There are two ways to start a YouthBuild program: being licensed through the YouthBuild USA Affiliated Network or winning a competitive YouthBuild grant directly from the U.S. Department of Labor.
To get an idea of what it means to be an affiliate of YouthBuild USA, check out examples of YouthBuild USA Affiliates! We recommend reaching out to a local program near you for additional resources and guidance.
After investigating which type of program suits your needs, you can apply for the U.S. Department of Labor YouthBuild Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), posted annually on www.grants.gov. DOL strongly encourages YouthBuild applicants to develop program proposals that include occupational skills training in other in-demand industries in addition to construction skills training. This expansion into additional in-demand industries is referred to as the Construction Plus component and is a focus of the current Administration.
After reviewing the above materials and investigating which type of program suits your needs, you can apply for the U.S. Department of Labor YouthBuild Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), posted annually on www.grants.gov. DOL strongly encourages YouthBuild applicants to develop program proposals that include occupational skills training in other in-demand industries in addition to construction skills training. This expansion into additional in-demand industries is referred to as the Construction Plus component and is a focus of the current Administration. Learn more about this component here.
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Next Steps
If you are interested in learning about what it takes to start a YouthBuild USA program, review these resources:
YouthBuild programs licensed by YouthBuild USA that do not win one of the limited competitive grants from the Department of Labor must raise all of their funds from other public and private sources.
YouthBuild International provides consultation, training, coaching, resource development, materials adaptation, and knowledge and data management to support the planning, adaptation, and implementation of locally operated YouthBuild programs and scaled networks of national and regional YouthBuild programs. These services are designed and delivered in ways that build the capacity of local, national, regional, and global partners who have assessed the need for YouthBuild and who lead the process of adaptation of the YouthBuild model to the local country context.
Implementing partners may be (local, national, international) NGOs, global development institutions, governments, global companies, bi- and multi-lateral donor organizations. Each local implementer or intermediary is licensed to use the YouthBuild name. Depending on the scale and complexity of the youth employment challenge in a particular country, YouthBuild International may work with a single or multiple implementing partners.
New YouthBuild program development has four phases: Needs Assessment, Program design planning, Pilot/evaluation of the locally adapted model, and Replication/scaling. Download our program development process document.
