Oregon's Riverbend Youth Center Gives at-Risk Kids a Place to Live, Work, and Learn

Summary

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For Keith, Mike and Emmanuel, three teenagers at the RiverBend Youth Center in Oregon City, construction is a release. The steady pounding of their hammers relaxes them; the rhythmic, consistent beat is a pleasant contrast to the hustle and chatter they experience earlier in a classroom.

One day a week, the teenagers leave class at 3 p.m., march across South Clackamas River Drive and then traipse through the woods where, along the bank of a tree-lined, slow-running creek, Oregon Building Congress instructor John Martin guides them through the construction of a new, 12-foot bridge. They lift, they laugh; they hammer, they hum.

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Oregon's Riverbend Youth Center Gives at-Risk Kids a Place to Live, Work, and Learn

At least, that's how things are supposed to go.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, nothing is going right. They've just built up a sweat, having dragged buckets and plywood and toolkits down a 20-foot trail. And now that it's time ...

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