YouthBuild Charter's January Update

It's only January, 19th, but it's already been quite a busy month for us at YouthBuild Charter. Here's a brief run down of what we've been up to!

- Leonidas Olea, one of our YCSCC students at our Fresno site was featured in an article in the Fresno Bee's Spanish-language division, "Vida en el Valle." You can read the entire article here. Thanks to journalist Rebecca Plevin for taking such an interest in our students! Interested in checking out other news stories featuring YouthBuild Charter School of California and our partners? Check out our News Stories tab in our blog!


- At the end of December, students at our LA CAUSA site working on their "Green the Eastside" Initiativ converted their first "food desert" into a "food oasis." If you check out Edith's Market in East LA, you'll now see a refrigeration unit (installed by LA CAUSA YouthBuild students) stocked with plenty of fruits and veggies. Check out the pictures from the event below and go to our Photos and Videos tab on this blog for more!

LA CAUSA students love kale!

The new refrigeration unit

Rossie Johnson is recognized for his work

The building that will be renovated

- On January 17th, we traveled to Palmdale, where Antelope Valley YouthBuild held a press conference to announce that they'd receive one of nine coveted $810,000 Department of Labor SMART Grants. As part of the grant, AV YouthBuild students will be renovating a building on 5th Street East and Q-5 to serve as free student housing . They also plan on building a community center behind the main building, which will host community events and counseling sessions. They also announced that they'd received one of the AmeriCorps grants as well, which will allow a number of their students to receive scholarships after serving one term of AmeriCorps service. AV YouthBuild CEO Rossie Johnson said that last year 54 out of 60 YCSCC students at our Palmdale site graduated, and of those 54, 85% went on to get jobs, in large part because of the program. For more information, check out this article on the event.

Palmdale's screen printing workshop

We then took a school tour of the Palmdale site, where we got a glimpse at their awesome screen printing workshop. The students there are currently working on sweatshirts to commemorate YouthBuild USA's 20th Anniversary.




- Today, January 19th, our Moreno Valley site at Rising Stars Business Academy held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate their new location at the Canyon Springs Plaza. The event took place at 11:30 am, and featured student performances, remarks by city officials and a tour of the new facility. According to Alicia Berridge, Founder and CEO of Rising Stars Business Academy, which partners with YCSCC who provides the educational component, "Among the first 100 students, 57 graduated with a high school diploma; at least 15 are now in college; seven joined the military and others are in vocational schools or working."


- As for the administrative staff here at YouthBuild Charter School of California's Downtown Los Angeles headquarters, we've been keeping busy organizing this year's 3rd Annual "Feed a Hungry Student" Golf Tournament. Today we were grateful to receive an in-kind donation from the Grammy Museum, who will be donating 4 tickets to be auctioned off at our Silent Auction. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor, we have a number of opportunities available. Please contact Emily for questions and inquiries about sponsorship (email: esuttmeier@youthbuildcharter.org or call: 213-741-2600 ext. 206).