Lawrence Receives $700,000
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2002–Lawrence and Lowell will each receive $700,000 in federal grants to train at-risk youths in construction trades. The grants are part of HUD’s Youthbuild Program, which aims to provide high school dropouts with a chance to learn job skills and earn their high school equivalency diplomas, while helping to increase the availability of affordable homes.
At the Lawrence Family Development & Education Fund Inc., news of the grant, which Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Mel Martinez announced on Tuesday brought a sigh of relief. The organization had learned in July that Massachusetts had sliced $211,000 from its budget for the Youthbuild program at the last minute.
“We were looking at next October as a difficult time if we couldn’t find other funding,” program director Andrew Mente said. “The HUD grant will ensure that the program operates for the next two years.”
During that time, 48 participants will build three houses in Lawrence. The program takes 24 students a year and divides them into two groups. The groups then alternate weekly between the construction site and the classroom.
“What’s the nicest part is seeing these kids leave the program and get jobs paying them $1,000 a week,” said carpenter Peter Kinney, who has been working with Youthbuild in Lawrence for the last three years. “When we got them off the street corner, they didn’t know what $10 was.”
Mente estimates that 60 percent of those who start the program earn their high school equivalency diplomas and that 80 percent are able to secure a full-time job upon graduation. “This is about young people making a commitment to make a change in their life, and the program promotes these kinds of changes as well as helping them develop as leaders and take responsibility for themselves and their community,” Mente said.
According to Mente, the majority of this year’s applicants found out about the program through word of mouth. “The alumni connection has become very important to the program going forward,” he said. Kinney, for example, remains a friend and mentor to many of those he has supervised. “I had a couple working at my house last weekend,” he said. “I never know when my phone’s going to ring or when I’ll get a knock on the door.”
The program also increases the supply of affordable housing for low-income families in the area. Construction on the first house authorized under this week’s grant will begin in November at 21 Bromfield Street, a vacant lot that the city has donated to the Lawrence Family Development & Education Fund. Upon completion, it will be sold to low-income families
“I was amazed when I saw how it worked,” Kinney said. “I couldn’t picture something so good happening to these kids who really never had a shot.”
In Lowell, the grant will be administered by Community Teamwork Inc. Two houses are scheduled for construction, and 48 participants will receive both classroom and vocational training.
Massachusetts received almost $4 million in Youthbuild grants from HUD this year. Only California, Illinois and New York received larger amounts.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
