YouthBuild
Participants ages 16–24 can work toward a GED, build leadership, and earn construction training and certifications in a supportive environment.
$7 Million Capital Campaign
Build with youth
Build with families
Build futures
The Youth Center for Innovation & Vocational Excellence
Nubian Directions is transforming 209 Cottage Street into a permanent home for education, skilled trades, technology, mentoring, career exploration, and workforce opportunity for Poughkeepsie's young people.
But we are beginning this campaign where we believe it should begin: with the young people and families this Center is intended to serve.
OUR GOAL:$7,000,000
Start with listening
Space is reserved for YouthBuild participant interviews, photography, and short video after permissions are confirmed.
The starting point
We are beginning with young people
Before asking our community to invest in this Center, Nubian Directions is beginning by listening to the young people and families it is intended to serve.
We are inviting our YouthBuild participants to help us answer an important question:
“Why should someone invest $7 million in young people like you?”
Their experiences, aspirations, challenges, and ideas will help shape how we tell the story of this Center and how we invite others to help make it possible.
We do not want to simply build a Youth Center for young people.
We want to build it with them.
Approved participant stories will be added here after interviews and appropriate permissions are obtained.
How we begin
From listening to transformation
1
Listen
Youth and families help shape the vision.
2
Engage
Participants become ambassadors and storytellers.
3
Connect
Families and community partners help open doors.
4
Invest
Donors, foundations, businesses, and government help build the Center.
5
Transform
The Center expands opportunity for generations of young people.
Our history since 1995
Building Lives, Building Communities
Three Decades of Investing in Young People
For more than 30 years, Nubian Directions has helped young people reconnect with education, develop workforce skills, discover career pathways, and build more promising futures.
The Youth Center represents the next chapter of that commitment.
Founded in 1995, we are the only organization in Poughkeepsie with a core focus on career building. We pair one-on-one mentorship with hands-on training, so every young person has a constant supportive presence, a stable path forward, and a real chance at a career.
1,000+
Youth Educated & Trained
30+
Years of serving Poughkeepsie
150,000+
Hours of Community Service
The opportunity
Why this Center. Why now?
Young people need more than a classroom.
They need caring adults, practical skills, technology, career exposure, credentials, work experience, mentoring, and a place where they know they belong.
The Youth Center for Innovation & Vocational Excellence will bring these opportunities together under one roof.
Our two locations — the storefront at 248 Main Street and the historic warehouse at 209 Cottage Street — anchor Nubian Directions in key parts of the city. This capital project will scale our successful YouthBuild/AmeriCorps model to meet the pressing needs of hundreds of young people in Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County. Neither space fully meets the organization's educational, administrative, or housing needs today; once designed and renovated, the Cottage Street warehouse will help us deliver our Northstar mission.
The building
209 Cottage Street, restored for a new generation
Acquired by Nubian Directions in 2012, the warehouse was originally used by Pioneer Storage and dates back to 1919. The brick building's interior footprint is roughly 22,000 sq ft, set within a full 40,000 sq ft development envelope that includes the adjacent lot, the single-family home next door (also part of our property), and outdoor program space. Historic factory windows will be re-opened to bring in natural daylight, and the large mass of brick construction will provide a stable thermal envelope year-round.
Renovating this cherished building isn't just about creating a space for learning and growth — it can also open pathways for supervised training while honoring the deep-rooted history this building holds.
A participant-first build
Building skills. Building their future
YouthBuild participants develop practical construction skills while preparing for sustainable careers.
Where appropriate, safe, and supervised training opportunities may also allow participants to contribute to selected aspects of the Youth Center's transformation.
Programmatic areas (within the 22,000 sq ft building)
- ~7,400 sq ft · Learning — classrooms, construction labs, computer lab, makerspace
- ~9,100 sq ft · Community — teaching kitchen, cafeteria, auditorium, covered outdoor gathering
- ~3,400 sq ft · Administration — shared & private offices, conference rooms, staff lounge
Carbon Net-Zero
A healthier building and a learning opportunity
Sustainability is both an environmental commitment and a chance for young people to understand how buildings, energy, and the future are connected.
The Youth Center will be a carbon net-zero building, leveraging passive ventilation, daylighting, and rooftop PV panels that can provide 90–100% of the building's energy use on site.
