In 2000, Lynn Rippy and a group of youth and adult leaders recognized a need in the community and learned about YouthBuild USA. With a planning grant from Louisville Metro Housing Authority, they drafted a plan to open a nonprofit agency for youth called Young Adult Development In Action, Inc. Lynn’s living room. The program then gained affiliate status to become a YouthBuild program and began its first class in 2001.

For the first 9 years, YouthBuild Louisville was housed at Jefferson Community & Technical College. In 2010, YBL moved to its current location in Smoketown and has been developing the YouthBuild Louisville Green Campus to better equip our agency to educate, train, and provide a hands-on experience so students (ages 18-24) may pursue their dreams. Having made an investment of $3.8 million in the Preston Street campus, YBL had become an anchor for the Smoketown community. The community development commitment to the neighborhood in which we operate has strengthened further.

In 2022, YouthBuild Louisville started serving adults (18 – over) and young adults (11-17) in the Smoketown community through the Cure Violence model. The project was designed to respond immediately to victims and their families involved in gun violence in the neighborhood. What came from this work was a drastic drop in gun violence in the neighborhood, but more astounding was the connection of Smoketown teens, preteens and their parents to the staff and programs YBL offered. In the summer of 2024 more than 250 youth and their parents applied for the summer program to serve our neighborhood’s teens. As a result, YBL started the rehabilitation and addition of the existing building at 538 East Breckinridge Street. The Smoketown Community Center opened in Spring of 2025. Additionally, YBL was funded to serve the same young people throughout the school day at Meyzeek Middle School. This work is supported by an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Safe Schools and Communities grant to increase attendance, reduce suspensions and increase the academic achievement of the most challenged neighborhood youth attending Meyzeek Middle School.

As another response to the development requests of the Smoketown community, YBL built and opened a laundromat (2022) connected to the community center. YBL and its corporate partner, GE Appliances, helped in a public/private partnership to transform a vacant property at East Breckenridge and Hancock streets into a local, minority-owned, small business and social support center. The building was once home to three businesses: a barber shop, car detailer and liquor store.

The Smoketown Community Center (SCC), is an important neighborhood amenity that will serve youth and young adults in Smoketown and the surrounding area.

The Smoketown Community Center will offer:

a safe space for neighbors to meet and host celebrations inside and outside
a safe zone for youth to complete their homework, study and create using
technology, and participate in leadership development activities
out-of-school time programming for opportunity youth and young adults
an incubator for small, primarily minority-owned businesses.

The Smoketown Community Center is the only community center in the Smoketown neighborhood since 2013. All, with an emphasis on 11-17 year olds.

The 25th YouthBuild Louisville Graduation 2026 Award Sponsor

Yes!! I want to support the Class of 2026 with $100 award sponsorship