Originally started as a grassroots organization in 1999, a group of Corvallis community members saw a need for homeless youth support groups. Building up from one shelter in downtown Corvallis, Jackson Street has expanded its program with one goal in mind: to help struggling youth survive. “Our goal is to really support youth wherever they’re at in their journey,” said education and outreach coordinator at Jackson Street Cortney Wetherell.
“A lot of times, our youth are in survival mode,” Wetherell said. “They’re focused on where they’re going to sleep, where they’re going to find something to eat and those things.”
Within Jackson Street are multiple programs that help youth who are at risk of homelessness. They have what they call a continuum of care. As a part of their outreach program, the staff and volunteers of the organization offer basic life necessities, which means things like hygiene products, clothing, and food as a way to build trust with the youth and get them involved with Jackson Street. The outreach program does pop-up stands around Linn, Benton, and as of recently, Lincoln county, and has two physical outreach buildings in Albany and Corvallis. Jackson Street visits schools, prioritizing high schools and some middle schools.
The housing program of Jackson Street is another step of care. Available to youth ten to seventeen years of age, they have the opportunity to stay in a house provided by Jackson Street that is available twenty-fours a day, seven days a week.. The shelters are set up the same as a regular home, where the youth have their own beds, rooms, closets, and meals. There’s a kitchen, living room and other appliances you would find in any home.
“We know it’s really difficult to be away from home, so we try to make it as normal as possible and still [make sure] youth [have] teenager experiences,” Wetherell said.
Jackson Street organizes activities those under their care are able to participate in; things like going to the coast or having movie nights allow the youth to have interactions and normal teenage experiences. The youth can stay in these shelters until it is deemed safe for them to return to their previous situation or are housed someplace else.
“We really serve anyone who might be in need, or even [is] just having a tough time,” Wetherell said.
Jackson Street’s main audience are Oregon youth, but they serve the community’s young adults, too. The next step of their care is the transitional living program, available for those 18-24 years old. This young adult program has fewer restrictions but still provides support. In this program, the staff are there to help teach these adults life skills, like grocery shopping, budgeting, and paying bills. Those in the transitional living program take the skills they have been coached through, like communicating, from the previous program and apply it to real life situations and to achieve any goals they may have set for themselves. This program offers apartment-living-like opportunities, where the residents pay a rent and continue living independently while continuing to have twenty-four hour support.
To lessen stereotypes, Jackson Street has taken measures to change their approaches on the way they label their own services, like referring to the shelters as housing. “They’re not bad kids,” Wetherell said. “They’re youth in bad situations.”
