Eugene weekly., January 18, 2007, Page 14, Image 14

Nuestro Lugar/Our Place’s
name reflects a commitment
to welcome youth whose
first language is Spanish.
support. Rafferty is excited that LEAD has almost met a
$20,000 fundraising challenge; an anonymous donor prom-
ised $20,000 if the organization could raise that much in
matching donations by Jan. 31. By the end of last week,
LEAD was about $2,000 away from its goal and at press
time, an source who prefers to remain anonymous told the
Weekly that the source would send a check to make up any
gaps left by the end of the month.
Sampedro, one of the busiest but most organized teens
in the city, is looking toward the long-term future. She’s
happy about the programs that Nuestro Lugar will be able
to offer to teens, from computer labs and tutoring to dance
lessons, self-defense classes and the opportunity to develop
leadership skills. “I’m really happy that resources will be
more equally distributed between the rich and the poor,”
she says, noting that low-income teens rarely get the oppor-
tunity to take extra classes. Brown’s also happy about it
because he sees the tragedy of letting low-income and at-
risk teens fall through the cracks. “If you don’t pay atten-
tion to them, they get thrown out with the trash,” he says,
and he thinks they deserve better. But Sampedro has a
vision of more teen centers, spread across the county, with-
in ten years.
One of the ways Nuestro Lugar helps low-income, mul-
ticultural or at-risk youth strive for and accomplish more is
the three agreements. Those agreements, central to LEAD
philosophy, were also adopted by the teen center commit-
tee. First is for anyone taking part in the center to stay in
school or, if they’re not in a conventional school, to be
actively working towards a GED. Second is to obey the law
— not to drink, do drugs, join a gang or otherwise get into
trouble. Because both LEAD and Nuestro Lugar believe in
social justice, however, there are exceptions for those
arrested during civil disobedience actions and those who
are in the country without documentation. But the third
agreement goes beyond a rule to help the youth reach for
their dreams. It’s the “life assignment” piece, in which teens
define and actively work on reachable goals in their lives.
Williams says that when she joined LEAD at 16, the
agreements helped her focus on her schoolwork, stop drink-
ing and gain confidence in her speaking abilities. And
when, early on in her LEAD time, one of her friends died
in a car accident, her LEAD group and Rafferty supported
her and let her deal with her grief. “I remember that so
clearly,” she says. “I took up an hour of LEAD’s time, and
people genuinely cared.” Her life assignments right now
include being the first person in her family to finish college
and, as a LEAD volunteer, being an adult advocate for the
LGBTQ community. “It feels really good to have the teen
center, to give a safe environment for teens,” she says.
Other LEAD teens note the value of the life assign-
ments. “I was going through life school portion by school
portion,” says 14-year-old Ben Ennis, a freshman at the
Network Charter School, until his mom found LEAD for
him. “It was totally open, everybody greeted me warmly.”
Now Ben, whose life assignment is “to learn everything and
anything I can about computers and spread that knowledge
around,” has set up Nuestro Lugar’s computer lab and plans
on replacing the office computers. And, D Cohen notes,
Sacred Heart Medical Center donated many computers to
LEAD. With Ben’s help, Nuestro Lugar intends to provide
rehabilitated computers for the teens to use at home.
Ben’s counterpart on the environmental
front is Will Ross, a 17-year-old who attends
the Center for Appropriate Transport and is one
of two teens from LEAD to take part in the
super-tough National Outdoor Leadership
School. Will serves as an intern for LEAD dur-
ing the second half of the school day, and his
life assignment, he says, is “to reduce air pollu-
tion through the use of bikes rather than cars.”
He’s agonized by the fact that people can’t fix
their own bikes because they don’t have the
knowledge or tools, and that low-income teens
can’t spend money on that kind of work either.
“I want to build and repair bikes for cheap or
maybe free, so I can eliminate all the excuses
people have,” he says. A big part of LEAD’s adventure por-
tion, monthly outdoor excursions plus a five-day rafting trip
at the end of the year, consists of environmental awareness,
and Will is all for it. He took part last year in LEAD’s Plant-
a-Thon, which will happen on a grander scale this year (the
group has 10,000 trees to plant, with the help of McKenzie
River Trust and countless volunteers). An unfinished mural
on the wall shows off each component of LEAD, and the
“adventure” portion is clearly going to be a celebration of
the rafting trip. “I’m too poor for a week-long rafting trip”
without LEAD, says Jenna McSween, a 15-year-old soph-
omore at Wellsprings Friends School who is working hard
on the mural. Jenna says she’s been drawing “since I could
pick up a crayon,” and as a creative person, her life assign-
ment is to create a magazine for teenagers and publish what
teens want to say.
And teens don’t only want to express themselves in
English. Nuestro Lugar’s bilingual name reflects a commit-
ment on the part of LEAD and teen center staff to welcome
youth whose first language is Spanish. But former co-coor-
dinators Itahi Diaz and Itziri Moreno got busy with school,
and Juventud FACETA, whose members range in age up to
24, found a home of its own earlier this year with Amigos
Multicultural Services at the old Whiteaker Elementary
School. That means the center isn’t quite as bilingual as the
three partner groups originally planned. That doesn’t mean
LEAD or Nuestro Lugar have given up, though; the
Wednesday night LEAD group is bilingual in Spanish and
English, and many of the youth and staff members either
speak both languages or are working on improving in a sec-
ond language.
Co-coordinator Elizabeth Sampedro can’t wait to see
the effect of Nuestro Lugar spreading throughout the com-
munity. “Our main goal is to provide a place that’s support-
ive, fun and safe, where teens can be themselves, grow in
leadership skills and stay away from risk factors like school
dropout, being in gangs or engaging in risky sex.” She
knows the three agreemants will help with that goal, and
she also knows how valuable it is to have the space. She
adds, “After so many times of us meeting in little offices or
places that weren’t really ours, to say this is ours, we are
welcome here, we have the resources we need to keep our
education going and get the help that we need that won’t
cost us anything, that’s a really important thing.”
ew
For more information on hours, donating or volunteering for LEAD
or Nuestro Lugar, visit www.leadteen.com or call 342-8336.
LEAD encourages outdoor skills
like rock-climbing, rafting and
snowshoeing.
14 JANUARY 18, 2007