Founded in 2018, BuildUp is a private, nonprofit high school in Titusville, a neighborhood in Birmingham, with an innovative model that offers a 6-year career-focused curriculum for students to learn skilled trades. Students combine academic learning with hands-on experience.

Through their studies, all students in the program pursue a trade such as construction, electrical, plumbing, masonry, and automotive technology. Students take free dual-enrollment courses with local community college partners and earn certifications in their chosen fields, helping them to obtain highly paid roles after graduation.

Supervised by mentors in their chosen trade, students rehab homes in disinvested neighborhoods in Birmingham that nonprofit partners are developing into affordable housing. The program also works on homes that are donations from those in the area who would otherwise demolish the house on their lot when building a new home.

Students receive a monthly stipend for their work, and some BuildUp students and their families occupy the renovated homes. BuildUp staff assess family housing needs and students’ school performance to determine the priority for selecting students to move into the homes. Chosen families then pay the same amount for their new leases as they paid for their old homes but for significantly better and safer housing.

After completing their high school degrees, BuildUp students enter the workforce, pursue higher education or further trades credentials, or start their own businesses while receiving mentorship. After two years, students exit the program and are eligible to buy one of the homes that BuildUp has renovated with a low-interest mortgage and built-in equity.

Thus far, BuildUp’s 81 students have completed 30 renovation projects in their community.

Before graduating, 90% of BuildUp’s students have earned industry-recognized credentials, making them attractive employees to employers in their chosen industries. BuildUp’s recent high school graduates are apprentices working at small trade-focused businesses and/or in college or trade school.

Research shows that participating in high school career and technical education programs has positive effects on several outcomes. Students who do not attend college following graduation but who participated in such training are more likely to be employed after high school than their peers.[2] These students earn higher wages on average throughout the first seven years after graduation, particularly in the construction, transportation, manufacturing, and technology sectors.[3]

In addition to benefiting the students and their families, BuildUp benefits the larger community by reducing urban blight and increasing property values. A comparable program focused on reducing blight in a Memphis neighborhood restored 18 houses, resulting in a $6 million gain in real estate value, increased annual taxes of $112,000, and a 12 percent return on investment.[4]

BuildUp receives about 25% of its funding from philanthropic sources, with the remaining 75% from earned revenue from its properties and government support. Additional philanthropic support would allow the organization to enroll more students and/or open new locations. Learn more: https://www.BuildUp.work/

Genesys Works provides training and meaningful paid work for high school seniors in underserved communities.

For another way organizations are improving local housing while improving the livelihoods of community members, see Build Up Nepal, which works with local entrepreneurs in rural Nepal to build safe and affordable housing

For guidance on how to connect young people with schools and employment, see CHIP’s Reconnected: Opportunity Youth Toolkit.