Building Community, Empowering Youth
Volunteers, community partners, and advocates are the backbone of our clubs. From food deliveries to arts workshops, our collaborations with individuals and groups in our communities help amplify the PATHfinder Club curriculum to create empowered spaces and offer opportunities for youth to build connections in their neighborhoods and cities. Interested in getting involved with our work? You can:
- Volunteer
- Partner with us to support a club
- Start a club in your community
Volunteer
Volunteers typically work inside a PATHfinder club throughout the regular school year. Those unable to volunteer weekly can also serve as Guest Speakers, support events, or offer skills or expertise to benefit the organization and students. Our volunteers pick up and serve food, connect with youth, are participating members of the club, and know how to be good listeners and help to ensure the club remains a welcoming, safe environment for new and returning club members.
We provide training to our volunteers and rely on their generosity, expertise, and wisdom to create empowering and youth-focused spaces within our clubs. Community volunteers participate in a facilitator training, undergo a background check, and take a Tuberculosis test to work with youth. In some instances, school administration officials must approve volunteers after taking school-based online training.
Community Partnerships
Community Partners are essential to creating welcoming, empowered spaces for youth in our clubs. We aim to create clubs that are integrated in the community, where we can build strong relationships with the organizations, businesses, and individuals who make up our neighborhoods and cities.
Our Community Partners contribute food, physical space, skills, experiences and opportunities for youth to explore and learn about their communities. We have collaborated with other nonprofits to create arts workshops, local arts organizations offering opportunities to attend theater and dance performances, researchers interested in studying outcomes of youth support clubs, theaters sharing their spaces to host events, and many other partners interested in supporting and uplifting our work. Partnerships like these create special opportunities for PATHfinder club youth to learn, grow, and become engaged citizens of their communities.
We welcome conversation with any and all potential community partners who are interested in supporting or connecting with one of our clubs.
Outside the Frame Film Intensive
During the summer of 2023, PATHfinder Club members spent three weeks learning to write, film and direct their own short films, and produced two original pieces in collaboration with OTF team members.
Street Mural Project
In 2024, through partnership with local organizations, members of The PATHfinder Club at Parkrose High School designed and implemented a transformative community street mural on NE 131st in Portland, the longest street mural in Oregon at over 800 feet!
Get Involved
Have questions? Want to get involved? Let’s connect! Click the button below to learn more about how you can connect with our work.
Support Our Work
Make a donation to The Pathfinder Network and help us provide support for systems-impacted individuals, youth, and families.