Current President and CEO Matt Burton founded this non-profit organization in September 1999.  It began as "To Shine Too", serving disadvantaged kids and young adults in the Portland-metro area.  From the beginning, our hearts were as big as our mission.

We provided mentorship, direction and vital services—such as crisis intervention, job referrals, food—to the hopeless and the homeless.  We also reached out to at-risk youth by teaching them to stage their own musical and dramatic performances. 

It was during these developmental years that we honed our mission and learned what we do best as an organization - reaching kids in their comfort zone through music, art and athletics.

Tribal Dancer

In 2003, we investigated the desperate plight of children living on the region’s most underserved Native American Reservations.  We found many of these youth grow up in broken homes, surrounded by alcoholism, drug use, poverty, crime and depression.

They live in desolate communities, with virtually no nearby youth activities or supervised venues to gather in the evening and weekend hours.  They’re looking for options to break the cycle of restlessless.  They’re looking for role models to help unearth their buried dreams. Their obvious need was a perfect match for our stated mission, and we committed our organization’s energy and our focus to establishing youth centers for the most hurting Native American youth.