Northwestern Region

$10,000 SIA Grant Will Fund Center Upgrade,
New Opportunities for Troubled Teen Girls

Submitted by Carene Davis-Stitt
SI Eugene

Life and opportunities for girls in a local residential treatment center will get better this year, thanks to a $10,000 grant from Soroptimist International of the Americas.
Soroptimist International of Eugene will use the grant to fund its SIE Girls (Girls’ Initiative for Residential Learning Support) project. The yearlong project will provide hands-on volunteer work, program support and direct aid to refurbish the aging Looking Glass Evaluation and Treatment Center (ETC). Shown in the photo are SI Eugene members J.R. Rumsey (left) and Benedikta Ehlers Olesen painting during the first refurbishing project.

“The SIE GIRLS project goal is to provide a better opportunity to succeed in life for girls once considered hopeless or throwaways,” said Gale Smith, president of Soroptimist International of Eugene. “Putting together a winning grant application that succeeded in capturing one of only a handful of grants awarded to the Northwestern Region required a real team effort.”

The ETC serves a revolving group of 10 young women, ages 11 to 17 years, with behavioral and emotional problems who are accepted in residence because they have been unresponsive to customary counseling interventions at home, at detention centers or in foster, group or shelter facilities.

These young women are behaviorally and emotionally acting out the anger, confusions or trauma of their lives. They have multiple problems characterized by family limitations, substance abuse, sexual or physical abuse, and pregnancy. Many are runaways and are frequently absent from school or have dropped out. Common issues include low self-esteem, distrust and vulnerability to exploitation.

The SIE GIRLS project funds will purchase an industrial sanitizer dishwasher, an industrial washer and drier and a wiring upgrade to the 63-year-old facility. The funds also will replace stained and poor quality mattresses and help support Eugene Soroptimist volunteers in refurbishing projects and learning programs.

Opened exclusively to serve girls in 2002, the Looking Glass Evaluation and Treatment Center is the only local resource of this intensity in Lane County, which has a population of more than 324,000. Under its State contract, the facility also is expected to serve as a resource for two other counties.

The already limited services for troubled girls in Lane County and Oregon have received major reductions in the past three years of sweeping state and county budget cuts. Since Oregon voters in November 2003 rejected an income tax surcharge proposed to take care of a state budget shortfall, further cutbacks are anticipated in all human services.

For more information about Soroptimist in the Northwestern Region, click here.