The Burnsteads, a local family of independent home building companies, will be conducting its annual Helping Hands Project on Sept. 6 for Friends of Youth’s New Ground Kirkland, a new transitional living program that will open in mid-October.

Every year, the Burnsteads and its affiliate companies join together to provide safer and cleaner housing for a family or a local non-profit organization in need. For this year’s Helping Hands Project, the Burnsteads and their sub-contractors will provide construction materials and approximately 75 volunteers to landscape, paint and perform other types of construction for the New Ground Kirkland. This new program with six single adult units is dedicated to providing support of homeless and at-risk youth, age 18 to 21 years old.

This will be the second time for Friends of Youth to be chosen as a recipient of the Helping Hands Project. In 2007, more than 100 Burnsteads volunteers renovated the Youth Haven Kenmore facility, an emergency shelter for male youth aged 11 to 17 who need temporary housing in times of personal or family crisis. In addition, The Burnsteads also provided the program with a new refrigerator, range, dishwasher, and garbage disposal for the kitchen. The estimated value of Burnsteads’ contribution was between $50,000 and $75,000.

Friends of Youth is a non-profit agency dedicated to supporting youth and their families in King and Snohomish counties. Friends of Youth provides a broad range of services including homeless shelters, transitional housing, outreach, mental health counseling, and substance abuse prevention and treatment.

More information is available at www.FriendsofYouth.org, or phone 425-869-6490.