Outside In (organization)

Outside In

The exterior of the organization in 2006
Formation 1968
Location
  • Portland, Oregon
Executive Director[1]
 Kathy Oliver[1]
Budget (2014)
$9 million
Staff
140[1]
Slogan The Point of Return[2]

Outside In is a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, United States that provides social and medical services to homeless youth and other marginalized people (including the LGBTQ community)[3] so that they can improve their health and move towards self-sufficiency.[2] Founded in the late 1960s to serve youth, since then the organization has continued to revise its services to meet the changing needs of its clients.[4][5] Today the organization's services include medical care, mobile medical vans, tattoo removal, housing, education, counseling, and job training.[1]

History

Outside In was founded in June 1968 by Dr. Charles Spray, Arnold Goldberg, and Mary Lu Zurcher as one of the first free community health clinics in the U.S. and one of the earliest on the West Coast, along with the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics and the Los Angeles Free Clinic.[4][6][7] The organization was founded to serve Portland's "alienated youth", some of whom had substance abuse problems and most of whom had mental health issues.[5] It initially rented its Downtown Portland space from the First Unitarian Church of Portland.[5] Spray helped found the organization after learning that the Unitarian church's youth coffeehouse space, Charix, was in danger of being shut down by the city and a group that had successfully shut down the Crystal Ballroom music venue because of its association with the 1960s drug culture.[7]

Some of the group's early work involved staffing a 24-hour crisis hotline that was later spun off to form the Metro Crisis Intervention Service.[6]

Services

Outside In is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and a licensed mental health agency.[4] In 2013–2014, the organization served 966 youth with mental health care, drug and alcohol treatment, employment, education, job training, and housing.[8] Outside In's medical clinic was the medical home for 5,384 people in 2014.[8] The same year, the group's syringe exchange served 4,322 people.[8] The syringe exchange, implemented in 1989, was the first one to be developed and the third to go into operation in the country.[9]

Medical services

In addition to the FQHC, Outside In's medical clinic operates two medical outreach vans and a school-based health center at Milwaukie High School.[10]

Naloxone training

In 2013, Outside In worked with the Multnomah County Health Department to pass SB 384, a bill in the Oregon State Legislature that increased community access to naloxone, a drug that reverses opiate overdose.[11][12] On the afternoon of June 6, 2013,[12] the day Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber signed the bill into law, Outside In staff began training its staff and syringe exchange clients in naloxone use and distributing the medication.[11] In seven months it was reported by trainees that 239 overdoses had been prevented by administration of naloxone.[11] In 2013–2014, Outside In had provided 767 naloxone trainings and 329 overdose reversals were reported.[8]

Job training programs

Outside In operates a nonprofit dog daycare center, Virginia Woof, that provides job training for youth.[13] The daycare, which opened in 2005, receives funding from the Meyer Memorial Trust and has gained recognition from the United States Department of Labor for the innovative program as the only pet daycare in the nation that is both not-for-profit and serving as a job training program.[14][15][16]

"Bespoke" is bicycle-powered smoothie cart set up in Portland's O'Bryant Square park that gives homeless youth on-the-job training.[17]

Supporters

Portland filmmaker Gus Van Sant is a longtime supporter of the organization, and he employed Outside In clients as extras in 1991's My Own Private Idaho.[1] The U.S. premiere showing of his 2003 film Elephant at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall was a benefit for Outside In, and Van Sant donates the proceeds from all of his Portland premieres to the nonprofit.[1][18] Elliott Smith's family donated a portion of the proceeds from his posthumous 2007 album New Moon to Outside In.[19]

Awards

Outside In is considered one of Oregon's 100 best nonprofits to work for by Oregon Business magazine.[8] Multnomah County named Outside In one of its 2014 Public Health Heroes for its naloxone program.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ritchie, Rachel (October 23, 2014). "Lifetime Achievement: Kathy Oliver of Outside In". Portland Monthly. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Outside In". Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  3. ↑ Morris, Alex (September 3, 2014). "The Forsaken: A Rising Number of Homeless Gay Teens Are Being Cast Out by Religious Families". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "About Us". Outside In. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Turner, Kernan R. (July 24, 1969). "Outside-In Director Can Cite Ear-Ringing Drug Statistics". The Register-Guard. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Outside In Clinic celebrates 20 Years of Health, Social Services". The Oregonian. September 9, 1988. Retrieved December 1, 2015 – via Mental Health Portland.
  7. 1 2 Olsen, Polina (2012). Outside In From the Ground Up. Portland in the 1960s: Stories from the Counterculture. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp. 77–79. ISBN 9781609494711.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Director's Data Report: 2013–2014" (PDF). Outside In. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  9. ↑ Hugh Barton, Susan Thompson, Sarah Burgess, Marcus Grant, eds. (2015). The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-Being. Routledge.
  10. ↑ "Medical Services". Outside In. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Multnomah County 2014 Public Health Heroes". Multnomah County. April 18, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  12. 1 2 "Bill Tracker 2013 Session: Senate Bill 384". The Oregonian. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Virginia Woof". Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  14. ↑ Balas, Monique (November 12, 2011). "Pet Talk: Day Care Serves Dogs, Trains People". The Oregonian. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Providing Employment and Training Services to Homeless and Runaway Youth" (PDF). U.S. Department of Labor. January 6, 2006. p. 4. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  16. ↑ "A Hand and Paw Partnership Benefits Homeless Youth". United States Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  17. ↑ Binder, Melissa (September 23, 2014). "Homeless Youth Get Job Experience Making Bike-Powered Smoothies for 'Social Juice-stice'". The Oregonian. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  18. ↑ Walker, David (September 30, 2003). "Van Sant's Vision". Willamette Week. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  19. ↑ Cohen, Jonathan (February 14, 2007). "Elliott Smith Rarities Compiled On 'New Moon'". Billboard. Retrieved December 1, 2015.

Further reading

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