YouthBuild Newark (YBN) is an innovation-driven youth and community development agency that centralizes “opportunity youth†– 16 to 24 year old young adults who are not engaged in work or school – as key agents of community revitalization and economic development. By providing high-quality direct services, offering technical assistance to youth-focused organizations, and coalition-building, YBN strives to ensure a greater number of opportunity youth develop into empowered and stable adults who can participate in the workforce, invest in their communities, and raise healthy families. YBN’s programs and initiatives integrate several best practices including high-quality, experiential education, training in in-demand sectors such as construction and healthcare; case management, and life skills and career counseling; leadership development, including service-learning; and follow-up services.
By engaging, educating, and placing more and more young adults on pathways to progress, YBN is working to break the school-to-prison pipeline and upend generational poverty.