Two newly completed homes in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood are the latest product of Milwaukee Community Crossroads’ YouthBuild program, which combines affordable housing construction with workforce training for young adults.

The pre-apprenticeship initiative gives young adults ages 18 to 24 hands-on construction experience while building new affordable homes in neighborhoods including Amani, Harambee, Metcalfe Park and Lindsay Heights.

“This is really a dual attack,” said Jake Weiler, director of housing for Milwaukee Community Crossroads. “We’re creating new housing stock in neighborhoods that need it while also training the next generation of tradespeople.”

The 10-month program teaches participants practical construction skills from the ground up. Trainees work alongside journeyman carpenters learning framing, insulation, flooring, cabinet installation, trim work and other residential construction skills.

“We basically take them from concrete up,” Weiler said. “Everything we do is about opportunity and upward mobility.”

Last month, the organization unveiled two completed homes in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood. The homes will support an affordable housing initiative for early childhood educators through partnerships involving LISC Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee and the Community Development Alliance.

“On the front end, we’re building the next builders,” Weiler said. “On the back end, people teaching our kids should be able to find housing in their communities.”

The program has navigated significant funding challenges over the past year.

In spring 2025, the Trump administration terminated federal grants for all Serve Wisconsin AmeriCorps programs. Serve Wisconsin administers AmeriCorps funding throughout the state, including support for Milwaukee Community Crossroads’ YouthBuild initiative. At the time, Milwaukee Community Crossroads was known as the Milwaukee Christian Center.

Within days, Milwaukee Community Crossroads received notice that its AmeriCorps funding for YouthBuild had ended. The cuts affected $223,000 supporting nine members of the current 21-person cohort. The remaining participants are funded through Employ Milwaukee.

Weiler said the organization responded by leaning more heavily on local partnerships and restructuring the size and composition of its training cohorts to maintain program quality.

“We knew training youth and housing production were never going to go away,” Weiler said. “The question was how we continue to make this work.”

The organization worked with local partners, including lenders, housing organizations and corporate supporters to stabilize the program after the federal cuts. MCC also adjusted staffing and cohort sizes to ensure trainees continued receiving hands-on supervision and mentorship.

While some AmeriCorps funding has since been reinstated, Weiler said the disruption reinforced the organization’s decision to focus on local funding relationships rather than rely too heavily on funding that’s subject to political headwinds.

“We had an opportunity to get more local and more connected with people we can shake hands with,” he said. “That’s the better community approach to funding.”

Credit: Milwaukee Community Crossroads

Beyond construction training, program leaders say mentorship and support services are central to keeping participants on track through the 10-month program.

“We meet the members where they’re at,” Weiler said. “If they have needs around transportation, we can help. If they need have needs around food, we can help. We surround them with resources and people. It’s really mentorship with a hammer in our hand.”

That mentorship component proved critical for 22-year-old Johnathan Nicholson, who joined the program after struggling to find direction following the death of a parent.

“Before YouthBuild, I really didn’t have nothing planned,” Nicholson said. “I was grieving a parent. I didn’t know what to do.”

Nicholson said he initially doubted whether construction work was the right fit but quickly found confidence through the program’s hands-on training environment.

“We were building outside walls, inside walls, carrying lumber, using nail guns, jigsaws — everything,” he said. “When you’re in YouthBuild, you’re doing everything, so it’s a lot of experience.”

While Nicholson said he may eventually pursue sales or real estate, he now sees construction skills as a long-term career foundation.

“I’ll always have construction under my belt,” he said.