Josh is a young father with ambitions to build a stable future for his family. While enrolled in YouthBuild, he was faced balancing his health priorities and living instability, family responsibilities, and program commitments. At one point, even considering walking away from the program. Josh pushed forward with the support of MHYC staff earning his GED, construction certifications, along with an AmeriCorps Scholarship education award.
Today, Josh is employed with Mr. Rooter Plumbing, where he is participating in a paid training program that includes 12 months of technical instruction and hands-on field experience in both commercial and residential plumbing service calls. He recently secured a new apartment and is excited about his personal and professional growth.
In November 2020, MHYC’s Energy & Water Conservation crew worked with the City of Westminster to retrofit income-qualified multi-family complexes across Westminster. The first project completed by the Energy & Water team in Westminster is the Orchard Crossing, a 90 unit subsidized, low-rent apartment complex. The crew assessed and retrofitted low-flow water fixtures in 73 apartments at Orchard Crossing. A total of 83 Ultra-High Efficiency toilets, and 116 low flow fixtures were installed over 5 days on the service site. It is estimated that these installs will save each apartment an average of 37,000 gallons of water per year as well as $205 in heating and water costs per year.
This project is also projected to save over 2 Million lbs of Co2 over the lifetime of all installed materials.
Since 2021, MHYC has partnered with Denver’s Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency (CASR) office to support preparing young people for the green workforce and fulltime, quality employment. With CASR funding, the Energy and Water Conservation program will increase their Corpsmember enrollment annually over three years.
The partnership helps support outreach and recruitment for young people living in under-resourced and opportunity neighborhoods to expand equitable access to good jobs in the green economy. Corpsmembers receive certifications in Department of Energy and Department of Labor recognized training including Building Science Principles.
This partnership provides a suite of career exposure and exploration activities including guest speakers, job site visits, job shadows and networking opportunities in green industries.