Passive ventilation
Design strategies that move air with less reliance on mechanical systems.
Daylighting
Historic factory windows bring natural daylight deeper into the building.
Rooftop photovoltaic panels
On-site solar energy helps power the Center and makes sustainability visible.
Energy efficiency
A stable brick envelope and efficient systems support the Center's long-term use.
The programs
What becomes possible here
The Youth Center will bring education, workforce development, technology, mentoring, career exploration, entrepreneurship, and community engagement together in one place.
AmeriCorps
Members serve their community while earning an education award, college grants, and benefits that support their next step.
Innovation Lab
Young people get hands-on access to 3D printing, drones, aerial and video photography, and more through a STEM-equipment and technology hub open to all Poughkeepsie youth.
Urban Youth Organic Garden
Participants can learn gardening, explore entrepreneurship, and gain employment opportunities through an urban gardener's market.
YMDI Youth Diversion Initiative
Prevention and intervention services support out-of-school, low-income, under-skilled, and unemployed youth in Dutchess County.
Youth Entrepreneurial Training
New and recent graduates build entrepreneurial skills through training, mentoring, and a key component of the new Youth Center.
Visioning Booklet · Drawings, Diagrams & Maps
See what your investment can help bring to life
Architectural Vision for the Youth Center
Explore the architectural drawings, diagrams, maps, floor plans, sustainability strategies, outdoor court and garden, outdoor classroom, auditorium, and café/welcome space imagined for the Center.
Drawn in partnership with MASS Design Group. Use the menu below to view each drawing, diagram, floor plan, or site map from the Nubian Directions Visioning Booklet.
Community partnership
It takes a community to build opportunity
No single organization can provide everything a young person needs to succeed. Nubian Directions works with educational institutions, employers, workforce organizations, community organizations, government, and other partners to connect young people with the right opportunities at the right time.
Poughkeepsie Children's Cabinet↗The Art Effect↗
Community Matters 2, Inc.↗
Scenic Hudson↗
Marist College↗
Vassar College↗
Cornell Cooperative Extension↗
Dutchess Community College↗Northeast Community Center↗Hudson River Housing, Inc.↗
Practice 2 Perfect↗
The Dennelisse LHCSA↗
Laborers' Local 17 Training and Educational Center↗
Dutchess County Child and Family Services↗
Family Services — Poughkeepsie↗
Community Matters 2, Inc.↗Scenic Hudson↗Marist College↗Vassar College↗Cornell Cooperative Extension↗Dutchess Community College↗Northeast Community Center↗Hudson River Housing, Inc.↗Practice 2 Perfect↗The Dennelisse LHCSA↗Laborers' Local 17 Training and Educational Center↗Dutchess County Child and Family Services↗Family Services — Poughkeepsie↗The new Youth Center was developed in partnership with MASS Design Group, a global nonprofit architecture collective whose Hudson Valley Design Lab shares our belief that the work we do is healing.
Youth voices
Hear from the young people
As this campaign develops, YouthBuild participants will help tell the story of what opportunity means to them and what they believe this Center can mean for future generations.
YOUTH VOICES COMING SOON
A participant photograph, short quotation, and short video will be added after approved content and permissions are provided.
Participant photographAdded with permission.
“Short quotationAdded after participant interviews.
Short videoAdded with permission.
Participant first name if permission is providedYouthBuild participation
Ways to participate
Help us build what's next
There is more than one way to help build the Youth Center.
1
Invest
Make a financial contribution toward the Youth Center and the opportunities it will create.
2
Open a Door
Know someone who should hear about this project? Introduce us to an individual, business, employer, foundation, financial institution, civic leader, or organization that may share our vision.
Make an Introduction3
Become a Partner
Explore corporate, foundation, educational, workforce, government, construction, or community partnership opportunities.
Partner With Us4
Share the Vision
Help more people discover what Nubian Directions is building with Poughkeepsie's young people.
5
Follow the Journey
Receive occasional Youth Center campaign, youth, partnership, and construction updates.
Stay ConnectedThe promise of this campaign
This is more than a building
Every classroom represents learning
Every workshop represents employable skills
Every technology lab represents discovery
Every mentor represents encouragement
Every employer relationship represents opportunity
Every donor represents someone who decided that a young person's future was worth investing in
Build with youth
Build with families
Build the Center
Build futures