Taking the YouthBuild Challenge

Abstract

Many 21st century dilemmas will defy small-scale solutions. Here's a way to scale up a hugely successful youth at risk program started in the U.S. with some innovative ways of mobilizing Credit Union financing; the aim - to expand affordable housing, foster citizenship, and to stave off the labor shortages in the building trades. Key to the replication of Youth Build from its Harlem roots was the systematic work of a national intermediary dedicated to support the expansion of the model across the U.S. Recommended several years ago to a large B.C. credit union as one element of an affordable housing strategy there has been little take up. The other component described in the article, a way of reinvesting patronage dividends that could painlessly mobilize $1 billion in no-interest credit within ten years has likewise not been taken up. Meanwhile affordable housing in Canada�s most expensive city is becoming a more and more remote objective.