Photos and story by Ryan Fournier
A Port Angeles drop-in center and greenhouse, commonly known for its services to homeless and low-income residents, is a conduit to college for some.
The Answer For Youth, TAFY, pays for GEDs, books and bus passes for clients who seek an education. Executive Director Susan Hillgren says there are probably a couple a year who TAFY helps into school.
Alisha Adams, 31, is enrolled in PC’s High School 21+ program. She wants to continue with school, and has considered becoming a nurse, police officer, or chemical dependency professional.
TAFY is setting her up with a math tutor.
Adams has been involved with TAFY for years. She was homeless between 2010 and 2015. During that time, and afterward, she utilized basic drop-in services there, such as food and clothing. The center also provided her with bus passes and a YMCA pass.
“I actually think I used it more when I stopped being homeless,” Adams said.
She and her boyfriend, Mike Williams, who was homeless with Adams and also utilized TAFY, maintain a presence at the center, sometimes as volunteers.
I’m not forgetting who helped me out,” said Williams. “They’ve always been there.”
Williams expressed interest in returning to PC, where he’s been a student before. He’s considered making use of the BFET program.
The couple spoke recently at TAFY’s “Planting Hope” fundraiser, which collected donations to add another greenhouse to its Sprouting Hope project. Adams said the experience was “nerve racking,” but it was worth it to help Susan and the TAFY volunteers.
The Sprouting Hope project began when TAFY purchased the former Gross’s Nursery property at 826 E. 1st St. in 2016. It received a grant from the City of Port Angeles to enclose the property’s existing greenhouse shell, then began growing and selling decorative plants of various kinds.
In addition, some of the food served at the center is grown in raised beds onsite.
Sprouting Hope aims to “support TAFY without having to beg all the time,” said Hillgren. The center, for most of its history, has run entirely on donations, grants, and volunteer labor.
TAFY’s second greenhouse to come, while meant to further fund operations, is intended also as a place to deepen relationships with its clients.
“If I just hang out with those people, they’ll start talking to me,” observed Gayle McCormick, who volunteers once a week at TAFY, working often with the center’s plants.
McCormick began volunteering at TAFY shortly after its opening nearly a decade ago. At that time, she was a supervising counsellor at Oak Street Center, a co-occurring mental health and addiction counselling service.
“If they were involved in TAFY, they stabilized better than those that weren’t,” she noticed of her clients.
McCormick is a professor of Addiction Studies courses at PC, and was a founding member of Reflections Counselling Services in Port Angeles. Furthermore, she and Hillgren are members of the College’s Addiction Studies Program Advisory Committee, which meets twice annually to address curriculum needs.
McCormick is herself a recovering alcoholic. She’s been sober since 1976.
TAFY’s “no barrier” policy offers a welcoming environment to people in need, even those in active drug addiction. Though, the center has a stated rule barring “violent offenders.”
“TAFY keeps kids alive until they’re able to get their lives started,” said Hillgren.
“There’s so many opinions about what we’re supposed to be doing,” explained Martin Shaughnessy, a TAFY volunteer. Different groups, he said, have conflicting philosophies about how best to address issues of homelessness, addiction and mental illness.
Some say a person should be left alone to “hit bottom” before help is offered.
“I can introduce you to a population of people who were born there,” he said.
People who know nothing other than sickness, said Shaughnessy, will not be turned from destructive patterns by consequences. Such people, he believes, must be met where they are, if they’re to be helped at all.
TAFY’s doors are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3-7pm. It offers services to people 35 and under.