Street roots., May 27, 2016, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • May 27-June 2, 2016
Page 11
STREETWISE, fro m page 10
xact numbers of the current Portland
metro area runaway and homeless youth
populations are hard to pin down. The 2015
Point-in-Time Count recorded 266
unaccompanied people ages 24 and under
sleeping outside, in emergency shelters and
in transitional housing. However, the report
acknowledges that this figure may be well
below the reality and the numbers of
unaccompanied youth “doubled up” at the
homes of friends or relatives is estimated to
be much higher. According to Outside In’s
2014-15 annual report, the organization
served nearly 800 youths in that time
period. Outside In, along with Janus Youth
Programs, New Avenues for Youth, and
Native American Youth and Family Center
are all part of the Multnomah County
Homeless Youth Continuum, which is
designed to serve about 1,000 youths each
year with basic needs such as food and
shelter, as well as case management,
education and employment services, and
transitional and independent living
programs.
But Yosha, who credits youth groups with
inspiring and empowering her as a teen,
sees arts interventions like Outside the
Frame as the missing piece in what the city
and county offers those in the continuum,
providing a type of social and personal
development opportunity other homeless
and runaway youth social service programs
can’t provide. Through the process of
filmmaking, participants gain the skills that
come albng with Working on a team, owmng
and developing a creative project and
presenting that project for the world to see.
“There are great social services here in
town, and I feel like Outside the Frame
comes in at the tip of the pyramid with the
self-expression and self-actualization,” Yosha
said. “You absolutely have to have your basic
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needs met, but it’s not enough.”
Outside the Frame board Director Talilo
Marfil agrees.
“Outside In provides housing,
employment and food, but Outside the
Frame provides a way for them to feel worth
it, to feel worth living and to express their
art,” Marfil said. “Some kids would commit
suicide if they didn’t have that sort of outlet
On the set o f the “Lost
Boys o f Portlandia, ”
Jake Avert (right) film s
acting coach and
“Captain Hook”
Nicholas Kessler.
P H O T O B Y O U T S ID E T H E
FRAM E PR O G R A M
P A R T IC IP A N T S
to let people know what they feel or why
they’re even living. For me, when I was
homeless, it was hard for me to feel worth it
or feel like I was even worth living. Outside
the Frame definitely boosts the self-worth.”
orn in the Philippines, Marfil moved to
California with his mother before • " ’
settling in Portland with his stepfather -
who soon kicked him out of the house at 16.
From that point on, Marfil was homeless on
downtown Portland’s streets.
Throughout that time, Marfil was
involved with Outside In. After being
released from a two-year prison sentence,
Marfil had the opportunity to participate in
Yosha’s filmmaking workshop, where he
pursued his interest in rapping and made
his first music video, which he then
screened before an audience of 600 people
at the organization’s second film premiere
at the Armory Theater.
Today, the 26-year-old is busy with many
social-justice projects, in addition to
B
Acting coach Nicholas Kessler (right) and program, participant Seth go over the script on the
set o f “Lost Boys o f Portlandia. ”
pursuing a certificate in videography.
In addition to serving on Outside the
Frame’s board of directors, Marfil continues
to make music videos for himself and other
local hip hop artists. He founded the
Portland chapter of Hip Hop Congress, a
nonprofit organization that uses hip hop
culture, to inspire and mentor vulnerable
teens hnd young adults. He also works with
Get Reel, the youth media program at
MetroEast Community Media that also
partners with Outside the Frame, and he is
steadily building his own hip hop career.
Outside In and Outside the Frame, he
said, saved his life.
“Outside the Frame gave me an
opportunity to express myself and it helped
me find my worth,” Marfil said. “It put a
camera in my hands.”
Yosha said others from the program have
also gone on to pursue higher education and
their dream careers, helped in part by the
soft and technical job skills they gained
through the hard work of filmmaking.
At its current capacity, Outside the Frame
serves about 50 teens and young adults a
year, but Yosha wants to expand
programming to serve even more youths
and offer more advanced filmmaking
training.
“I want it to be able to change for the
better the course of somebody’s life, not
turn somebody on and then leave them
hanging,” Yosha said.
Yosha, Averi and Marfil hope the
premiere gala on June 7 will help change
the common narrative around youth
homelessness in Portland.
“Everyone assumes that if you’re young
and you’re homeless, then it’s your fault and
you did something bad in your life and
you’re a bad person. And that’s not the way
it is,” Averi said. “Some people just had
messed up upbringings or just had a
messed up series of things happen to them.
People just look at them like they’re not
human, or they don’t look at them at all,
which is worse. People deserve compassion
regardless of where they sleep at night.”
Joe W hiting film in g a scene from the “Lost Boys o f Portlandia,” with assist from Jake Averi.