MORGANTOWN — A West Virginia nonprofit received a grant worth more than $1 million to help teach at-risk youth job skills.
The Human Resource Development Foundation (HRDF) was founded in 1967, deputy director Amanda Filippelli said. It helps teach job skills to at-risk youth and displaced workers.
She said the program’s longevity makes it unique in the nonprofit world.
The $1,083,771 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor will go towards HRDF’s Capitol YouthBuild project. The program is for at-risk youth, such as high school dropouts, Filippelli said.
“YouthBuild is an education and training program with a strong pre-apprenticeship component that helps at-risk youth complete high school or state equivalency degree programs, earn industry-recognized credentials for in-demand occupations, and undergo training to build housing for low-income or homeless individuals and families in their communities,” a U.S. Department of Labor press release said of the program.
The program was previously in Monongalia County, but in 2015 it was moved to Charleston after statistics showed the program wasn’t needed locally. Filippelli said graduation rate, poverty rate, and unemployment rate were factors in the decision to move the funding to Charleston.
“We moved because the funding moved,” she said.
The 36-month program is for 17-24 year olds who do not have a high school degree, Filippelli said. The first 24 months are spent enrolling students and helping them in four ways. The final 12 months are spent monitoring the participants and helping them with problems they encounter, Filippelli said.
“This is really exciting for us because we’re just finding out that we can open our doors again and begin enrolling additional youth into the program,” she said.
The 2015 grant funded 68 people.
A student’s first step is passing the high school degree equivalency test, known as the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC) in West Virginia and more commonly as the GED. They are tutored in the skills needed to pass, such as math and reading, Filippelli said.
Students also receive instruction on construction skills such as plumbing, electrical and other skills they can use to be successful in the industry, Filippelli said.
That classroom instruction gets solidified in the field. Filippelli said the program is partnered with Habitat for Humanity and will build three houses from the ground up during the grant period.
All three homes are required to be rented or sold to low-income families, she said.
The fourth facet is occupational exploration for some students – a recent addition to the program. Filippelli said the program now allows students to explore careers and get paid to do so. In addition to construction, they can attended a community college to learn about healthcare and information technology careers.
