2015 Grants

Childhaven

Childhaven is one of only two agencies in Washington State that provides scientifically-based therapy programs for very young abused and neglected children, providing the care and support they need to build skills for healthy lives.  This grant supports the purchase of a 15 passenger van properly equipped to carry 13 children and two teachers. The van removes an important barrier to access to service and also allows teachers to interact with families on a twice-daily basis.

FareStart

The new FareStart Youth Culinary Program will enroll 40 – 80 students between the ages of 16 – 24 who are currently not enrolled in school or employed, and living below the poverty line in 2016. The program is a partnership with the Seattle Interagency School and will provide students job training, education and job placement or further education services all while providing wrap-around support.

LCSN, A Family Place Relief Nursery

This grant helps support the opening of a new classroom to serve children ages 12-24 months (“wobblers”) who are at high risk of abuse and neglect. The classroom and program will serve 6 children and their families with a therapeutic classroom for the children, parenting support, resources and home visits.

LEAP: Life Expanding Adventure Program

LEAP serves populations of individuals who are afflicted by health issues, emotional and psychological trauma, and social and economic adversity through empowering wilderness programs.

This grant supports youth transitioning out of homelessness through New Avenues for Youth to receive constant food, shelter, clothing, training and support for 5 days as they make a transformational wilderness whitewater kayak trip and receive follow-up support.

Momentum Alliance

Student Alliance Project is a year-round leadership program for underrepresented youth 14-23 who want to build trust, confidence, resiliency and health; increase their educational and income levels; and learn and practice leadership and advocacy skills while building alliances and friendships with diverse youth.

Morrison Child & Family Services

The SAGE program, Support, Achieve Grow and Empower, serves girls ages 11-15 who are survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. This is a new program in a newly remodeled institutional building.  Although the bedrooms are large and nicely painted, they had few furnishings and because of the starkness, created a feeling of loneliness.  This served as a constant reminder that the girls are in a secure mental health facility, rather than a home.  This project provided furnishings for the bedrooms, a safe Sensory Room, activities and decorations at SAGE to transform the rooms into appealing living spaces, which will help to empower the therapeutic process by helping the girls to feel safer, happier, and supported.  Special care must be used to make sure that all furnishings minimize the potential to inflict harm.

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Mountain Star Family Relief Nursery

Supports efforts as Mountain Star Family Relief Nursery grows and expands services to Prineville to prevent child abuse and promote success for 45 at-risk children and their families in Crook County over a one year period.  Includes unrestricted funding.

New classrooms in Prineville:

My Voice Music

My Voice Music’s Summer Camps introduce youth living in foster care to writing, recording and performing their own songs, and provide leadership experience for My Voice Music’s top year-round students.  Youth participate in one of four five-day integrated camps that reinforce long term goals for youth to be recognized for their abilities and artistry, not for their challenging backgrounds.  The grant provides free tuition for 25 aspiring musicians living in foster care, a concrete demonstration of new skills/pro-social abilities through performance, positive adult/youth and peer-to-peer experiences and leadership training and work experience for 8-10 youth leaders.

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New Avenues for Youth

With an increasing focus on reaching youth earlier to prevent those at risk of homelessness from ever experiencing it, this grant helps bring to scale New Avenues’ newest program, the Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC), which serves the social, safety, and resource needs of LGBTQ youth.  The strategic union between New Avenues and SMYRC leverages the reputations, capacities, and competencies of both organizations, broadens service offerings, and creates a safety net for LGBTQ youth – who are at risk and experience high rates of homelessness in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.

Funding will support outreach to service providers to connect LGBTQ youth to culturally responsive supports; cultural sensitivity training to schools; and social support groups/events at New Avenues and in the tri-counties.

2014 New Avenues Annual Report

New Avenues for Youth

New Avenues for youth is working with Catalyst Wilderness Therapy Program to explore opportunities for developing wilderness and experiential therapy programming that can be integrated into and supplement PDX-Connect, a comprehensive suite of prevention programs for youth in foster care, who are at high risk of homelessness.  The combination of a backcountry setting, small group size, and intensive support from expert guides and therapists makes wilderness therapy a powerful option for those struggling with the long-term effects of abuse to release the negative patterns of their daily lives.  It also addresses pre-existing traumatic experiences and offers opportunities for youth to gain confidence and develop skills that contribute to successful transitions into adulthood.

Oregon East Symphony, Inc.

OES operates a symphony orchestra, chorale and youth music program in Eastern Oregon to enhance the quality of life by providing a dependable source of live music with special emphasis on youth education opportunities.

Oregon Environmental Council

This grant will allow a core group of farmers, environmentalists, utilities and state agency officials to convene to identify shared goals for improving water quality and managing water supply, develop a shared understanding of the science, and build relationships for overcoming conflict in preparation for bringing the current situation of serious water resource challenges and strategies to address them to a broader audience of community stakeholders in early 2016.

Oregon Farm Academy

Funding will be used to build a perimeter deer fence and tool shed, and to purchase the materials to grow food and provide 4 workshops to at least 30 students. Within one year, the forest will provide fresh produce for 25 low-income families through a sliding-scale CSA.

p:ear

Through creative programming in the arts, p:ear provides ongoing support to homeless youth to develop a meaningful sense of self, gain new skills, and to develop the physical, intellectual, social and emotional maturity they need to become healthy adults.  Art is one of the primary ways in which p:ear actively engages homeless youth with healthy mentoring and transition opportunities as well as providing opportunities for them to show and sell their work in the on-site gallery.  Through the p:ear Gallery, our young people’s artistic skills and accomplishments are publicly celebrated on a monthly basis.  By building connections with these youth through the creation and exhibition of their artwork, we form meaningful and trusting relationships with them that are the foundation for further constructive change.

Sexual Assault Resource Center

Continuing the new prevention collaboration with Self Enhancement Inc. addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children/youth within the African American community.  The strategies remain the same as in 2014; however, this grant provides the addition of a Prevention Specialist representing the African American community, a component that was found to be essential for the success of the collaboration.