SA Youth Environmental
SA Youth Environmental Pathway
SA Youth’s YouthBuild Environmental pathway is a innovative program that allows participants to gain their high school diploma and gain workforce skills so they will become employable in the emerging Green Jobs industry. The program will offer participants the opportunity to earn a high school diploma while working part-time in the program. Participants may work on various green jobs, including weatherization, community gardening, solar panel installation, or they will complete an internship or apprenticeship in an emerging green job.
High School Credit Recovery at the Cooper YouthBuild Academy
Participants receive their high-school diploma at the Cooper Academy, housed in the Mission Verde Center at the former Cooper Middle School. The Cooper Academy programs are offered in collaboration with SAISD, providing high school credit recovery, giving participants a second chance for success. Academy instructors provide invaluable support for the participants and use the Plato curriculum for a self-paced learning experience which can accelerate a participant’s attainment of the high school diploma.
Leadership Training
At SA Youth, we create an environment in which young people and staff can learn, feel valued and cared for, make good decisions, and grow in their self-development, knowledge, skill, and leadership. SA Youth provides many opportunities for young adults to become engaged and learn how to be effective leaders.
We emphasize leadership development in SA Youth for four reasons:
- The future of our society and all our communities depends on having more ethical and effective leaders.
- Every youth program and school would itself be improved if governed with real input from young people.
- Leadership can engage young people intensely and deeply, liberating their own best energies.
- Real decision-making responsibility can help heal two deep wounds of young people: Low self-esteem due to consistent invalidation of their intelligence; and feelings of powerlessness, and the companion anger, due to being raised in a thoroughly adult-dominated world, which has not listened to the ideas of young people.
Every Friday, SA Youth staff and our Leadership Council plan a leadership training day where special programs are developed and implemented that center around the principles of leadership.
While in our program, participants have the opportunity to serve on a Leadership Council. The Council is elected from the SA Youth population and meets with the staff each week. The Council is charged with making important decisions about the SA Youth program. Decisions include disciplinary actions, community service programs, policy decisions, and other programmatic decisions.
Using YouthBuild USA’s Blueprint for Democracy curriculum, participants learn how to be civic-minded individuals. The curriculum is designed specifically to address the needs and attitudes of low-income youth, including alienation from politics and politicians; the legal status of former felons; and issues affecting poor people such as welfare policies, civil rights policies, and campaign finance reform. Activities ask teachers to start with the students’ experiences, feelings, knowledge, and concerns.
Case Management
All participants receive the support of a full-time case manager who helps participants find needed resources such as counseling, food, housing, rent assistance, and access to other social service programs. The case manager also works with participants to help place them full-time in jobs that align with their interests and skills.
SA Youth is proud to be a full affiliate of YouthBuild USA. For more information about our national YouthBuild program, visit the YouthBuild USA website at www.youthbuild.org.
For more information about enrolling our Environmental Pathway, download the application and supporting materials.