Yellow Brick Road was founded on the very simple belief that when ordinary people care enough about their community to work together, they can literally change lives and build futures. Every night of the year Yellow Brick Road volunteers from all walks of life hit the streets of downtown Portland with clear-eyed compassion and messenger bags full of medical and hygiene supplies to meet young people living on the streets. The supplies in our outreach bags meet the immediate crisis of the evening, perhaps an unclean scrape or sore throat. But, most importantly, our supplies serve as critical relationship-building tools that often motivate those first daunting steps toward recovery. Often it is something as seemingly profane as a pair of socks or a toothbrush that young people remember as the first seed of hope and the first step toward their reintegration. And Yellow Brick Road distributes thousands of such first aid & hygiene supplies every month of the year. Without exception the most desperately sought after item, the hottest street commodity so to speak, is fresh socks. In the past 6 months Yellow Brick Road has provided more than 1,633 people with fresh socks. With a modest supply budget and such an overwhelming demand, it is no wonder that we have frequently called upon the generosity and creativity of the Portland community to help their own. The coming year is no exception and Yellow Brick Road is proud to announce our latest community sponsored supply-drive partnership...
Yellow Brick Road has joined forces with the generous young design wizards at
Kamp Grizzly and Alternative Radio station
KNRK (94/7 fm) in an unprecedented effort to raise a FULL YEAR'S supply of new socks for youth experiencing homelessness right here in our community! These socks will be distributed by Yellow Brick Road outreach volunteers at both Janus Youth shelters as well as on the streets, under bridges, and at various social service agencies throughout the downtown area. Over the next several weeks KNRK will be announcing convenient drop-off locations in the area and we are asking everyone to come out and simply drop one pair of brand new socks in our hampers. We hope you'll join us in our goal of keeping young people's feet a bit warmer and healthier this season. Please visit www.sockdrop.com for more information and, from all of us at
Janus Youth Programs, we wish you a wonderful holiday season!