San Luis YouthBuild students top 4,000 hours of community service
San Luis YouthBuild students have logged more than 4,000 service hours, while also earning GED prep, job training and scholarship credit.
More than 4,000 hours of community service have turned PPEP YouthBuild students in San Luis into a visible workforce and civic force, not just volunteers. The hours reflect a program that mixes classroom work, job training and public service for young people who are rebuilding their own paths at the same time they are helping Yuma County.
PPEP says its YouthBuild/AmeriCorps program is the only one it operates in Yuma County and serves about 24 at-risk youth each year at 731 N. First Ave. in San Luis. The eight-month intensive program is designed for disadvantaged youth ages 17 to 24 who are high school dropouts and low income, and it combines GED classes, leadership development, job training, community service and AmeriCorps participation.
That structure is what makes the 4,000-hour mark more than a ceremonial milestone. Students are not only giving time to local projects, they are also building job-readiness through hands-on experience. PPEP says participants can earn credit toward post-secondary education scholarships through AmeriCorps, adding a direct education payoff to the service work.
The program also connects students to housing work. PPEP says YouthBuild helps participants build affordable housing for low-income families through housing partnerships, tying service hours to a tangible community outcome in San Luis and beyond. Earlier PPEP materials said the HUD-funded YouthBuild program had served 158 dropouts, built or rehabilitated more than 120 homes and built 30 new farmworker homes in San Luis and Somerton, giving the current milestone a longer track record of local impact.
Funding for PPEP’s youth programs comes primarily from HUD, Pima County WIOA, YouthBuild USA, AmeriCorps and local funds from cities and towns. That mix helps sustain a program that fits squarely within the broader YouthBuild model described by the U.S. Department of Labor, which calls it a community-based pre-apprenticeship program for opportunity youth ages 16 to 24.
PPEP, founded in 1967 by Dr. John David Arnold, says its mission is to improve the quality of rural life. In San Luis, the 4,000-hour mark suggests YouthBuild is doing exactly that, producing service, skills and a clearer bridge from dropout status to employability and post-secondary opportunity.
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