Elkhorn YouthBuild seeks to foster growth while assisting families
By Kellen Olshefski
One of the programs at the Career and College Academy seeks to not only build homes for area families in need, but also help local students experience the construction process thanks to partnerships with seasoned professionals.
According to CCA Principal Kelly Demerath, the Elkhorn YouthBuild project is a program that’s specific to students attending the CCA, which was formerly the Alternative High School but underwent new branding this year in an effort to better help area youth in the next step whether college, technical school or straight into a career.
She said the program is funded by a federal grant, which she believes is actually one of the oldest federal grants. She said the CCA applied last year in partnership with Community Action of Rock and Walworth County and was selected for the grant funds.
Under the program, Demerath said students receive six months of on-the-build skills and construction training. In the case of the CCA, she said the school has five cohorts of 10 students, with 50 students in all working on the build of the home.
Demerath said students attend school at the CCA in Elkhorn the morning, and spend their afternoons at the build site in Whitewater. Once the home is completed, Community Action will use it to help a family who is struggling to get a traditional bank loan for a home by providing a loan for the home at a reduced rate.
“We know that not only building youth is important, but also that affordable housing stock in our community is really important,” she said. “Home ownership… we know that helps sustain communities.”
Demerath said over the course of the six-month project, the students learn various job-site skills while working under an on-site construction trainer. They learn construction and equipment skills as well as how to work together to resolve conflict. Additionally, students receive performance feedback every six weeks.
“(The feedback is) both on the site in the group, and then things for them to work on, which is really powerful, because it’s also them as an employee and they do receive a stipend for their work on the build,” she said. “It’s a really powerful way to build not only their skills but also them as an employee.”
Demerath said each cohort of students is working on a different aspect of the build, with this first group focused on planning permits, foundations and rough framing for the home. Others will focus on items such as interior development and design.
“Each cohort has a separate task, all the way to the last cohort, which will be doing all of the finishing work,” she said.
Demerath said following the on-site portion of the program, students will receive a year of follow-up from YouthBuild staff including Director of School to Work Opportunities Chris Trottier as one example.
“He works with them on creating a strategic job placement plan,” Demerath said of Trottier. “What do you want to do, how do you want to apply these skills. And even if you don’t want to employ the construction skills – as we have students who are interested in welding, CNC, things of that nature – then we look at how do we engage Gateway to get them those skills and youth apprenticeships in the community to get them more experience and networking,” she said.
Demerath said even during the build, Trottier is taking students to meet with various employers in the community, allowing them to discover what it’s like to work there, to be in the shop and more.
“We’ve found businesses to be really receptive toward that,” she said.
Trottier said the program falls in line with the CCA’s goals of providing students with stackable credentials and opportunities to prepare them for the future.
“These opportunities are readily available, and there’s a clear investment from the (Elkhorn Area School District) to expand these opportunities,” he said.
Trottier said the opportunities are not limited to students in the Elkhorn Area School District.
“We’ve reached out to other districts to see if they wanted to partner. These are opportunities that other districts can take advantage of and give the same opportunity to their kids,” he said.
Demerath said while the on-site of the portion really is an amazing experience it’s the year of follow-up that provides students with the building blocks to move forward.
“That year of follow-up is really powerful because they’ve ended on this really high note of doing this amazing thing and really contributing to the community. But, in the follow-up year, it’s actualizing all of those goal-setting things we did in the beginning of the program and really applying community resources, working with the Walworth County Job Center, WCEDA and local businesses,” she said.
Demerath said the program is a team effort.
“There’s just a lot of investment in these youth and how they make their goals a possibility. You have a team of people working with you for a year to make sure you’re achieving all the goals you set for yourself. It’s a really powerful program; it really does amazing things,” she said.
