What:  This year, former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter lend their hands to Habitat for Humanity during the weeklong Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.
When: May 11 – 16, 2008
Where: Community of Forest Heights, Turkey Creek Basin Area, North Gulfport, Miss.

Gulfport, Miss., – When Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi coast, community residents had to be rescued by boat as floodwaters filled their homes. The hurricane badly damaged homes in the low-income Turkey Creek Basin area, one of the first affordable communities for African-Americans in North Gulfport. YouthBuild AmeriCorps Gulfport program which engages youth who reside on the Mississippi Coast in learning construction skills to rebuild their neighbors’ homes along with CCEO YouthBuild from Gardena, California will work alongside of Habitat for Humanity and its partners.

YouthBuild is a national youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities: housing, education, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development.

In YouthBuild programs, low-income youth ages 16-24 work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas while learning job skills by building affordable housing for homeless and low-income families. YouthBuild emphasizes leadership development and creates a positive peer group that can compete with the lure of the streets while developing new young leaders who have transcended poverty in America’s poorest communities. Since 1994, more than 76,000 YouthBuild students have produced 17,000 units of low-income housing. Most graduates have gone on to college or jobs in the construction industry.

The YouthBuild AmeriCorps members are continuing construction and rebuilding efforts in the Gulfport along with the National Katrina Rebuilding Project which brings other YouthBuild programs from around the country to help with the rebuilding efforts.

“These projects demonstrate the powerful potential of our nation’s low-income youth to transform communities and their own lives,” said Dorothy Stoneman, president and founder of YouthBuild USA. “Many of our students and graduates have overcome homelessness and poverty, so they are strongly motivated to help others who are suffering as they have.”

YouthBuild is a youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities: housing, education, employment, crime prevention and leadership development. In YouthBuild programs, low-income young people ages 16-24 work toward their GED or high school diploma while learning job skills by building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people and participating in leadership development activities in their communities. For more information, visit www.youthbuild.org.

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