What We Do
Changing Lives.
Developing Communities.
Building the Future.
Our Mission
Fortitude is a comprehensive youth and community development program that addresses several core community issues: job readiness, employment, mental health challenges, diminishing crime and poverty, and individual leadership development.
We address the status of unemployed young adults who have no access to a direct path to a career to support their lives, families, and contribute to their communities. The COVID pandemic has made the path to self-realization even more challenging for those who did not have a well-defined path. We are inviting young adults who want to get back on track, to join our program and realize their dreams of a successful and self-sufficient life.
It is our ambition to provide a program that allows young adults to realize their potential, serve their communities, take pride in building their future, AND recognize the value of investing in others, the same way they have received benefit from the investment of the supporters of Fortitude.
In its capacity as a community development program, participants first understand the needs and challenges of the community around them and add to that a skill set that allows them to serve others in meeting the needs of the collective whole. Fortitude will help participants evolve from a life situation that is focused on basic survival, to one where they are thriving and seeking opportunities to serve others in their community.
Post-program, successful graduates will be available to serve communities impacted by natural disaster or similar events, to serve as volunteers to members of the community who are unable to secure construction assistance through other channels. Fortitude asks participants to commit to a three-year “call back availability”, where they can be quickly deployed as volunteers to affected areas, to serve the most needful of those impacted by natural disasters and other calamities.
Our Approach
Outreach, recruitment, and selection is designed to attract young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. Fortitude is designed to meet the needs of those with educational, social, or economic hardships to overcome.
Exceptions may be made when Fortitude is responding to unique circumstances (such as the Covid-19 pandemic) to expand the program to include any young adult between 18 and 24 who would like to use Fortitude to design the life they want.
Fortitude is a program in service to the community, as young people learn skills to build a career in the construction field, and have the opportunity to develop those skills by building “ADU’s” (accessory dwelling units or tiny houses). The ADU’s will be offered to municipalities (in accordance with established regulations,) to be used as housing for those experiencing homelessness and other low-income people.