YBPA Case of Support

Each year hundreds of young men of color leave Rhode Island’s urban high schools without a diploma, a direction or a next step in life.

These young men pay a steep price for our schools’ failure to educate them: higher rates of unemployment, poverty, poor health and arrests throughout their lifetimes. The whole community pays, too.

YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is changing this story.

YouthBuild Prep is a school designed by and for students of color. For decades, YouthBuild Providence has helped students who have left school to repair the damage done by their inadequate educations. Now, at the initiative of those very students, YouthBuild has created a public school to prepare all boys and young men of color for success.

YouthBuild Prep is a school where young men of color are embraced, not rejected. At YouthBuild Prep, boys and young men of color discover the best versions of themselves. They leave us ready to become important actors in our community’s success. YouthBuild Prep opens its doors in September of 2022.

We’ve just begun this important work. Please join us.

This is emergency.an

Urban schools are leaving a generation of young men behind.

Eighty percent of urban public school students in Rhode Island are Black, Latino, or Asian. Eighty percent come from low-income families. Often, their parents are not fluent in English. Many enter school not speaking English themselves. They go to under-resourced schools with persistently poor academic results. These boys enter kindergarten with fewer language and learning skills than their White peers. They fall further and further behind every year.

In an exhaustive national study, Harvard scholar Ronald F. Ferguson describes the barriers boys and young men of color contend with in schools as “distinctive social forces associated with race and gender identity…. that operate like crosswinds and make staying on course for school success more challenging than for other groups.” (Aiming Higher Together, Urban Institute, 2016)

(RI KIDS COUNT Factbook data)

The schools say they “drop out.” But boys say they are pushed out.

• “I felt like I was in jail.”

• “The teachers were focused on the other kids, the ones with great grades. Not on me.”

• “It’s like schools are afraid of Hispanic youth.”

• “It seemed like they wanted me to drop out.”

Schools don’t intentionally create conditions that drive boys of color away. But the gap between what these boys need and what they experience in public schools is real, wide and persistent. And it hurts us all.

Their crisis is our crisis

Denying boys and young men of color a path to success holds all of us back. By releasing thousands of young men from school to futures of underemployment and poverty each year, we condemn our whole state to massively higher costs for health care, social supports, law enforcement and education for decades to come. At the same time, we’re sacrificing our biggest opportunity to build a thriving and just future for all.

About one in four freshman boys of color entering high school in Rhode Island’s four core cities this year will not graduate with their class in 2027.

“We came from a situation where if you didn’t do our work, we’d get thrown out of school. But here, they don’t let you walk away.”

We can do better. And we will.

Our mission:

Success for boys and young men of color.

While open to all, YouthBuild Prep is intentionally focused on the unique and urgent needs of boys and young men of color from Rhode Island’s urban core communities.

One size doesn’t fit all.

Other marginalized groups, especially girls and young women of color, also need and deserve schools designed for their unique needs. We enthusiastically support such initiatives. YouthBuild Prep, however, has been created to serve the largest and least served group of urban public school students: boys and young men of color.

Here’s what boys and young men of color need to succeed.

Our innovative educational model defies the current norms of education in Rhode Island’s urban core schools. Our curricullum is based on documented models of effective schools and YouthBuild’s decades of success with minority students after they leave high school. It includes:

• Personalized supports to address critical real-world barriers to education: eviction, hunger, a lack of transportation or social and emotional distress.

• Experiential learning connected to real world work experiences, future studies and careers and life purpose.

• Outreach and supports to engage each student’s family in supporting their child’s success.

• A curriculum that embraces the diverse social and cultural experiences of people of color.

• High expectations for performance and regular experiences of success.

• Adults of color who model effective behavior and establish mentoring relationships.

• Patience, love, forgiveness and caring, with supportive correction when needed.

“It’s different, the way you learn at YouthBuild Providence. You’re learning about something you want to know and not just what the teachers want you to learn.”

YouthBuild Providence transforms the lives of vulnerable young people failed by public schools.

YouthBuild Providence educates students aged 16 to 25 who have left school without diplomas. Through our project-based, on-the-job learning and wraparound supports and coaching, these young people equip themselves with the things they need to be successful men and women. They leave us with a diploma and much, much more: self-knowledge, emotional strength, purpose and work skills. They leave with visions of their futures and plans to achieve them.

YouthBuild Providence has long provided what minority students have always needed to be as academically successful, as creative, as productive and as happy as they should have been throughout their school years.

Now, YouthBuild Prep is ready to provide the education boys and young men of color need before they leave school.

Our YouthBuild students

100% have left school and are not working 100% are economically disadvantaged 93% are youth of color 38% are court-involved 80% are boys and young men

A few years ago, some YouthBuild Providence students began to mentor struggling boys in middle school. They immediately recognized their own younger selves in these boys. They were full of energy and intelligence that their school did nothing to recognize or nurture.

