2024–25 YEAR IN REVIEW
Founded in 1997, New Avenues for Youth is a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to ending youth homelessness. From addressing basic needs like meals and counseling to providing opportunities for education, job training, employment, and housing, we show up every day to help young people overcome barriers, find stability, and move forward.
When New Avenues for Youth opened its doors in 1997, our focus was on serving the growing numbers of young people experiencing homelessness in downtown Portland.
But as the landscape of homelessness has grown and changed over the years, so have we.
With communities throughout Multnomah County seeing increases in housing instability and homelessness, New Avenues has extended its reach, supporting youth where they live to create greater access to the services they need.
How far is our reach? Along with our two program hubs in downtown Portland, we have a 24/7 site and a 24/7 shelter in East Multnomah County’s Rockwood neighborhood; a new space in East Portland’s Hazelwood neighborhood; transitional housing facilities in North Portland, SE Portland, and downtown; and two social enterprises (where youth have paid, mentored work experiences) in inner SE and downtown. Our case managers also help young people living in apartments throughout Multnomah County maintain their housing.
And we’re out in the community. Our mobile outreach teams are at schools, parks, community centers, and other public spaces to engage unstably-housed youth and connect them to services. By reaching them early, we can stop homelessness before it starts.
As you will read in this 2024-25 Year in Review, New Avenues is making a strong impact across our community, delivering a wide range of services that help young people find stability and well-being.
Your support is crucial to those efforts. Thank you for your investment in New Avenues and the important work we do!
Sincerely,
Sean Suib Executive Director
Our program sites in downtown Portland offer drop-in services, where youth can access meals, showers, hygiene products, clothing, and activities focused on skillbuilding, wellness, and fun. We also offer substance-use recovery and mental-health services and case management that facilitates wraparound support and long-term planning.
Other services include education (GED prep/testing and support for accessing college); job training and employment (skills training, career exploration, job searching, and individualized support from Career Coaches); culturally specific services for LGBTQIA2S+ youth (wellness check-ins, support groups, gender-affirming gear, and community events) through our Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC); and our 28-bed Moxie Transitional Housing.
Also in the urban core are our two social enterprises—a Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop and the screen-printing business New Avenues INK—where youth gain paid work experience in mentored environments.
E N um BER s
13,048 100%
100% of youth remained in stable housing one year after exiting case management
13,048 meals were served in our Drop-In Center
247 359 182
247 youth accessed services at SMYRC
359 youth accessed education and employment services
182 youth received substance-use recovery services
Youth sP ot LI ght
When R. first started a paid internship at our social enterprise screen-printing business New Avenues INK in early 2024, she was unhoused, had limited job experience, and was very reserved. Over 18 months at INK, she developed job and industry skills, gained confidence, grew as an artist (designing and printing her own work), and was promoted to a more advanced role, including providing direction to new interns. She also entered our Moxie Transitional Housing, eventually moving into her own apartment. Her experience at INK led to an exciting next step in her career: she recently started a full-time job with benefits at a large screenprinting company in Portland!
Site-based and mobile services in East Multnomah County are key to our homelessness prevention efforts, which focus on reaching unstably-housed youth early to stop homelessness before it starts. Our 24/7 Youth Opportunity Center (YOC) in Rockwood is the hub for the Alba Collaborative, a program for youth ages 9-17 that provides crisis intervention, emergency shelter and housing, family mediation and reunification, longer-term mentorship and case management, and other stabilization supports.
The Alba Collaborative establishes Safe Place sites throughout the community— businesses, service providers, and spaces frequented by youth—that can link them to the YOC for services. We also conduct mobile outreach to youth on the streets and in the community to help reconnect them to school or GED programming, provide tutoring, and link them to wraparound services.
The Alba Collaborative ranks #2 nationally in the number of Safe Place sites established and community contacts made through outreach.
th E N um BER s
313
313 emergency shelter placements were made by the Alba Collaborative
1,149
7,000
Youth made 1,149 visits to our Youth Opportunity Center in Rockwood
East Connect outreached to and connected with 7,000 community members
186
186 youth experiencing sex trafficking received outreach and mentorship support from New Day
Our New Day Mental-Health Therapy Program launched this year, serving 17 youth experiencing sex trafficking. Led by a therapist with lived experience as a trafficking survivor, the program immediately filled, providing individualized support for participants and helping coordinate monthly mental-health therapy groups at Butterfly House, our transitional housing program for youth experiencing sex trafficking.
