Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis cutting ribbon on new center

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- The Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis is ready to serve local teens with a new teen center and wellness clinic.

Construction on the Johnson Center for Youth Excellence finished in August, and the doors are open for afterschool programs and youth health services.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday, and a community tour of the facility was also planned.

"The Johnson Center is a model that could be replicated across Oregon as a way to efficiently increase access to services that can be expensive to build and sustain in small communities" said Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis CEO Helen Higgins.

The center is designed to be a hub of opportunity where teens will participate in leadership education, promote healthy lifestyles and gain hands-on work experience.

The first floor will provide a permanent space for high school enrichment programs, and the second floor will house physical and mental health services in the Brauti Wellness Center, staffed by Samaritan Health Services.

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"This transformational project places a youth-focused medical home inside the walls of our youth development organization, where the kids are," Higgins said. "This project intentionally leverages our culture of trust with youth to provide a connection and a warm hand-off to mental and physical health providers in a welcoming space."

President and CEO of Samaritan, Doug Boysen, said the center will provide services for both club members and youth from across Benton County.

The club raised $7.2 million toward the $10 million needed to build and support the 20,000-square-foot expansion of the existing facility. Fundraising efforts continue.

The project broke ground in July 2017.