Social Services For Youth & Children

LifeWorks Northwest

LifeWorks NW’s Children’s Relief Nursery program aims to keep children safe and families strong, working to prevent child abuse and neglect in our community.  Our innovative mix of programs includes therapeutic classrooms, helping infants & toddlers reach developmental milestones; one on one home visits, where our skilled staff help parents practice skills like safe discipline and stress management; child-parent psychotherapy, to rebuild the bonds broken by trauma; and other services which help stabilize families and ease extreme stress that puts them at risk for child abuse – such as assistance finding housing, food and employment.  All of the families we serve are low-income.  Services are provided in English and Spanish, at no cost to our families.  Lamb Foundation funds support services in the St. Johns office. see http://www.lifeworksnw.org/who-we-serve/children-teens-families/childrens-relief-nursery/ for more information

Lift Urban Portland

Urban Garden Feeds Body and Soul is an integral part of Lift Urban Portland’s mission to serve our neighbors in need. Two years ago we embarked on our journey to increase healthy fresh food choices to our food programs for low income people. Our first year incorporating fresh vegetables from our organic garden was a huge success.  Recipients helped out tending the garden, then enjoyed the benefits of the fresh harvest.  Last year we partnered with White Shield Home, a residential program for teenage moms (moms to be) and installed 9 new raised gardens.  This successful effort is continuing this year with a broader scope of having the young women participate in the gardening, as well as having a pee wee garden for their toddlers.  The next two years, we want to create raised garden beds at each of the low income high rise apartment buildings we work with, and work with the residents to grow their own produce as well.

Lutheran Community Services

A Family Gathering Place Relief Nursery will support sixteen families via a therapeutic classroom and respite model in Klamath County. Due to COVID19, serving all kids in family – in addition to the 0-5 age range of focus.

Marion-Polk Food Share

Protein is often the most expensive portion of an emergency food box.  The MPFS Protein burger has been tested and provides a suitable, inexpensive protein option, and is easy enough for a child to prepare.  Proposed Outcomes: 1) Produce 1 million burgers annually; 2) Distribute them to 35,000 low-income individuals monthly in Marion and Polk counties; and, 3) Provide skills/education to at least 20 incarcerated youth annually.  This grant was a start-up grant.  The original intention was to work with Oregon Youth Authority to provide an educational/vocational program at Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility that allows youth to gain job skills and hope for their futures, while increasing the supply of affordable protein for emergency food distribution.  Although in the end Oregon Youth Authority was not involved, the program opened the vocational training for young people who are looking to secure jobs in the food services industry.  The Better Burger has been successful in more ways than they could ever have imagined at the outset of the project.  Marion-Polk Food Share has expanded their partner horizons, is distributing the burger widely and holds out the vision of involving incarcerated youth when feasible in the future.

Mary's Place Seattle

Comprehensive and developmentally appropriate children and teen programming including a full schedule of daily activities designed to support emotional, physical and educational well-being for 1200 homeless kids during the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Mary's Place Seattle

We will support about 600 families experiencing homelessness in King County in our shelters. We propose to 1) develop synergy between homeless shelters to ensure all children are obtaining the same intensity of support, 2) provision each homeless shelter equally with educational equipment, and 3) provide support to parents to increase knowledge about their role in helping children be ready for school and what they can do in shelter to support school-readiness in their children.

Mary's Place Seattle

Mary’s Place will provide essential shelter and access to resources in King County, Washington for 4,400 families in 2023, including about 2,000 children.  By providing housing resources, health services, nutritious meals, and hope, we help families keep their homes or move into more stable situations. With a focus on youth and children, we offer wraparound support to help families experiencing homelessness by meeting their immediate basic needs for shelter, meals, and healthcare, while housing, youth, and stability specialists work with families to address barriers and connect to resources.

Maslow Project

This database will improve efficiently tracking client progress. The database will enable staff to spend more time working directly with clients with a trauma-informed approach. This project affects 2,300 youth and families.

McKenzie Community Development

This grant proposal will provide our 3,054 community members with free, equitable, and accessible educational tools to, regardless of limitations or challenges, advocate for themselves, their families, and their community. (Post 2020 fire)

Metropolitan Family Service

Program objectives are to: 1) improve literacy skills in pre-kindergarteners; 2) improve social/emotional readiness for kindergarten; 3) increase positive, developmentally-appropriate child/parent interaction; 4) increase parental knowledge of normal child development; and 5) improve the links between families, schools, and community organizations. Parents will learn how to strengthen their children’s learning environment, manage family stress, and improve overall family functioning. Research indicates that early childhood intervention and quality parent education are strong determinants of educational success. In addition, families are linked to resources such as emergency food, clothing, and housing to support overall family success.

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.

before…

after…

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:

Mountain Star Family Relief Nursery

Helps prevent child abuse and neglect by using individualized community supports to strengthen high-risk families and keep children safe, healthy and ready to learn.

MountainStar Family Relief Nursery

This funding will support our program expansion in rural La Pine. We will provide high-quality, therapeutic classrooms serving children ages 0-3 and crisis intervention and ongoing support to high-risk families.  We will also provide child developmental assessments, home visitations, transportation services, emergency food boxes, and referrals for mental health services. In FY 2021-22, 98% of children receiving Therapeutic Early Childhood Program services at MountainStar remained free from confirmed cases of abuse and neglect.