For teens in our community to feel hopeful about their future as adults, they need a healthy sense of competency, a confidence that when they put their hands, minds and effort to something, they can achieve success. Building this confidence requires a deep investment of resources for the hours (and years) spent in job training.
Our Citybuilders (age 12-24) experience navigating the work world as they learn how to relate to supervisors, team mates, and community members through apprenticeships in our youth programs, in Harambee learning tuckpointing and this fall for the first time learning the basics of the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) industry.
While under the safety of a training program, our young people do REAL work:
Our children LOVE their teen leaders and the energy they bring to after school and summer programs.
Neighborhood homeowners are SO thankful for the GREATLY subsidized tuckpointing they receive through the work of Harambee teens.
Our HVAC trainees learned the trade by installing the heating system in our new Harambee training space!
We are encouraged by every opportunity we get to invest in these young people- and we are confident they will experience a successful future.