Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro opens its newest Club in the Rockwood Community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2017

PORTLAND, OR. – The Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro (BGCP) hosted the Grand Opening celebration of its newest facility in the Rockwood community of Gresham this afternoon with the help of State, City, and local dignitaries. Answering the community’s call for safe places offering structured enrichment programs for youth, the Rockwood Boys & Girls Club is positioned to fill this significant void with safe, facility-based services for young people when school is not in session. The Club is located at the corner of SE 165th and Stark Street.

“I am incredibly proud to welcome Boys & Girls Clubs to Gresham,” said Mayor Shane Bemis, City of Gresham. “Their organization is renowned for providing fun and inclusive programming to every child that walks through their doors, and I know they will have an immediate positive impact in our community.”

The vision for the new Club was inspired after the unexpected closure in 2013 of the Police Activities League Center in Rockwood, the only facility of its kind in the neighborhood offering after school and summer programming for youth. With the largest number of youth ages 18 and under in the region, along with the highest rates of poverty and juvenile crime in the Metro Area, the City of Gresham and State officials worked closely with BGCP to bring this vision to reality. Lead gifts for the facility came from the Swindells Charitable Trust; the State of Oregon; Precision Castparts and PCC Structurals; the Johnson Charitable Trust; Nike, Inc.; and the Ever Higher Fund; The Collins Foundation; the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust; and the Larry & Jeanette Epping Family Foundation.

“Boys & Girls Clubs are located in communities with high need and few facility-based services to youth,” said Erin Hubert. “We are incredibly honored to partner with the City of Gresham to respond to the needs of the children and families in Rockwood. This building, with the support of so many that have stepped up to invest in this Club, will open up a whole new world of opportunity for youth in Rockwood.”

The new Rockwood Club features learning, innovation, and activity spaces for youth 6 to 12 years of age and is the first Club in the Metro Area to have a stand-alone center for teens ages 13 to 18. The Johnson Teen Center was made possible thanks to a generous donation from the Johnson Charitable Trust.

“The Johnson Charitable Trust is pleased to contribute to the founding of the Boys & Girls Club in Rockwood,” said Ashley Campion, President, Johnson Charitable Trust. “This project helped to inspire establishing our foundation and one that our trustees were involved with from the start. This project fosters a spirit of collaboration and partnership that is ripe for replication, and we applaud Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro for taking the risk and sending help to the area of our city that needs it most.”

Nike, Inc. has supported the new Club’s gymnasium, providing the resources and inspiration to bring sports and fun into the lives of Club members and countless others – a cumulative, financial and in-kind contribution of $500,000. The Gym will be activated year-round with seasonal youth sports, fitness classes and community recreation events.

“Nike has been a long-time supporter of the Boys & Girls Club and we’re so excited to see the opening of this beautiful new facility that will be a cornerstone for the Rockwood community,” said Jorge Casimiro, Vice President, Global Community Impact at Nike, Inc. “We know kids are made to play and we hope this new gymnasium at the Rockwood Boys & Girls Club will allow these kids to reach their greatest potential not only on the court, but in the classroom, their careers and in the community.

The Club features a commercial kitchen supported by the Windermere Foundation that will serve over 75,000 meals a year. The facility will soon be home to a CJ McCollum Dream Center, and learning and innovation spaces are

populated with the latest technology thanks to gifts from Comcast and The Quest Foundation. In addition to traditional programming at the Rockwood Club, BGCP will deliver targeted workforce training and placement programs for teens and will provide a wide range of health and human services for members and their families.

The site of the new Rockwood Club will soon be a full campus of shared services as BGCP partners with other respected non-profit organizations serving the youth and their families in East County. BGCP will share its gym and industrial kitchen with campus partner, Open School East. New Avenues for Youth will lease space at the new Club to provide critical services to homeless youth in Rockwood. On Thursday, September 28th, the Timbers and Thorns, in partnership with Operation Pitch Invasion, unveiled two futsal courts on the campus that BGCP will share with partners and the broader community.

The Rockwood Boys & Girls Club was a $10m capital campaign with P&C Construction, founded in Gresham, Oregon, managing the project working alongside Holst Architecture.

“As a builder, P&C has had the opportunity to work on many community-based projects and I must say, the Rockwood Boys and Girls Club was one of those special projects,” Said Brian Shoemaker, Senior Project Manager, P&C Construction. “A great deal of pride, effort, and teamwork went into the planning, design, and construction of this new facility. The entire team understood the significance of this building and there is no doubt this club will have a positive impact on the neighborhood and entire Rockwood community. It was a great privilege to partner with BGCP and participate in their journey to provide a safe and healthy space for our kids.”

BGCP has raised $7m to date and continues to actively fundraise to complete the campaign. Thanks to the generous support of the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund (MCMF), all donations up to $5,000 will be matched dollar for dollar up to $100,000 through December 31, 2017.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro

Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro (BGCP) empowers more than 4,000 youth each year to discover their full potential by providing safe facilities staffed with trained, caring youth development professionals who deliver horizon-broadening programs when school is not in session. Clubs are designed to support youth and teens as they develop the qualities they need to achieve academic success, become responsible leaders, and live healthy lives. Today, the Clubs operate six facilities located throughout the metropolitan area, along with school-based programs in the Reynolds and North Clackamas School District.