From its roots in 1978 as a project of the Youth Action Program in East Harlem, by early 2003, the YouthBuild movement had grown to encompass a network of over 200 local sites nationwide.

This case study was designed to tell the YouthBuild story in a way that provides a learning experience for others who are interested in scaling social innovations. The case has been written to highlight the strategic decisions made in this scaling process, with particular attention to the challenges and opportunities associated with collaborating across sectors to achieve national scale.