POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- Dwayne Joyner was walking down Main Street with his friend George Green last Wednesday when he said he saw a man suffering from an overdose outside of Chase Bank.
Just the day before, Joyner, 21, was trained on how to use naloxone, which reverses the effects of opioids, at the Youthbuild/AmeriCorps program. So he ran inside the Nubian Directions building where YouthBuild is housed to get naloxone and administered it to the man.
"For me to save his life, it made me feel great about myself as a person,” said Joyner.
But Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said President Donald Trump’s budget proposes cutting funding for Americorps, which funds YouthBuild. YouthBuild provides youth ages 16 to 24, who are no longer in school with training in construction while providing access to other educational and volunteer opportunities. Trump made the proposal because he wants to increase defense spending.
"And so I want you to know that some of us are doing everything we can to stop that, and I think we will be successful,” said Maloney.
"Without a program like this, there’s not much in the city of Poughkeepsie to have a second chance,” said Nubian Directions Youthbuild/Americorps Director Mario Johnson.
Joyner hopes Trump and others in Washington pay attention to that warning. He said because of YouthBuild, he knows he has the skills and confidence to save a life and prepare for his future.
"I feel like it’s definitely taking me on the positive road, definitely better than what I was doing. And I feel like real soon, I will probably end up having a career,” said Joyner.