BuildOn
| Motto | "Breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education." |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1991 |
| Legal status | Non-profit organization |
| Headquarters | Stamford, Connecticut |
| Website | http://buildon.org/ |
buildOn is an international nonprofit organization that runs youth service afterschool programs in United States high schools, and builds schools in developing countries. The organization's programs engage young Americans from mostly urban areas in community service, and promote literacy among children and adults in developing countries.
buildOn views its service learning and school construction programs as a form of social activism that intends to, in their words, "break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations". buildOn is based in Stamford, Connecticut. They have a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.
President and CEO Jim Ziolkowski was inspired to found the nonprofit after watching a two-day celebration for the opening of a school in a village in Nepal, where he was backpacking. In 1991, Ziolkowski quit his finance position at General Electric and founded buildOn, then called Building with Books, with his brother. General Electric was one of the primary funders for the venture.
buildOn’s service learning programs were later developed to engage at-risk youth from low performing urban high schools in community service. The first of these programs was organized at Lumen Christi Catholic High School in Jackson, Michigan.
The organization changed its name to buildOn in 2009.
buildOn runs service learning programs in six urban areas in the United States: Detroit, New York City, Chicago, Boston, southwest Connecticut, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Students from these programs volunteer in their own communities, working on small to large- scale regional service projects such as serving meals at soup kitchens and homeless shelters, spending time with home-bound senior citizens, and tutoring and mentoring younger children.
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