< Back to News

News

July 31, 2020

How COVID-19 Impacts Our Youth and Their Families

And how we are meeting their needs, no matter what.

Friends of the Children–Portland serves over 500 high priority youth living in the metro area. The vast majority of our youth are affected by multiple adverse childhood experiences and are most directly impacted by job losses, basic need shortages, evictions and social isolation related to COVID-19.

The impact of COVID-19 is exacerbating already high levels of trauma among the youth we serve, and it poses a serious threat to their immediate and long-term stability.

Before COVID-19, lack of access to technology like Wi-Fi and devices made it difficult to do schoolwork. Now that schools and libraries are closed to date, this digital disconnect has increased.

Most of our youth live in school districts where students and teachers have less access to digital resources and are at a higher risk of falling behind academically – a large concern as school districts consider remote learning this fall.

We are meeting their needs. No matter what.

As we work to protect the health of our youth, staff and community, we have created Remote Service Plans customized for each youth we mentor. Friends of the Children provides a long-term program model, and we commit to serving our youth no matter what.

Here are ways we are meeting the needs of our youth and their families during this pandemic:

Remote Mentoring looks like:

Supporting the whole family is more important than ever.

Make a financial investment in the next generation of young leaders who will transform our community with their resilience, perseverance and grit, and hope for a better future. Donate now!