Updates from Looking Glass
The 2022 Riverfront High School graduation ceremony was held in-person on June 16th at the Unitarian Universalist Church next door to Riverfront for the first time in 2 years. Senator James Manning was the keynote speaker at the event. “Where you are now is part of a transition in life,” Senator Manning said to the graduates. “Never let anyone tell you that you cannot achieve a higher level. I believe in you!”
Looking Glass Riverfront School & Career Center is offering summer GED instruction for youth ages 14 to 21 and paid outdoor work crew opportunities for ages 16 to 21. Also providing a Teen parent Work Experience Program.
Crew members remove invasive species, collect native seeds, plant native species, build small structures, remove fences, and assist in the renovation and maintenance of park sites.
Cognia, a national school accreditation organization, recently reviewed and awarded Looking Glass Riverfront School with another 5-year accreditation status along with some very positive feedback from their reviewers as well as Riverfront students and parents who were interviewed during the process. “The tremendous effort and commitment Riverfront teachers have made to our student’s education and personal growth is reflected in this outstanding evaluation” – Cheryl E. Zwillinger, Program Director
Looking Glass New Roads Program, which provides support and basis needs to homeless youth ages 16-21, has started offering a weekly Narcotics Anonymous meeting every Thursday from 1-2pm at New Roads School and hopes to create more awareness of this offering to any teen who has interest in attending. Anyone under the age of 21 can attend, no sign up needed. Angela Day, the on-site therapist at New Roads, runs the meetings, which started in February. Day said she is unaware of any such meetings being offered elsewhere in Lane County for youth but thinks the need is significant.
Each quarter, the members of the Looking Glass Cultural Awareness and Equity Committee (CAEC) review nominations of staff members who have gone above and beyond their job requirements to promote cultural awareness and equity on the job. Nominations come mostly from staff peers. Then the committee randomly selects one nominee to win a $100 gift card. And the randomly selected winner is Adam Todd, from the RCC. Adam has been with the agency and the RCC since February of 2020.
The 2022 Looking Glass Auction fundraiser, “Looking Forward, Giving Back,” was a mostly virtual affair this year, with a 4-day online auction and a small in-person gathering along with a Zoom audience hearing client success stories and raising crucial funds for at-risk youth. Looking Glass staff took this opportunity to publicly recognize and thank the Ranstads for their amazing contributions to supporting homeless and transitional housing youth with the Alder house. They were given the Looking Glass Community Leadership Award.
The 36th annual Freedom Fund Gala, sponsored by the Eugene and Springfield NAACP chapters, was held on Friday, February 25, 2022 and members of Looking Glass staff were happily in attendance. Looking Glass President and CEO Craig Opperman went and was extremely happy to join this important organization’s event in person again.
Looking Glass’ New Roads School Teacher, Dane Eckweiler, who started at the school for homeless youth clients of New Roads drop-in center in January of 2022, has always enjoyed helping people, particularly the challenge of helping youth who require a little more creativity in their academic approach. In early months on the job, Dane is enjoying the flexibility to help the students he works with to learn at their own pace and find subjects that interest them to help spark that passion for learning needed to keep going in the face of so many other life challenges.
In the Spring of 2021 and amidst the throws of the Covid-19 pandemic, Matt Sorensen, the CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Emerald Valley in Eugene, noticed an uptick in the behavioral issues of the youth in program there and realized his club needed help.
“We were seeing the stress and trauma these kids were going through manifesting itself in a way that we were clearly not equipped to deal with,” Sorensen explained. “Not just a few kids having bad days, but like real meltdowns, bad language and tantrum throwing. We recognized that we needed to find a partner with expertise in mental health and youth so we sought out a connection with Looking Glass.”
Starting back in August has had Looking Glass therapists, skill builders and a youth peer support specialist embedded at the Boys & Girls Club two to three days per week.
2021 was a difficult year for a lot of people, including our understaffed programs and the vulnerable youth they serve. But despite the many challenges community members faced this year, they gave generously to the Looking Glass Giving Tree program and allowed most of our programs to spoil the youth who so richly deserve the extra goodies this year. Looking Glass program staff is incredibly thankful to all this year’s Giving Tree supporting businesses, organizations and community members including Valley River Center and Active 20-30 Club, Oakway Center, patrons at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Coldwell Banker of Eugene, Umpqua Bank in Springfield and Eugene branches and the Eugene Director’s Mortgage staff members. More than 400 youth requested gifts through programs this year and all of them had their wishes fulfilled and basic needs met!
After a two year delay due to Covid-19, Riverfront School & Career Center is ready to launch their new Skilled Trades Program! The program is designed to educate students in all aspects of general construction, basic carpentry, electrical skills and other hands-on applications. The program was awarded two-years of startup funding by the Youth Development Division from the state of Oregon. The primary use for this funding will go toward the salary of the program manager, Austin Bean, recently hired at Looking Glass, youth wages for an eight week-long summer work experience and program operating expenses.
The new program needs a shop space and will also be holding a tool donation drive in January.
