-income youths of Maine and the nation at large.
This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee began marking up the bill with a request from the Obama administration for $120 million for YouthBuild. Thirty-three senators, led by Sens. Snowe and John Kerry of Massachusetts, have expressed support for this funding.
A House Appropriations subcommittee recently marked up the bill and recommended $276 million more than the president requested overall for employment and training programs administered by the Labor Department. That is an encouraging sign.
Snowe deserves much credit for greatly supporting YouthBuild. As Congress begins to make important decisions on national funding priorities, we hope that Snowe’s leadership will inspire other policymakers so that more youths such as Meghan will have the chance to build successful lives.
Michael Coughlin is the chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, which has sponsored YouthBuild Lewiston since July 2009.
