Youth Mentoring Program

The Youth Mentoring Program created as a community outreach program targeting high school age boys and girls to kindle their interest in pursuing a construction career.

Working together with an area high school and numerous volunteers from the local construction industry, Youth Mentoring Program put on its first camp in 2015. The first camp, which attracted around 10 boys and girls, was a huge success, and the Foundation has been held similar Programs since then. Ultimately, the program allows St. Louis area youths the chance to meet and be mentored in the hopes that they will have professional role models in the industry.

We hope to run every summer moving forward, The Whitfield Historical Foundation would like to attract approximately 5 high school boys and girls each year. During the program, the youth receive an introduction to many different skills, along with hands on experience working on a real construction project. It’s amazing to see how much this builds their self-confidence.”

Before the program starts, its organizers sit down with the Contractors to discuss what type of building projects would work best for the program. In 2018, the participants helped build a shed from the ground up and gained hands-on experience working on a variety of skills, such as roofing, drywall, flooring, carpentry – etc.; such hands-on work is especially valuable for females interested in a construction career.
Unlike boys, girls often don’t have any experience with building things like this, so the hands-on component is very important. Many of the girls initially come to think the programing they could never learn to do these things, but by the end of the week, they have a real sense of accomplishment and can say, ‘I know I can do that.’ It’s amazing to see how much this builds their self-confidence.”

Because the projects involve numerous tasks, each participant has the chance to work on many different hands-on jobs. From there, instructors assess where each participant strengths lie and have them focus primarily on the tasks, they are best at.

The instructors work it out so that all the boys and girls get to do a little bit of everything. Everyone gets a turn with the paintbrush, cutting wood, hanging drywall and so on. Then, they find what the girls do best, so everyone has a sense of accomplishment.

The Whitfield Historical Foundation gives special credit to Jason Signiago from Renovation Perfect who has been the Foundations project leader for several years. This year our organizers have welcomed Stanley Walls to lead the program. His background and experience have made him the ideal person to oversee the camp projects and we plan to bring in two other mentor contractors in 2022.

Moreover, nearly all the volunteers who have helped our organizers and staff over the years are always eager to participate in future programs. A big part of the Programs’ success is due to our mentors and the local construction industry—working together as a team to serve the youth in our community.
When I email our mentors, nearly everyone replies, “Yes, you can count on us to get involved again!”. If the camp wasn’t successful, they wouldn’t participate; we’ve really built this Program together, but it really takes the whole community to make something like this work.”