Encourage Yourself: United Community Corporation YouthBuild Program Assistant details path toward empowering the next generation

“Sometimes you gotta look yourself in the mirror/And tell yourself, ‘I can make it.’”

You may not hear her voice in the bustling hallways at the local community-based organization United Community Corporation (UCC YouthBuild), but if you brush past program assistant Shanice Henderson, you will likely hear her hum the melody of the song “Encourage Yourself,” by Donald Lawrence and The Tri-City Singers. Those lyrics comforted her during tough times and are now words she lives by. 

Although it is not in the official job description, the phrase “Encourage Yourself” is what she teaches the young people of UCC YouthBuild. As a UCC YouthBuild alumni herself, she understands the difficulty of bringing those words to life. 

Speaking up and advocating for others may come naturally to her now, but before attending UCC YouthBuild, she struggled with speaking up for herself. In high school, Shanice seldom voiced her need for support with her academics at her previous school, even though she knew she needed help. As a result, school became the place she dreaded most. Like oil and water, school and Shanice just didn’t mix. 

“I wasn't the type of person to speak up on things, so that's why I didn’t get help from them,” she said. “I needed to speak up on my own behalf.” 

Without voicing her need for support and without anyone from her school proactively offering Shanice a helping hand, she repeated the tenth grade and ultimately dropped out in 2015.

Unfortunately, Shanice’s experience in school is not unique. In 2020, 2 million students ages 16 to 24 dropped out of school—that is one student every 8 seconds - or 11,765 per day. In the following year, more than 100,000 New Jersey students were disconnected from school. 

While she was disconnected from school, she realized that a shift in direction was necessary. Shanice said, “I felt like I wasn’t doing enough, so I knew I had to do something. I had to encourage myself to make a change.” 

For the next several years, Shanice participated in a number of youth programs, but she still struggled to find herself. While Shanice appreciated the help from those other programs, they weren’t in the right key for Shanice’s melody. But to her surprise, the promise of self-discovery and opportunity finally came from an unexpected messenger—her brother. 

He told Shanice about UCC YouthBuild after finding information about the Newark-based organization online. 

“I found out from my brother,” said Shanice. “I didn't really know much about the program. I thought I was just coming to get my high school diploma. But during the program, I learned a lot. The most important thing I learned was in the job development part of it. That taught me a lot.”

UCC YouthBuild provides services for emergency shelter, utility assistance, a food and clothing pantry, housing assistance, weatherization, energy and water assistance, lead abatement and youth, family and senior services. UCC YouthBuild is also a member of the Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative. Opportunity Youth Network (OYN) serves as the backbone of the Collaborative— a collective approach to creating a school-to-workforce pipeline within Newark.

Shanice continued, “UCC positively impacted my communication skills and even helped with my shyness. With my peers, I try to influence them because I was in their shoes before. I’ve definitely found growth within myself. I came out of my shell and found things I want to do for myself.”

And this time, she wasn’t alone on her journey. Because of the YouthBuild model that UCC implements in their programming, Shanice received the help she was too afraid to ask for previously. UCC YouthBuild Case Manager/AmeriCorps Coordinator Tara Bass was pleased to witness Shanice’s growth as a student and now as a new staff member. 

“She’s a completely different person - she did a complete 180. And I say that in the most positive way,” said Bass. “She was very quiet in the beginning. And now, even throughout her journey here as a student, she opened up, she started sharing stories and different things about her journey in order to help her peers. Now, as a Program Assistant, she’s interacting with students and using her story to help encourage them forward.”

Not only does she work as a program assistant, Shanice is also an AmeriCorps member and has accumulated nearly 300 hours aiding community service projects. She’s also traveled to Washington D.C., along with a small group of other young professionals to attend the Conference of Young Leaders with AmeriCorps. 

Shanice truly found her passions while at UCC YouthBuild. While she initially wanted to pursue nursing, Shanice’s aspirations pivoted to dentistry after a guest speaker shared their story. She took a strong interest in the field, so much so that she plans on studying dentistry in college — something she never thought she was capable of doing until today. 

No matter where life takes her, she is eager to personify and amplify the lyrics that started it all—encourage yourself.