William smiling at work
In 2009, after dropping out of school, William came to our public charter high school, the Service Learning Academy. William was 18 at this point, a time in life when many young people would already have graduated. Through our self-paced program, he completed his credits in 2 years! William had a difficult time passing the State test and joined our award-winning green construction program to gain job skills and earn a small living stipend while he studied for the State test. In addition to job skills, he learned to give back to his community by building energy efficient homes for low-income home buyers. Our job training programs are designed to create pathways out of poverty by rebuilding the lives of at-risk youth.
It is important to note that American YouthWorks continued to serve William even though he had “aged out” of the school. This meant that American YouthWorks no longer received State funding to serve him. Through our programs, William earned his diploma and industry recognized job training certifications. He ate breakfast and lunch every day in our cafeteria and his son was cared for in our child development facility on campus. All of this at NO COST to William or his family. He started at American YouthWorks in a place of uncertainty, and on June 30th, William will walk across the stage with his fellow students! He’s graduating with job skills and is currently working with the City of Austin as an intern. William is achieving his dream: to have a viable means to support his wife and son.
It is through generous gifts from our donors that we are able to provide these types of desperately needed services to at-risk youth in Austin so that there will be more success stories like William’s.