FOUNDER/PRESIDENT/CEO: Jim Ziolkowski
Jim is also the best-selling author of Walk in Their Shoes. Walk-in Their Shoes is a powerful, inside look at the buildOn movement. It’s the inspiring personal story of Jim Ziolkowski’s mission to change the world one community at a time by building schools in developing countries and empowering inner-city youth through service-learning programs in the U.S.
As an international chronicle of faith and the boundless potential of the human spirit, Walk in Their Shoes tells the story of Jim’s movement and the young people who have decided to step forward, step up, and make a difference.
MISSION: To break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education.
Build On is breaking the cycle through Service-Learning Programs in America’s under-served high schools and by building classrooms in some of the world’s economically poorest countries.
Where They Work: Education and service are at the center or buildOn’s work, in U.S. cities and developing countries around the world.
Their Service-Learning Programs empower youth from America’s toughest neighborhoods to explore the challenges facing their communities and take action to address these issues through service – helping the homeless, seniors and children in their communities.
buildON U.S.: buildOn’s Service-Learning Programs mobilize students in under-resourced urban areas to lift up their communities through intensive local service. We run programs at 40 high schools in six US regions: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, the Bay Area, and Southern Connecticut.
buildOn Global: buildOn works in some of the economically poorest countries on the planet to build schools in villages that have historically lacked school structure. To date, we have built more than 1,300 schools in seven countries: Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mali, Malawi, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Senegal.
https://www.facebook.com/buildOn/
U.S. Impact:
5,181 – Students engaged in buildOn programs each month
97% – Of students graduate high school and attend college
2.3 million – Volunteer service hours contributed by students
International Impact:
1,576 – Schools built in developing countries
212,668 – Children and adults attend buildOn schools every day