As one YouthBuild mentee put it, “we need as school for us.” They asked: Why can’t schools do what YouthBuild Providence does – but before youth like them drop out?

The answer is schools can. And at YouthBuild Prep, we will.

September 2022.

The public per-pupil reimbursements we receive as a public school support traditional classroom-based teaching and learning. But YouthBuild Prep offers far more to its students than traditional school provide.

YouthBuild Prep’s expansive model of career-focused experiential education and intensive social and emotional supports require additional resources. We are committed to rigorous evaluation to measure student outcomes and continuously improve our school model. And, we must make YouthBuild Prep a strong and resilient institution to ensure that boys and young men of color will receive the education they deserve for generations to come.

To achieve the goals we’re committed to, we will need to raise $1.8 million in supplemental funding for five key objectives over YouthBuild Prep’s first five years.

We need a school for us.

“A plan that focuses on everyone, without recognizing that different groups are in different situations…will fail at delivering equal concern or effective outcomes… A targeted universalism approach is concerned about the mobility of all groups while recognizing that some groups will require

forPreparingsuccess.PREPARESTUDENTSFORREAL-WORLDLEARNING:

Career track academy construction, equipment & furnishings: $300,000 by 2023-24

Real-life work experiences at community partner workplaces are a fundamental part of each student’s journey at YouthBuild Prep. We link academic lessons to hands-on workplace challenges that boys are eager to master and meet.

The Construction Academy needs funding for tools and equipment in year 1. The other three academies will be phased in over years 2 and 3. They will need equipment, furnishings and minor construction to adapt interior space for their needs.

By year 3, YPBA will have four staffed and enrolled Career Academies:

CONSTRUCTIONHUMANSERVICES

DEVELOPMENT/COMMUNITYCULINARYNON-PROFIT

PREPARE STUDENTS FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS:

Wraparound student and family counselling and supports: $300,000 by year 3

“Counselling is YouthBuild’s superpower.” We know that comprehensive social and emotional support and health are vital foundations for the academic and career success of boys and young men of color. The staffing plan we proposed to the RI Department of Education included 11 counselling positions by year 3. RIDE agreed to fund six positions. We need to raise an additional $200,000 per year by year 3 to and a total of $750,000 over our first five years to fulfill our commitment to social emotional supports for our students.

forPreparingsuccess.PREPAREFORSUSTAINABILITY:

Strategic capacity investments - $250,000 by year 3

A sustainable academy can only stand on a strong institutional base. YBPA’s new Strategic Plan projects capacity investments in fund development, marketing and business plan implementation and financial consulting to drive and support the growth our our programs. These begin with investments in revenue generation from grants and other fundraising. The returns on those early investments will fuel our ongoing organizational development.

PREPARE TO CHANGE THE WORLD: Institutional Learning and Innovation $500,000 over five years.

We are committed to continuous institutional learning and innovation as we launch our transformative school. The Institutional Learning and Innovation funds will underwrite rigorous program evaluation and research from our first day. As we learn, we will launch research-based program innovations and implementation in years 2, 3 and 4.

Ways to investin our vision.

WITH YOUR HELP, OUR STUDENTS CAN MAKE A LASTING IMPACT NOT ONLY ON THEIR LIVES BUT ON THE GREATER COMMUNITY AS WELL.

We invite you to support the YouthBuild Preparatory Academy in a way that is convenient for you:

Gifts of Cash

The YouthBuild Preparatory Academy welcomes contributions paid by personal check, credit card, or cash. Your gift may be sent via mail or donations may be made online at www.youthbuildprov.org. You may pledge gifts over a number of years convenient to you!

Monthly Giving Program

Include the YouthBuild Preparatory Academy in your monthly budget and give generously throughout the year.

Gift of Securities

Donations of appreciated stock may o er tax advantages. Please check with your financial advisor to see if a gift of stock is right for you.

Matching Gifts

As an added employee benefit, companies sometimes match an employee’s contribution to a charitable organization. Your human resources department can verify if your company has a matching gift program.

Memorial and Tribute Gifts

These types of gifts are a lasting remembrance of a special person who you wish to honor or of a particular event. We will acknowledge your memorial or tribute by sending an appropriate note to the family or friend in whose name the gift was made.

Bequests and Other Planned Gifts

Your financial advisor can help you create a planned gift that benefits you and your family. Many of these gifts bring immediate and deferred tax advantages while providing a lasting, meaningful and transformative impact for countless young individuals.

Please join in supporting the YouthBuild Preparatory Academy campaign and creating a meaningful di erence in our community. Your gifts will ensure that the mission and vision of YouthBuild Providence and YouthBuild Prep endure for all those in need of a bright future.