The first cohort of the Newburgh YouthBuild program completed their journey from High Point campus with a graduation ceremony held on Thursday, August 31. Youthbuild students received their diplomas and additional certificates thus conferring their completion of the program.

The 2023 Newburgh YouthBuild graduating class included Eden Brown, Alexander Carino, Giselle Flores, Keshone Gaymon, Malachi Hemingway, Ontario Herring, Shekinah Jackson, Jediah Molina, Elijah Moody, Trinity Moody, Mynor Perez, Khalil Perry, Mosha Stackhouse, Rose Trelles and Aldair Trinidad.

For the past year and a half, Sue Melenciano-Weed has served as the Newburgh YouthBuild Program Director. Prior to joining YouthBuild, she has worked in various capacities mainly focusing on work with young adults. For Thursday night, she had the privilege of leading the graduates into the ceremony and thanking the parents and supporters for their attendance that night.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, Melanie Collins, Founder and President of LYNC, thanked her for all her work over the two years as several of the students handed her flowers and gave her hugs. “I want to thank you all for being here for supporting all these amazing young people. I want to thank my amazing staff. I could not have done this without them,” Melenciano-Weed said.

In attendance was RUPCO’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin O’Connor, who shared his excitement to be in attendance and to see the many families, friends and supporters of the graduates. Originally, the City of Newburgh did not have a YouthBuild program for some time, which surprised O’Connor. Yet after several years of grant writing and final completion of the construction of High Point, the program had a home.

“Attach yourself to some leaders. Find some people that you know, that you like, many of them are in this room, you’ve already met some. As you take the next step, attach yourself to some people who are doing good things. I think the world is your oyster. That means you can go and do whatever you decide to do,” he said to the graduates. “You carry with you responsibility. We live in a community and what’s happening in this community, it’s up to us, and the future, it’s up to you. And so I encourage you to take that responsibility and find a way to interact with the world and give your gift; bring it, share it, get involved.”

Newburgh YouthBuild is a program that provides young adults from the ages of 16 to 24 from the City of Newburgh and greater area with education, hands-on job training and leadership development opportunities, all while encouraging community service and providing supportive services. Students are also able to receive a biweekly stipend if enrolled in the program. While the traditional YouthBuild model sees students in the program for six to nine months, the Newburgh program has had their students for almost two years.

The program is currently housed at the former United Methodist Church, located at 245 Liberty Street, known today as High Point. The campus came under the development of RUPCO, whose work is involved in affordable housing development. RUPCO’s previous work in the City of Newburgh had included new mixed-income apartments.

Over the last few years, RUPCO had to navigate through the COVID pandemic and supply chain setbacks to complete the remediation work of the church. The church was part of the second period of development planned within the city that included more new apartments that have since been occupied.

With the educational component, YouthBuild students have the opportunity to earn and obtain their high school diploma or a GED focusing on core subjects such as Mathematics, Science and English. The job training component focuses on vocational training. Construction and clinical medical assistant certifications were currently available in the program. With leadership development, YouthBuild looks for the students to become leaders within their communities, fostered through workshops, team-building activities and mentoring programs.

With community service, students of YouthBuild are encouraged to give back to their communities through service projects. YouthBuild students, for example, have had the opportunity to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh with several of their projects, most notably a project known as the Framing Frenzy, an event for the construction of walls and frames for new future houses. Other projects can include community gardens or helping with other local needs.

Finally, with Support Services, this component of the program helps identify present barriers for these young individuals. YouthBuild helps by offering counseling, financial literacy education and even helps with students who have since transitioned out of the program. The overall goal is to empower young people, give them the tools needed to succeed and help break the cycle of poverty with achievable opportunities in the future.

“Our students are not the traditional student that could go to school and sit there for eight hours. A lot of our students have dropped out,” said Melenciano-Weed. “For us to provide teachers here in a small setting, in a small classroom, having a teaching assistant, meeting them where they are, we have students with all levels of ability, and just we work with whatever level they’re on.”

Whether students are at different grade levels, have present disabilities, have not been in school for some time or are unsure of their life path, each of them supports one another and work together to achieve their goals. Without the teachers that come in each day to help change the lives of these students, she said, YouthBuild would not be possible. “We’re here to help. We’re not going anywhere,” she said.

While school had been a previous challenge due to the number of students in the classroom, YouthBuild graduate Jediah Molina, 19, was grateful for the opportunity to study and take tests on material he was learning at a steady pace in a smaller setting. The YouthBuild is a resource for those who may need extra guidance, Molina said. Since his time at YouthBuild, he had been able to acquire a Social Security card and additional identifications and was learning how to establish credit.

“This program is amazing for those who’s really having a hard time out there who definitely don’t know which path or which direction to take,” said Molina. “Not only does this program give you those directions, but it shows you how to take the steps in order to go in those directions. Not just forcing you, just telling you do it and you gotta figure it out by yourself. I’m actually making my way through life.”

Back in July, Christopher Warren, Construction Manager for YouthBuild, was so enthusiastic about several of his students passing their GED exams and passing other tests to obtain construction credentials. “I’ve been in the construction field for a long time, but the teaching part of it is new to me,” he said. “Though we are mainly construction based, we’re going to get you all your construction certificates, we’re going to teach you how to build, but it’s more career readiness.”

Hopefully in the future, Warren would like to see the program continue to grow stronger and bigger, to the point where the building would double in size and the program could offer a hundred students the education and skills. Hopefully, students of Warren can come back and become the teachers of the program in the future.