Piper left home at sixteen.
But on a rainy Friday in February, she graduated from our Pettygrove Residential program and went home with her mom for the first time in nearly two years.
Sitting with Piper, we sip bottled water and chat about a faux-leather bomber jacket she’s been eyeing. She laughs outright when asked about getting her driver’s license. That particular milestone can wait – Piper has achieved plenty in the past six months. Last Friday, she walked at her high school graduation and her application to the University of Oregon is on its way in the mail.
Passing the afternoon with this bright, articulate, young person, it’s hard to align her chaotic past with her promising future. Homelessness, arrest, anger and defiance – like many of the young women in our Pettygrove program, Piper’s past is filled with these themes. When asked about how her life changed trajectory, Piper speaks freely about the Pettygrove Residential program.
Referencing a favorite piece of art she made while staying at Pettygrove, Piper explains the elements of the program that helped her transform her future. “The head here represents the program and the people that are helping kids. They are blowing all these things into us – compassion, patience, strength – and instilling these things into us so we can grow up and become women.”
Piper stayed just under nine months in our Pettygrove Residential program. In this program, girls who are in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority live together cooperatively under the supervision of our trained staff. Girls receive group and individual counseling and develop the skills they need to end a cycle of destructive behavior and move towards a successful future.
When asked about her future, and the role our Pettygrove Residential program played in her young life, Piper is hopeful. “Being here taught me that you are influenced by what’s around you, by your environment. People can get sent to a lockdown facility but there you’re not gonna get the things that you get at Pettygrove, you’re just gonna get locked in a cell and that doesn’t help. At Pettygrove you’re meeting friends, learning skills, learning how to be in a community, having opportunities like this to tell our story and to make art and that’s really important.”