Building Lives

At the Campo Real subdivision north of Brownsville, recent high school dropouts are building affordable housing for low-income buyers through the Community Development Corp. of Brownsville and its YouthBuild program.

In the process, they're learning job skills that will pay off later and getting classroom instruction to help them get their General Education Degree.

"We're trying to make our lives better and be something in life," Ricky Rodriguez, who recently joined the program, said last week. "Everyone's goal is to get our GEDs. This is a good place to get your GED and get paid at the same time."

YouthBuild USA is a national program in which low-income youths 16-24 work toward their GED or high school diploma while learning job skills by building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people. Strong emphasis is placed on leadership development and community service, according to the organization's Web site.

In Brownsville, the program can accommodate 30 to 40 students from the 100 or more who apply each six- to eight-month cycle, program director Greg V. Flores said.

The program is funded through a $400,000 grant it received in 2006 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as grants from the Texas Workforce Commission, Americorps, and last week, $50,000 from the Wal-Mart Foundation.

The program includes:

ä GED and college prep classroom instruction at the YouthBuild instructional facility at 815 Arthur St.

ä Construction skills training through building affordable housing, and more recently environmentally friendly Green Housing.

ä Leadership development through policy committee participation and public speaking opportunities.

ä A counseling component that includes peer-to-peer as well as drug abuse and family counseling.

ä Graduate resources that link local graduates with YouthBuild USA graduates and save-and-match Individual Development Accounts to help pay for college.

Esteban Salinas said he has a brother-in-law "who came here a while back and told me this was a good program."

A former student at Gladys Porter High School, Salinas said he dropped out in the 10th grade, "which was a mistake."

Now, he's working on homes at Campo Real, learning construction skills and getting a paycheck while he's in the program. He plans to go to college and pursue a managerial career.

Henry Dorsett, YouthBuild Brownsville's academic trainer, said most students come to him in situations similar to Salinas - needing to make up a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

"They come in at the sixth-grade level and I've got six months to move them to the 12th grade level," he said.

Most students are Brownsville Independent School District dropouts, with some being referred to YouthBuild by juvenile or adult probation officers.

Since its inception in 1996, YouthBuild Brownsville has enrolled 384 participants. Of that number, 217 either graduated with their GED, or were job placed or both, 101 obtained their GED, 122 were women and 212 later enrolled at an institution of higher education, Flores said.

The program has built 64 homes.