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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

World of Good, Outside In Style

If you're a child or young adult and your parents abuse you, what do you do? Driven to depseration by the pain meted out by the people who should love and support you, you might decide to run away and live on the streets. Sometimes being homeless is a better option than staying in a home that has become a nightmare. Outside In is a group in Portland, Oregon that tries to give just such youth a chance to get off the streets.

At BlogWorld Expo two weeks ago, I met a young woman who worked with CNRG Portland, "a resource network for engaging people in the nonprofit community." She recommended I highlight Outside In in a World of Good (WOG) post. That was a great suggestion.

Outside In is a charity organization that tries to help the homeless youth get off the streets and into productive, healthy lives. Here's a good introduction to who they serve and how.


I usually post excerpts from the website of the subject of the WOG, but Outside In has such an elegant and well-written one that I'll just link to them and let you surf over and check them out. They boast an excellent success rate and seem to truly care for these kids.

What struck me as I watched the video was how few survival skills teenagers have when they're in this situation. I've often wondered what I would do if I were homeless and for me, getting off the street would be pretty easy. As I watched the kids' stories in this video, it occurred to me that my life skills in everything from healthy habits to financial management are things that an abused teenager would lack. Heck, the kids from fatherless homes I coached couldn't even catch a baseball. Imagine how unskilled a child from an abusive home would be. The primary skills you would develop would be avoiding punishment and escaping reality.

Outside In brings these homeless youth back into the real world and productive society. That's got to be considered doing a World of Good.

For more WOGs, a description of why we WOG and an opportunity to join the WOG Squad, see this post.

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