My Brother's Workshop describes multi-island apprenticeship and reentry-linked training

Christie Payne, program director for My Brother's Workshop (MBW), told senators the nonprofit operates workshops, a café and an industrial kitchen across the territory and has worked with more than 1,600 trainees since its founding.

Payne described MBW's holistic model: case management, literacy and numeracy support, hands-on trade training (woodworking, machine shop, culinary arts), and on-the-job placement. "We provide workforce development in our woodworking shop on Saint Croix, a workshop on Saint Thomas, a cafe on Saint Thomas, and a new campus that houses an industrial kitchen, event space, classrooms, cafe, and offices," Payne said.

Payne said MBW targets at-risk and high-risk youth (roughly ages 16'to 24), that the organization serves about 100 young people annually, and that trainees often enter the program with literacy and math levels below grade level. MBW described a year-long training window for many trainees and said some certification (for example, heavy-equipment simulators and forklift training) is already offered in-house. Payne told the committee MBW measures success by job placement, further education or military enlistment and reported a 75'to'80 percent success rate for graduates moving to employment or other positive outcomes.

Payne said MBW faces administrative and cash-flow constraints when trying to operate as a federal WIOA eligible training provider: grant rules and reimbursement timing create obligations for providers that must front costs and then seek reimbursement. She told the committee MBW is revisiting its eligible-provider registration to reestablish that status.

Committee members asked MBW for enrollment and outcome lists by island and for a program breakdown to allow the Department of Labor and the committee to measure capacity and results. Payne agreed to provide that information through the committee clerk.