Why Donate?
In 2019, 1,152 youth were un-sheltered living in Oregon out of 1,590 unaccompanied houseless youth, some as young as 12 years old, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 2019 Point-in-Time Count. Additionally, Oregon is the third state with the highest rate of un-sheltered, unaccompanied youth houseless in the nation, according to HUD.
Further, at 12.3% Oregon’s percentage of illicit drug use among adolescents was higher than the national percentage in 2012–2013 as reported by SAMHSA, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an operating division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2009 to 2013.
Your support and contributions will aid at-risk youth in the Pacific Northwest. Your generous donations will help to create a better future for their tomorrow.
If JFF has helped you, your family or friends, and/or you believe as we do (JFF is an essential program for at-risk youth), providing a donation will help JFF to continue into the future. The JFF’s commitment to creating safe spaces for the youth to envision their future while receiving mental health support, social and economic restoration, and community partner resource is paramount.
Your donation will help The Joyce Finley Foundation Inc. (JFF) to continue to create a peaceful, serene, and productive environment for at-risk youth to continue their education, receive counseling, case management, and other programing thus fulfilling the mission, vision, and purpose.
On any given day, nearly 60,000 youth under age 18 are incarcerated in juvenile jails and prisons in the United States. Most are held in restrictive, correctional-style facilities, and thousands are held without even having had a trial. I have deeply considered the ways that the problems of the criminal justice system are mirrored in the juvenile system: racial disparities, punitive conditions, pretrial detention, and over-criminalization. I have also acknowledged the philosophical, cultural, and procedural differences between the adult and juvenile justice systems. According to U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best States Rankings, Oregon has the second-highest juvenile incarceration rate in the nation. Nationwide, confining young people – cutting them off from their families, disrupting their educations, and often exposing them to further trauma and violence – harms their development and has lifelong negative consequences.