Partners in Serving Youth
Tree Trust’s YouthBuild program operates successfully thanks to continued collaboration with all our partners in serving youth. Working together with area schools and community organizations, we offer workforce training opportunities for young people with interrupted education. In addition to the field training, each participant works one-on-one with a Tree Trust Employment Success Coach to set career goals, explore community resources, and seek employment opportunities after programming. The Tree Trust YouthBuild program provides high school students with paid training in construction and tree care. We are grateful for all our school partners, Transition Plus Minneapolis, Minnesota Internship Center– All Campuses, Volunteers of America High School, Career Pathways, and Paladin Career and Technical High School.
Educational Partner Spotlight: Paladin High School
Paladin Career and Technical High School, one of Tree Trust YouthBuild’s educational partners, offers a specialized approach to education, including experiential learning, work-based learning, and project-based learning. Paladin was recently recognized by the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs as the Best School of the Year! Paladin’s engagement with youth and innovative approach to learning is a natural partnership with our Career Pathways programs. Paladin students can choose from an array of program opportunities – including Tree Trust YouthBuild – to explore their interests. Students who participate in Tree Trust YouthBuild alternate between a week of training at Tree Trust and a week attending high school. They earn both high school credits and a paycheck, learning professional development and important life skills as they explore the skilled trades and tree care professions.
“Our students who participate in this amazing program come away with job skills, certifications, self-confidence, and opportunities for future employment. Some of our students go on to full-time carpenter programs at local tech schools while they are still in high school. Tree Trust gave them the skills and tools to be ready for these more advanced training programs.”- Sarah Sannes, Paladin Career & Technical High School.
Partners in Serving Youth: An Inspiring Transformation Story
Meet Kai. A student at Paladin High School and Tree Trust YouthBuild participant. Kai explored many different types of trades, framing, drywall, and painting before discovering their love of carpentry. Kai’s spark for building illuminates a path to a bright future in the skilled trades. Kai has been accepted into the carpentry program at Hennepin Technical College (HTC) next fall and will be a full-time PSEO student as a senior. Kai plans to join the Carpenter’s Union after HTC. Tree Trust was the perfect confidence builder to allow Kai to find out that the trades are exactly what they want to do for a career. According to Paladin School Counselor Sannes, “The trades offer a level of job security and economic stability that is unparalleled, especially coming right out of high school. Many of our students do well working with their hands and they are so gifted in these areas. In some cases, the ability to earn excellent money, provide for themselves and their families breaks the cycle of poverty. It gives our students a level of dignity, the pride in creating something, and the satisfaction of knowing that they have the skills to earn a paycheck that affords them the type of lifestyle that they hope to have for themselves and their loved ones.”
Training the Future Workforce
Tree Trust’s educational partners who support our Career Pathway’s programming help us to achieve our mission of transforming lives and landscapes. Kai’s transformation story is one of many that inspire our vision of a thriving workforce living on a healthy planet. In addition to Tree Trust YouthBuild, Career Pathways programming includes a pre-apprenticeship adult education program, Branches, and our Summer Youth Employment Program, all geared towards skilled trade and green career exploration. If you are a graduate of any of our Tree Trust programs, please consider sharing your transformation story with us by clicking here. We can’t wait to hear about your journey into the skilled trades.
