An alternative high school, YouthBuild DC PCS offers a non-traditional school environment for young people seeking to transform their lives. In an intimate, supportive environment, students take classes in English or Spanish, earn a GED, acquire the skills to be successful in college or the workplace, and navigate the transition to adulthood. And this is no mean feat: most students earn low incomes and many qualify for special education, are experiencing homelessness, speak little or no English, begin with low math and reading skills, and are parents themselves. Students alternate between the classroom, construction site (building affordable housing units), and volunteer opportunities (creating community gardens and cleaning up local rivers), with service learning forming an essential component of YBPCS' transformative process. Young people who often feel that they have nothing to offer leave YBPCS with a different perspective: “I built that,” they say. They have built even more.
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