PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — The Peoria Housing Authority received $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Labor in grant funding. These awards were distributed to agencies that focus on youth education and apprenticeship training programs under the YouthBuild initiative.
YouthBuild is a community-based pre-apprenticeship program that provides job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youth ages 16-24, who are neither enrolled in school nor in the labor market for jobs in high-demand industries.
“We are extremely excited to have been awarded the YouthBuild grant and about the opportunity to help young people continue their education while gaining specific skills in the construction industry – skills that will transform into meaningful careers and usher young people into the workforce,” said the PHA’s CEO Armeca Crawford.
Venus Black, the Community Engagement & Resident Services Manager for the Peoria Housing Authority, said they want to make sure clients in the program have a system of help around them.
We want to make sure they have a very strong support system, and that’s where the case manager comes in to make sure that they are getting out there, getting those job interviews, having that support, having that coaching, getting a life skill that they’ll need, through additional partners that we have with the program,” Black said.
This grant will serve more than 75 youth over a 40-month period. To learn more about the YouthBuild program, visit The Department’s of Labor website.
To learn more about these programs, visit Literacy Minnesota and HUD Self- Sufficiency
