YouthBuild Providence

January 16, 2012January 16, 2012

Nominate YouthBuild Providence

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There’s nothing better than a great cup of coffee, the weekend edition of the NY Times, a barista with a big personality, your weekend sweater, and the comfort of knowing that you did something worthwhile the week before.

Here’s your chance to have it all this weekend …

Stop by Blue State Coffee (300 Thayer Street, Providence), buy some Joe, and nominate YouthBuild Providence as an innovative non-profit.

The winner receives 2% of Blue State’s annual profits. If we are selected, we will direct Blue State’s annual gift to YouthBuild Providence’s Hardship Fund.

Each year the Hardship Fund supports students by providing direct funding for some of their most basic needs and ongoing challenges:

Housing
Childcare and Daycare
Healthcare, including doctors’ visits and mental health services
Food and clothing

Your gift to YouthBuild Providence is an investment in students and a learning community, which has a lifetime impact on each of our youth. By addressing the external issues that often pose extreme obstacles to learning, your support allows our students to return to and remain in the classroom.

January 9, 2012January 9, 2012

A YouthBuild Providence Classroom Update

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I want to thank you for your ongoing support of and commitment to teaching and learning opportunities for all of Providence’s residents. And I invite you to learn more about YouthBuild Providence and ask that you lend your vision to our pioneering educational program for out of school youth as we transition toward a diploma granting institution.

What we are embarking on as a community is quite remarkable. Other states are already looking to Rhode Island and YouthBuild Providence as a model. Too many students age out of our public schools after a personal crisis. We are taking a stand by saying that young adults who have left school for whatever reason and want to return to the classroom should not be excluded from a brighter future. We are re-engaging drop outs by exposing them to new worlds, developing their identities as scholars, and sparking their engagement as citizens.

I am pleased to share that our students attended the preview performance of “It’s a Wonderful Life” at Trinity Repertory Theater. YouthBuild students gave the performance a five star rating.

We are building an ongoing relationship with Trinity Rep. A few weeks ago, on a service learning day, our students toured the theater. As we were leaving the building, one of the students spotted actress Annie Scurria and introduced herself. It was a sweet and inspiring moment. Our student and Ms. Scurria had a second chance to speak on December 9. After a standing ovation for their performance, the company actors met with our students in the lobby. It made our night.

Attending local performances has proven to be a vibrant educational tool. After seeing two shows, we have had dynamic conversations about what community means, and about questions of history, representation, and authenticity. You can see the impact first hand in student Ervin Figueroa’s video:

Our students are asking for more theater opportunities, which is a request we can’t deny. During our spring semester, YouthBuild will host a local playwright and retired theater teacher who will develop one act plays with our students.

We are proud to include Rhode Island’s Future as a friend and partner in the fight against anti-intellectualism, low expectations, and poverty.

P.S. YouthBuild Providence relies on individual donors to sustain our theater arts program. Bring history and literature to life, consider making an online gift to the Balcony Fund.

November 14, 2011January 8, 2012

Nov. 17: YouthBuild Providence – Picture A School

Join YouthBuild Providence at their first annual Meet and Greet – “Picture A School @ Gallery Z” – on Thursday, November 17th, from 5-8pm at Gallery Z, 259 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI. This event is to benefit YouthBuild Providence, a fantastic organization that helps out-of-school youth gain the academic, job readiness, and work skills necessary to make the jump into high growth, high demand occupations and careers. Please consider coming to celebrate the amazing work YouthBuild has done in the past by supporting its future! RSVP on Facebook.

As an added bonus, Broadway Bistro is catering (yum), and the Max Cudworth Trio is performing.

For more information, contact Hillary Sorin @ 401.499.4352.

November 1, 2011January 6, 2012

Building Youth, One Class at a Time

Since 1997, YouthBuild Providence has been re-engaging and inspiring returning students who are pursuing secondary education and provided low-income youth with the skills necessary to build a more financially secure future and more stable communities. YouthBuild serves 16-24 years olds who are often parents, homeless, returning to their communities from prison, and suffering from physical or emotional trauma.

Despite its enormous success in the community, now is a critical time for YouthBuild Providence. Many YouthBuild programs across the country closed this past year, and while YouthBuild Providence has a 2-year grant from the Department of Labor, it is likely the grant will not be renewed. Federal funding cuts loom and threaten to disrupt YouthBuild’s critical services, so they are counting on the support of friends and allies. This is why I am reaching out to the RI Future community.

For the first time, YouthBuild Providence is working to establish a local individual donor base to help them stay afloat. I am asking that you donate what you can to support YouthBuild Providence and enable them to continue providing mental health and case management services to their students, compensate for exceptional and passionate educators, invest in construction sites, and purchase academic materials and supplies. All of this helps YouthBuild in its mission to re-engage out of school youth, bring them back to the classroom, and prepare for independent, meaningful and productive lives. I am committed to help raise $25,000 for this purpose. Click here to donate.

Please make a donation in the amount of $50.00, or an amount that you are comfortable with, to help us sustain the foundation of excellence that distinguishes and defines YouthBuild: rigorous academics; exceptional and caring faculty; longstanding commitment to equity and opportunity; and a service conscious education. Your support will allow YouthBuild Providence to continue to focus resources on educating and serving disadvantaged youth and their families. As YouthBuild students say every morning, “The collective will of the community is the greatest force conceivable.”

To make a gift to YouthBuild Providence, send a check made payable to “Providence Plan for YouthBuild Providence” to 66 Chaffee Street, Providence, RI 02909.

Finally, you should come to YouthBuild Providence’s first annual Meet and Greet – “Picture a School @ Gallery Z” on Thursday, November 17th from 5 to 8pm. Come celebrate YouthBuild and share poetry, art, food, and drink, learn what’s ahead for the program, share your vision, and help build a new school for inspiring students.