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Each year, Pine Mountain Sports selects one organization working with vulnerable populations and, through their Community Ambassador Program, rallies their network of individuals and businesses in support. Cascade Youth & Family Center (CYFC) is the fourth program to be the beneficiary of this program, with CASA of Central Oregon, Volunteers in Medicine Clinic of the Cascades and Family Access Network having been chosen in the prior years, since its beginning in 2016. Their program has grown significantly each year, and raised over $122,000.
Cascade Youth & Family Center works with homeless and runaway youth, and those who are at risk of running away. They provide a continuum of services to help kids find stability and build the future they want, and offer the only programs of their kind within 200 miles.
- Voluntary family mediation works with parents and their children to find solutions to conflicts.
- Emergency Shelter gives kids a safe and stable place to regroup and make a plan.
- Street Outreach provides mentoring, drop-in hours for showers, laundry, and meals, and help with hurdles to self-sufficiency such as replacing and ID and finding medical care.
- The LOFT, Living Options For Teens, is a longer term, transitional living shelter where youth finish school, find a job, and save money for rent and deposits.
- Phase 2 helps youth move into their own apartment or college dorm or other stable housing: Their transition to living independently.
- The Independent Living Program assists current and former foster children in achieving self-sufficiency, enabling a smoother transition as they age out of the system.
Through CYFC programs, youth have access to life skills training, education planning, and employment search assistance. In each program, kids have the support and opportunity they need to build their lives. This additional funding will help tremendously as they continue to meet the needs of youth in jeopardy.
pinemountainsports.com/community-ambassadors • cascadeyouthandfamilycenter.org
