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New Avenues for Youth expands to East County

The goal is to continue the same mission they've had for decades, to provide services to youth, ages 9 to 24, experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

PORTLAND, Ore. New Avenues for Youth, an organization dedicated to helping at-risk young people in the metro area, is expanding to the Southeast Portland-Gresham area.

New Avenues already has a location in downtown Portland and now it’s opening up a second location, using a section of the Boys and Girls Club at 470 SE 165th Ave.

The new center is called the Youth Opportunity Center and Bank of America Youth Learning & Opportunity Lab.

The goal is to continue the same mission they’ve had for decades, to provide services to youth, ages 9 to 24, experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

“Young people will be able to go there get some basic needs met. Showers, some basic food staples, support from counselors,” said executive director Sean Suib. “But much more than that, they'll be able to access education support, job training support.”

New Avenues for Youth also provides programs for LGBTQ youth, youth in foster care, and youth involved in sex trafficking. The need for such services in East County is growing.

“The East County community is extraordinarily resilient, and there’s just incredible youth potential,” said Suib. “At the same time, it is one of the areas where there is some of the highest concentration of need, some of the highest concentration of poverty, and also some of the highest concentration of young people, transition-age kids, across the state.”

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