The Bethel Family Resource Center has been running a YouthBuild Program since 2017, known as Bethel YouthBuild.  To date, 169 at-risk youth have received training in building trades, career readiness, leadership, and basic academic skills.  

Our Bethel YouthBuild Participants also benefit from mentoring, comprehensive safety training, and hands-on construction work experience. The educational component of the program focuses on contextual basic skills with an emphasis on problem-solving. The work experience includes closely supervised training in basic carpentry and construction skills, where youth participate in the construction or renovation of affordable housing and other structures. Additionally, the leadership component provides meaningful opportunities for youth to mentor their peers and develop citizenship, decision-making, and negotiation skills. 

Subsequent phases take trainees through a progressive sequence of construction training. Once they complete advanced training, they will complete construction worksite rotations and Green Technology. Youth will then progress to training in transportation operations, picking up skills such as engine mechanics and warehousing fundamentals, and earning their Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card and NCCER certification.  Skills mastered include but are not limited to introduction to computers and workplace principles, construction prints, industrial safety, floor and wall framing and lab, site layout and foundations and lab, ceiling and roof framing and lab, and fundamentals of construction math. is “innovation.” We train youth in more than applied construction and high-demand industry skills. We aim to train young people in the 21st Century skills of innovation, flexibility, and creativity. Reading and math are integral to the educational and occupational skills that will reinforce essential skills with academic application. Industry training will be used as the forum to engage young people in higher individual and group skills and processes, thereby creating a more marketable work