LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some local at-risk youth are working on a life-changing rebuilding project.
The youth are part of the latest YouthBuild Louisville class. The class started last month and students are helping to renovate a home on East Breckinridge Street in Smoketown.
On the surface, it's easy to see the house is being renovated, but what you don't see is that it also serves as a classroom for students.
"I done lost a lot of friends too," said Kayron Hambrick, YouthBuild, Student.
And the home and renovation are being used to give at-risk youth a second chance. Despite their youth, most of them have already faced a lot of adult problems and painful losses.
"I lost a lot of friends; a lot of my friends didn't get to graduate, I didn't even graduate from high school," said Rodney Cathey, YouthBuild student.
YouthBuild Louisville is a nonprofit providing education, counseling and job skills for at-risk youth.
"I was running the streets, doing what the teenagers do these days," said Cathey. "And I just wanted to make a change."
The circumstances that brought them to YouthBuild may vary, but everyone has the same goal.
"Well, I had a court case going on and they referred me to YouthBuild," said Hambrick.
"Yeah, one step at a time," said Cathey. "That's how I gotta take it."
And everyone gets the same tough love.
"I get frustrated like 'oh my God, I gotta get up at 9 in the morning. Oh my God, I don't want to come in here. Ms. Sue is going to get on me,'" said Cathey.
"It don't even just be her," explained Hambrick. "They all be on boots!"
"They know that it's not an attack; they know that it's love," said DeAndra Adams, YouthBuild lead case manager.
"But I am better known at YouthBuild as Ms. Sue," said Adams. "I came to the program in 2003. So I understand their struggles."
Although she doesn't look like what she has been through, Adams says her own struggles included dropping out of school and being homeless at 14-years old. She said, YouthBuild changed the trajectory of her life.
"Graduated the program, received all of my certifications, went to college, bought property, got my kids through high school and through college," explained Adams.
And that's why the students are learning in the classroom, on the job, from their mistakes and mentors like Adams, who is now a happily married mother of two college graduates.
"I ain't going to lie, if it wasn't for YouthBuild, I don't think I don't know where I'd be," said Hambrick "Like this actually keeps me busy. Like, I don't have a lot of free time and it keeps me motivated."
"I'm gonna wake up and go every day. I'm not trying to be late, I'm not making no excuses or nothing," said Hambrick.
When the renovation is done, the location will be used to house students who don't have a place to live.
"This is one of my favorite projects that we have going right now," said Adams. "I get excited thinking about the young people that will be able to come here."
The renovation is scheduled to be finished sometime next year.Â
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