YouthBuild Program Gives Troubled Youths a Second Chance

Nov. 8, 2015, 12:51 AM UTC / Updated Nov. 8, 2015, 5:49 AM UTC

By John Yang

After a life of hard knocks and poor choices, some just need a chance to turn things around.

That’s what James Mackey wanted for himself once he realized his life, and the people he cared for most, were going the wrong way in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Mackey spent his younger days dealing drugs and was in a gang.

But the death of his brother to gang violence just ten days after Mackey’s 20th birthday, and another brother who ended up in jail, put things into perspective.

"That’s when I realized I had to take the initiative to find my way out of this position that I was in," he said. "You know the hood."

He found his answer in YouthBuild, a non-profit program operating in 45 states that helps students learn job skills and earn their high school diplomas.

"It taught me about the importance of bringing your family together," he said.

Youthbuild gets young people working together to learn construction skills to help build affordable housing and other institutions like community centers and schools, while building social skills along the way.

"We're not just trying to prepare them for a dead end job. We're saying, 'You can be the change agent in your community,'" Dorothy Stoneman, founder and CEO of YouthBuild, said.

Mackey, 29, earned his diploma and now mentors students in Massachusetts.

"I see myself in these young people all day, every day," he said. "The struggles that they go through, I've been through it."

In Zion, Illinois, 22-year-old single mom Tatiana Spies is using YouthBuild to try and rebuild her life. She quit high school four years ago, when she was a junior, and is the mother to a 3-year-old daughter. She’s also an intern at a local fire house.

"I see myself doing big things," Spies said. "I'm looking at the big picture. I'm taking small steps now so I can make it there."

John Yang

John Yang is an NBC News correspondent based in Chicago, where he covers a variety of stories for “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “TODAY” and MSNBC.

Since being assigned to Chicago in 2009, Yang has covered a number of major stories, including the deadly April 2011 outbreak of tornadoes in Alabama. His coverage was part of a "Nightly News with Brian Williams” honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for “Best Newscast.” In 2012, he was the lead correspondent for NBC News’ coverage of the sex abuse trial of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. He also reported from Afghanistan.

Previously, Yang was based in Washington, where he was White House correspondent. He was part of the NBC News team honored with an Emmy for coverage of Election Night 2008.

In September 2007, Yang was the only television correspondent to accompany President Bush on his surprise visit to a U.S. airbase in Anbar Province in Iraq, west of Baghdad. During the visit, he conducted a one-on-one interview with the president.

Yang joined NBC in January 2007 from ABC News, where he worked in Washington and Jerusalem. As ABC News’s Middle East correspondent, Yang covered many major events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the 2002 Israeli military operation in the West Bank and the final days of the standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Yang also spent extensive time in Iraq and was the first American broadcast reporter to interview captured al Qaeda fighters imprisoned along the Iran-Iraq border.

In 2000, he covered the presidential campaign of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush during the Republican primaries. That fall, he covered then-Vice President Al Gore’s campaign through Election Day and the Florida recount.

In the days following the 9/11 terror attacks, Yang reported from the Pentagon and was part of the ABC News team honored with both the George Foster Peabody Award and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award. Yang was also part of the ABC News team honored with an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II.

Prior to joining ABC News, Yang was a reporter and editor at The Washington Post for nearly ten years. As a reporter, he covered Congress and the White House. As an editor, he directed coverage of economic policy in the paper’s business section and oversaw political features in The Post’s Style section. Throughout his print career, he covered Congress and national politics. He had previously worked for The Boston Globe, Time magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

Yang was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, and graduated cum laude from Wesleyan University.