Category: Youth Profiles
Honoring Effort, Persistence, and Growth at MacLaren’s Lord High School
At MacLaren’s Lord High School, educators have begun a new practice: recognizing students of the month from among its roughly 90 high school students. Recognition is one of the school’s core values, developed cooperatively by school and MacLaren staff as part of a broader effort to build a shared organizational culture supported by a partnership with Breakfree Education. Students may be recognized for academic accomplishment, but they ...
Youth Wins National Poetry Contest
Jarvis, a youth committed to OYA’s Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility in Grants Pass, has won BreakFree Education’s Words Unlocked Poetry contest. Read or listen to his poem, “Exploring My Life.” Growing up in poverty,My imagination would run wild.Hit by reality,Made it hard to smile. Trials and tribulations,Nothing seemed to help.Experiences of frustration,Cause no-one knew ...
Power Source Transforms Youths’ Lives
At the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA), youth in close-custody facilities participate in Power Source, a research-based program designed to help them build emotional awareness, resilience, and decision-making skills. While many start the program simply because they are required to, their experiences reveal a deeper impact. “At first, I didn’t think much of it. But as ...
At Parrott Creek, the Power of Photography Transforms Perspectives
This fall, youth at Parrott Creek took part in a six-week photography class, and the results speak for themselves. Youth reflected that the class was a gateway to self-expression, capturing (as one youth put it), “how I see the world – like showing something only I could see.” Leah Lamb, Residential Program Manager, recast this ...
El Mes de la Herencia Hispana: Reflexiones de los jóvenes de OYA
Reflexiones de los jóvenes con motivo del Mes de la Herencia Hispana sobre su identidad: “Para mí, la cultura consiste en conectar con la Tierra, con las plantas, con los alimentos y con otras personas. Crecí en ese entorno, ayudando en la jardinería, pero no tanto en la cocina. A pesar de que solo estuve ...