In East Portland’s Hazelwood neighborhood, we opened a new space, Youth CNCT, where youth experiencing housing instability can regularly check in with our staff, access support for basic needs, and get connected to wraparound services like family mediation, shelter and housing, substance-use recovery and mental-health supports, education, job training, and more.
Youth CNCT also serves as a hub for mobile outreach delivered by our East Connect program, which engages youth at schools, parks, apartment complexes, libraries, and community centers and connects them to services. Our New Day program—which provides support for basic needs, offers mentorship, and makes service referrals for youth experiencing sexual exploitation and trafficking—is also based at Youth CNCT.
Our Alba House shelter, located a few minutes from our Youth Opportunity Center, provides youth in crisis a safe place to stay while we help them stabilize and access wraparound services.
East Connect regularly visits 16 public high schools—including every high school in East County—to distribute supplies and connect unstably-housed youth to shelter, case management, family reunification services, and other wraparound supports.
outh sP ot LI ght
An 18-year-old student at Portland Community College, B. was couch surfing with extended family when he engaged with East Connect, expressing the need for stable housing and mental-health support. The team connected him to our Moxie Transitional Housing and mental-health services for clinical counseling, with B. recently sharing that our services have given him a renewed sense of stability. The East Connect team continues to support him as he works toward securing long-term housing, pursues education, and makes progress in therapy.
Other services in the community include our New Meadows housing program—which gives youth transitioning from foster care a safe place to live as they pursue education, career, and life goals—and our Avenues to College program, which helps youth in or transitioning from foster care prepare for, enroll, and succeed in college; holds group activities at Portland Community College; and provides campus tours at other higher-ed institutions. Case managers help youth in the community maintain their housing, connecting them to services and resources that promote stability and opportunity. Our Bridge 13 community education program provides trainings to businesses, government agencies, schools, and organizations across Multnomah County (and beyond) to help create safer, more inclusive spaces for the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
While participating in our Avenues to College (ATC) program, A. was in school full time, had a job, volunteered in the labor delivery unit at Oregon Health & Science University, and held an internship focused on pediatric cancer research. After a year in ATC, she was accepted to her dream school, Montana State University, where she is in the Medical Education Program studying pediatric oncology.
Youth visited New Avenues sites around the community 12,977 times
We facilitated 161 housing placements for youth in the community
Columbia River
100% of youth who exited our communitybased housing services remained in stable housing one year later Bridge 13 provided 50 LGBTQIA2S+ equity trainings
This map shows New Avenues’ reach in Multnomah County, including our program hubs, social enterprises, and select housing facilities. It also shows the area covered by our mobile outreach teams, housing case managers, and other staff supporting youth in the community.
We are grateful to the many donors, volunteers, and partners who collaborated with us to support youth throughout the community this year. Your commitment means so much to the work we do!
Andrew Colas, Chair
Josh Frankel, Vice Chair
Travis Irving, Treasurer
Catherine Albers
Penny Bewick
Ashley Campion
Meggie Finn
Erin Gorsline
Jasmin Grace
Evie Smith Hatmaker
Brett Hayes
Mitchell Hornecker
Alcina Howe
Erin Isselmann
Heather Killough
Bill Lehman
Ian Lombard
Sandra McDonough
Martin Moll
Mishawn Pedersen
Lisa Shim
Vanessa Sturgeon
Pat Trunzo
John Whitted
Sean Suib, Executive Director
Lauren Eads, Director of Development & Communications
Sarah Nedeau, Senior Director of Programs
Elaina Medina, Director of Equity & Inclusion
Mike Kalkofen, Finance Director
John O’Flaherty, HR Director
Jalil Haqiqi, IT Director
Alice McKenzie, Co-Chair
Chad Seegmiller, Co-Chair
Summer Boron
Jeremy Herrig
Nicholas Huber
Kim Jackson
Ali Murphy
Kate Nelsen
Zach Schroeder
