A non-profit organization, My Brother’s Workshop provides the “tools that build hope” to at-risk and high-risk youth, ages of 16-24, by offering paid on-the-job training, mentoring, education and job placement. The program began with MBW offering training in maintenance and light construction skills, but it saw the need to offer more and to expand the program.
In 2012, MBW moved into its permanent home at Tutu Park Mall with a 12,000 square foot workshop that allows it to offer woodworking, carpentry, and more recently, welding and manufacturing skills training.
In 2015, MBW opened a café and bakery in the historic Bakery Square located in downtown Charlotte Amalie. Later on that year it expanded yet again to St. Croix and implemented the same models and methods set up on St. Thomas in order to guide a committed team of volunteers and staff to start up similar workshop programs on the “big island.”
The organization could not have made its expansion as quickly if it weren’t for the generous donors throughout the years who have supported its program. Roy Clennan, the owner of Quantico Consulting Services donated 10 computers to MBW on Friday, Oct. 28, for the use of My Brother’s Workshop’s up and coming alternative school.
The staff and trainees all entered Clennan’s office on Friday prepared to receive only computers but did not expect the check that he had prepared for the organization, as well. The team — along with the trainees — were astonished at this additional donation. It was very important for the kids that day to see someone in the community caring for them through actions such as Clennan’s.
After shaking hands and expressing tremendous gratitude, MBW left the Quantico Consulting suite with even more hope for ending youth violence and crime in the territory. The up and coming alternative will be MBW’s latest addition to the program, and the new computers donated by Clennan are a huge contribution to the education of the the program’s students. This alternative school will create an opportunity for those enrolled in the program who missed out on a high school diploma to earn one and gain necessary life skills through mentorship and counseling.
The generosity of donors not only aids the youth of the program; it also builds hope.