Agency Details:

BUILD, Inc.

BUILD’s mission is to engage at-risk youth in the schools and on the streets so they can realize their educational and career potential and contribute to the stability, safety and well being of our communities.
Our vision is: By 2020, BUILD will be sought out as a premier provider of proven-effective youth development services targeted for at-risk youth and communities. As we realize this vision, our youth will be motivated and equipped with the tools to utilize educational and community resources that will assist them in achieving social mobility.

Description:
Historically, BUILD has worked with youth in groups. We now complement that strategy with our Youth Development Initiative, which emphasizes one-to-one engagement and support that creates more opportunities for youth. Emphasis is placed on developing life skills, maximizing personal potential, strengthening commitment to education and community service, enhancing positive impact on peers, and generally assisting youth to become productive citizens and leaders in their communities.
BUILD’s uniqueness lies in our comprehensive approach: Staff mobility – Staff are not building bound but go out to where kids are – in the schools, the playgrounds, the streets – to reach kids who are dropping through the cracks of building-centered programs. Through community collaborations BUILD avoids duplicating the efforts of others by extensive networking with other private and public agencies and utilizing existing community facilities as sites for our program activities. BUILD staff develop caring relationships with at-risk youth from age 10 through early adulthood. In the Juvenile Detention Center the presence of “Project BUILD” in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center has a countywide impact on reducing recidivism and giving highly at-risk youth a critical second chance.
While other agencies have moved in and out of working with at-risk and gang-affiliated youth, BUILD has stayed the course since it was founded in 1969.

History:
In 1969, BUILD was founded as an Intervention Program to offer gang-affiliated teens positive alternatives to gang life; In 1973 we added a Prevention Component to reach elementary school children in their classrooms and through after-school activities, helping them avoid gangs, violence and drugs. In
1982 we began to reach out to parents and other adults through our "Community Outreach" which provides training, support and coordinates local adults in addressing gang and violence problems. In 1993 the agency began a Rehabilitation Program, "Project BUILD" at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center to reduce recidivism among released youth. In 2000 BUILD received it's first State IDHS grant to initiated the Teen REACH – Humboldt Park after-school program that emphasizes education and avoiding risk-taking behaviors, located at San Lucas Church, our partner in this program. In 2003 we Initiated a College Prep & Career Development Initiative, "BUILDing Futures" to access the
“Mainstream Dream” of post-secondary education/training leading to a meaningful career.

Contact person: Roslind Blasingame-Buford, Associate Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: 773-227-3012

Address:

1223 North Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, IL 60642 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.buildchicago.org

Last updated on September 22, 2009