YouthWorx on Main is a brand-new youth-serving nonprofit collaborative that will live on Main Street in Carrboro, adjacent to the PTA Thrift Shop. The thrift shop and Youth Forward worked together to form YouthWorx and give other local nonprofits a place to work.

“We talk about co-housing, we talk about co-working with adults,” said Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle. “Why not have collaborative services where nonprofits for youth share space? It’s really imaginative and I think it’s very cutting-edge, especially with a youth angle.”

Lavelle attended a ribbon-cutting Tuesday to kick-off Youthworx in its new space.

PTA Thrift shop staff and board members and Youth Forward staff also attended the event. Tabitha Blackwell is the director of Youth Forward. She said her organization’s goal is to support other nonprofits and help them effectively serve youth. And helping to give those organizations a space with YouthWorx will also help Youth Forward.

“Here at YouthWorx, we’ll actually be doing those trainings and hosting really great workshops that are going to be interactive and allow organizations to really become more effective and efficient,” Blackwell said.

PTA Thrift Shop Executive Director Barbara Jessie-Black said the project has been a long time coming.

“A collaborative of this kind had been in my head for a really, really long time but I hadn’t really articulated it to anyone. Tabitha handed me her logic model, and I looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God this is what’s been living in my head.’”

Lavelle said Carrboro is the perfect place for YouthWorx.

“What I do like about Carrboro is the great support we give to nonprofits. I think that’s what makes our town really special.”

Photo via WCHL staff

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