YMHA wins YouthBuild program of year award

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngs- town Metropolitan Housing Authority has received the YouthBuild program of the year award.

The authority received the award Friday from the National Association of Resident Services in Assisted Housing — a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for public-housing residents nationwide.

YouthBuild is a nine-month program that helps low-income 18-to-24-year-olds obtain their General Educational Development diplomas, undergo life-skills training and learn a skilled trade. Participants are paid with U.S. Department of Labor funds while they are enrolled in the program.

There is a YouthBuild program in every county in the country, and YMHA sponsors the Mahoning County program.

YMHA has a 70 percent YouthBuild program completion rate — the highest rate in Ohio, said Clifford Scott, YMHA director. Seventy percent of Mahoning County’s YouthBuild program participants obtain their GEDs, he added.

Sixty-seven people are enrolled in the YMHA-sponsored YouthBuild class that begins next month. Participants do not have to be public- housing residents.

Scott said the authority plans to have local YouthBuild participants build houses on vacant lots in the Arlington Heights neighborhood on Youngstown’s North Side.