Seated on the new benches, from left: Elm City Communities board Chair William Kilpatrick, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, YouthBuild program director Louie Reyes, and Tom Long. Standing, from left: Adrienne Parkmond of The WorkPlace, the city’s Arlevia Samuel, Elm City Communities President Shenae Draughn, and YouthBuild graduates, including Khalil Ivy.
When Khalil Ivy joined YouthBuild, he was walking the aisles of a grocery store 12 hours a day, about to become a father, and facing homelessness.
On Friday, Ivy stood beside four wooden benches he helped build, now installed outside Winslow-Celentano, Elm City Communities’ public housing for older adults and residents with disabilities at 60 Warren St. in Wooster Square.
He now has a full-time job, his own apartment, and is working toward his GED.
“Something told me to say yes,” Ivy said of the moment he decided to join YouthBuild. “Where would you be if you just gave yourself a chance?”
Ivy was one of 12 young people in a New Haven cohort of YouthBuild, a federally funded program that trains young people — many of whom have left high school — for careers in the trades while helping them earn their GEDs. The participants trained at Elm City Communities’ Henry Street development through a partnership with The WorkPlace, the regional workforce development board.
Ivy said his partner, Anais Claudio, pushed him to join. At first, he thought, “I’m too old for this,” since the others were younger. He also figured he could be earning money at a job instead.
“I didn’t have no fight in here,” he said. “These people taught me that — fight for what you want.”
Building the benches, he said, taught him teamwork, patience, and precision with his math.
“What you think you know, somebody else may know more than you,” he said, “and when you apply the knowledge together, you create something beautiful.”
“The benches built friendships and they built bonds,” he added.
Louie Reyes, who runs the YouthBuild program for The WorkPlace, said the benches were the first project of their kind for YouthBuild in New Haven. About 80 percent of the New Haven cohort has found jobs, he said, and six participants have earned GEDs, including one who passed his final section Friday. That participant wants to become a welder, Reyes said, and Reyes is helping him enroll in the University of Bridgeport’s welding program, with the goal of an apprenticeship at General Dynamics Electric Boat.
Reyes said Ivy now works full time as a security guard with Orion Security Service.
The program aims to give participants the skills and confidence to “not only change their lives, but inspire others and change their communities,” Reyes said.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who grew up on the surrounding streets — “this is my hood,” she said — recalled her late mother’s work on behalf of Winslow-Celentano’s residents. When a snowstorm once knocked out the building’s power, DeLauro said, her mother went up and down the street collecting food from restaurants and brought it to the residents.
DeLauro, who is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said she helped secure a 17 percent increase in federal YouthBuild funding, from $89.5 million to $105 million, and vowed to keep fighting for more.
“We don’t just want a job; we want a career,” said Adrienne Parkmond, chief operating officer of The WorkPlace.
Elm City Communities President Shenae Draughn encouraged the graduates to attend the hiring fairs the agency holds for its development projects. And Arlevia Samuel, the city’s deputy economic development administrator for housing, saw bigger projects ahead: “Today’s the bench. Tomorrow you’re building a sofa, a cabinet, next year you’re building a house.”
That’s roughly Ivy’s plan. After finishing his GED, he wants to fix up rundown houses — maybe start his own business doing it.
“That’s good money, and also it’s giving back to the community,” he said. “The only way is up.”
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