UBB is featured in Sunrise Banks Blog

Urban Boatbuilders got a shoutout from our longtime banking partner Sunrise Banks in their blog "A Sunrise Banks Passport to the Minnesota State Fair!" Thanks to Amanda Thiesen for visiting the woodshop and the wonderful write-up. Check out the blog below:

Summer in Minnesota wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Minnesota State Fair. Between August 22 and Labor Day, hundreds of thousands of people will descend up on the State Fairgrounds in Falcon Heights to get in their fair share of cheese curds, sweet corn, farm animals, Giant Slide and Carousel rides, Grandstand shows…and don’t forget the Sweet Martha’s Cookies!

Here at Sunrise Banks, we love nothing more than supporting our customers when they get the opportunity to share what they love with the people around them. Surprisingly (or not), you’ll find several well-known State Fair vendors that have ties to Sunrise Banks.

So, when you enter the Fairgrounds in the coming days, make sure to stop by their booths and show them some Sunrise love!

Photo by Amanda Thiesen

Urban Boatbuilders:

Urban Boatbuilders is a nonprofit that works with youth ages 16-21 on building skills for trades careers by building boats. It offers a variety of programs, including semester-long apprenticeship programs for students who may have encountered systemic barriers to traditional employment.

“In that semester, they not only build a boat, but they also take field trips to look at union jobs, construction jobs, or opportunities in trades and manufacturing,” says Gretchen Wilbrandt, Director of Development & Community Engagement at Urban Boatbuilders. “They get that worksite exposure and understanding about how they would get paid, the type of training they would need and job expectations.”

Urban Boatbuilders also works with apprentices on career readiness skills, financial literacy, mental health, self-advocacy and working as a team. Gretchen says over time, the staff and instructors develop strong relationships with the participants.

Read the full story here

How can the community help youth succeed?- Monitor St. Paul Story

Our Director of Development Gretchen Wilbrandt was recently featured in an article by Jan Willms for Monitor St. Paul covering various youth workers' ideas on how to help youth succeed. Monitor is a neighborhood paper covering Midway, Frogtown, and Como.

Photo by Terry Faust

Read an excerpt of Willms' article below:

Gretchen Wilbrandt has been the director of development and community engagement at Urban Boatbuilders since September. She has also been a teacher, a consultant, a PhD student, IT worker and with the Yacht Club. Urban Boatbuilders is a nonprofit in Saint Paul that teaches youth how to build boats through paid internships. ”I think everyone comes from a different situation, longing for a sense of community and support. We have fostered and developed that at Urban Boatbuilders,” she said. She remarked that the COVID generation wants a little bit more connection and wants to find ways to do that.

“We are looking to break down the silos between the nonprofit and for-profit industries,” Wilbrandt said. “We have a shortage of skilled workers, and we want to break down the wall between companies to let them know we are working to ensure we have employable youths. We want to determine our young people are socially and emotionally ready.  Helping connect them to stable employment is our mission.” She said her agency and others are impactful by offering career readiness programs.

“We have been talking about having some events this summer,” Wilbrandt said. “There are so many nonprofits along University Avenue. We have talked about getting together for a meet and greet or an eat and greet, or a lunch and learn. There is so much collaboration to be done.”

Wilbrandt said one of the greatest challenges youth seeking employment face is lack of a car and driver’s license. “You need a job to pay for a car, but you need a car to get the job,” she stated. She said a large number of youth are challenged by that transportation barrier. She said one company in Minneapolis will pick up employees from their doorstep to take them to work while they are getting a driver’s license and car.

“The lack of affordable housing creates a lot of instability on all levels,” Wilbrandt added. “I can’t imagine coming out of college now with debt and looking for that first job and a place to live, and making ends meet.

“Young people are facing so many challenges,” Wilbrandt continued. “Personally, I think there needs to be a paradigm shift in society that honors others, with more equity and more people need to care more about others.” She cited COVID, global wars and a mental health crisis as stressors that can make young people feel hopeless. “We need to help people around us and we need micro-communities that blossom. We need to care about other people and give them a chance. We don’t want to remove chairs from the table, but bring in more chairs to the table.” She said there is a need for inclusive conversation, actual listening, a breaking down of White supremacy and White saviorism. 

To read the entire article, click here.

We're on the News!- CCX Media Story

April 24th was Urban Boatbuilders’ last day of our partnership program with Birch Grove Elementary School for the Arts! Birch Grove fifth graders, with the assistance of Breck School high school student volunteers, added the finishing touches to the longboards they've been working on since January before taking them outside on their first rides! CCX Media was there to cover the fun morning and published a great story about it. Check it out below!

Video and words by CCX Media.

An Osseo Elementary School class is giving some students a hands-on look at the trades. Urban Boatbuilders, in a partnership with Birch Grove Elementary, is finalizing its 30-hour project teaching fifth graders how to build their own longboards.

Urban Boatbuilders, despite its name, teaches kids other crafts besides boat building. For some schools, like Birch Grove, longboards are the perfect lesson. Program coordinator Brianna Oseland said this partnership gives kids a chance to try the woodworking trade early on.

Birch Grove is a school for the arts, so these kids are well-practiced in thinking creatively.

“Get that experience of working together in a team, in a hands-on project that is artistic and located within the trades,” Oseland said…

READ FULL STORY HERE