YAYB - Youth Action YouthBuild

In 1978, Dorothy Stoneman, current president of Opportunity Youth United and our founder, asked neighborhood teens in East Harlem how they would like to improve their community. They answered, “We’d rebuild the houses. We’d take empty buildings back from the drug dealers and eliminate crime.” They didn't ask anyone's permission. They just acted. Those young people went on to complete the gut rehabilitation of an abandoned 4-story tenement building, which today serves as low income apartments and the site of YAYB's offices and program space. This was the genesis of the YouthBuild program, which later expanded its program offerings and became incorporated as Youth Action Programs and Homes, Inc., in 1984, or, as it is known today, Youth Action YouthBuild (YAYB). Following the first building rehabilitation project completed by young people in East Harlem, the YouthBuild program was replicated in five more New York City communities, and began an ongoing dissemination of its program model. In 1990, YouthBuild USA was founded to scale-up YouthBuild as a proven social innovation to widely break the cycle of poverty both nationally and internationally. Since 1994, YouthBuild students across the US have produced over 28,000 units of affordable, increasingly green, housing. As the YouthBuild movement has expanded from its birthplace in East Harlem, YAYB, the organization that started it all, has continued to proudly serve NYC, where there are an estimated 250,000 disconnected young adults aged 17-24 at pivotal moments in their lives. YAYB helps them help themselves through a combination of vocational skills training, high school equivalency certificates and job placement. In addition to seeking investments in their futures, we are looking for long-term corporate partnerships. We work with socially responsible, impact-minded organizations to help tell these truly inspirational stories. We are all part of one community, with many voices. Help us hear theirs.