KINGSTON – Cameron Cucksey, of Kingston, has been a crewmember with Ulster YouthBuild for about six months, and during that time he’s learned about the building trades and earned certifications from OSHA and the Home Builders Institute (HBI), so he can have a better life in the future.
“I joined the program to get my GED, work on myself, to get a good career for myself,” he said. “I want to get my CDL and want to try and get other things than just one or two certifications. I have learned a lot from being in this building right here, working and doing things I have never done before.”
The building Cucksey and other crewmembers are working on is an older house located on 50 Crane Street in the city’s Rondout waterfront district, which has been gutted and now being renovated for RUPCO.
Participants, ages 16 to 24, can join the program as high-school dropouts, come from a low-income family, a child of incarcerated person or get a referral from a school counselor.
They are put into two groups and split their time at BOCES getting an education or working in the field on an assigned construction project, and participants can get OSHA, HBI, CPR and Narcan certified while in the program.
“They are in the program six to eight months,” said Frank Neglia, program director. “One week they would be in the classroom working toward their GED and the following week they are on the jobsite getting their job training, and it rotates.”
The program began in 1994, and Neglia joined as a recruiter in 2015 before becoming the program director now.
“I love the program,” said Neglia. “It works. When they graduate from the program after six to eight months, we are then required to follow them for a year after graduation because we also place them in jobs and follow them to make sure everything is keeping up. It’s about teaching them that it is possible to live a successful life.”
The program usually has one project per grant period, which lasts two years, and 30 students are served per year or 60 students during a grant period.
Ulster YouthBuild does community service projects for non-profits and low-income seniors and vets every other Friday, and those community service projects were recognized in March by Kingston’s Common Council.
Houses are donated by the City Kingston or RUPCO, and once the renovations are completed, they are sold to low-income first-time homebuyers.
