By Thom Stone
Teens Connect PDX is a new community program that will focus on teens (ages 15-18) in SE Portland. Starting this fall, the program will offer weekly talking circles, including a Young Women’s Circle and a Young Men’s Circle which will continue throughout the rest of the school year.
The program was first conceived by Gaye Chapman, a health educator at Cleveland High School over two decades, after her Building Consent Culture class was cut at the end of the 2024-2025 school year; she thought that Teens Connect could be an effective way to help where schools couldn’t.
One of her former students, Emmett Balmer, was more than happy to talk about the class and what an impact that she had on him: “I really can’t understate how incredible a role model Gaye is, both herself and the material she teaches…seeing more of [the course content] being adapted into this program has given me a lot of hope for future generations.”
Chapman wants the program to become a safe haven for teens, “[somewhere] young people can put down their phones, show up as themselves, share stories, self-reflect and build the kind of genuine community that’s become harder and harder to find.”
People will likely be familiar with, but may not know the extent to which the loneliness epidemic continues to affect teens in particular. The problem has existed for many years but Chapman identified the ubiquity of smartphones as a major factor that may help explain the increase in teens experiencing feelings of isolation over the last decade.
Like many other educators, Chapman has witnessed the impact such feelings have on students both in her classes and those walking the halls, along with her colleague, Brian Fain, who teaches Chemistry and runs the Healthy Masculinity Club at Cleveland High School as a way for young men to share their experiences and learn about themselves as well as each other.
A student who currently participates in the Healthy Masculinity Club, Beckham Ruhoff, had this to say about his experience: “Healthy Masculinity Club isn’t just a Club to me…[it] has given me a space where I feel safe sharing what I feel and sometimes it just feels so good to be able to tell someone that isn’t your parents or your therapist about how you are struggling.”
It would follow that the Young Men’s Circle will provide a similar space for those participating in the program but rather than being limited to 20 minutes during lunch, Fain looks forward to the opportunity to have deeper, longer conversations. He has also looked into research on how movement can be an effective method for engaging young men with each other. He hopes to offer different opportunities to get them active and to connect through doing something together.
Chapman will lead the Young Women’s Circle and she anticipates that they will be discussing a wide array of issues such as power and gender dynamics, misogyny and other topics that the students may bring up themselves such as relationships, accountability and finding hope in trying times. She may cite people in the community, do readings or incorporate art somehow but it’s less about what they do and “more about what they can learn from each other,” she says. She used an analogy to make her point: “A book club isn’t just about the books.”
They hope to bring on other adults to support the program, especially once they start to offer new Circles such as a LGBTQIA+ Circle and an All-Teen Circle, but Chapman insists that they must be student-centered in their approach to working with teens.
When asked what she would like to see happen with the program by the end of the year, Chapman said that she wants to “create something that students don’t want to let go of” and that they will want to continue meeting over summer.
Fain hopes that the program will ultimately help students not just make friends but “people they can count on and reach out to” and develop an overall “more positive sense of self and confidence in their ability to have hard conversations, deeply and compassionately.”
Currently, there is a sliding scale structure for monthly tuition with different tiers depending on what is feasible for interested parties but Chapman and Fain have been looking into fiscal sponsorship and grant writing in hopes that they will eventually be able to make the program free.
Chapman and Fain will be hosting a free teaser for Teens Connect PDX where they will introduce themselves and talk about what they offer while also allowing time for a Q&A session. Visit teensconnectpdx.com for updates.
Registration for Teens Connect PDX is now open and Circles will begin meeting at the Solterra building on SE 9th Ave. and SE Division St. starting in October.