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 Rodolfo Serna winces with embarrassment recalling his brief stint as a used-car salesman. “This little old lady,” he reminisces, “needed a car to transport her grandchildren. And I sold her a lemon.” When the irate woman returned in her new junker the very next day, Serna, wracked with guilt, explained she was protected under state lemon laws. “Go ahead and leave the keys on the counter,” he counseled her. “Just go.” The woman looked at him, surprised, and then followed his instructions.
Serna promptly exited the used-car business and commenced a zigzagging path of service—washing clothes for the homeless, organizing mural paintings, working with Native American groups, African-American groups, the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement and the Hispanic Access Center. Eventually, he joined the Portland nonprofit p:ear in 2007 as a “transition coordinator,” tasked with “assisting homeless youth in getting off the streets.”
At p:ear, a drop-in workshop/studio/library/cafeteria provides homeless teens with a safe space for creativity and a storefront gallery to showcase their work. The teens build self-esteem while practicing self-expression —be it in the form of a painting, photograph, written story or photocopied zine. And while art may be what is most visible to observers, Serna credits p:ear's success to its focus on mentoring: “I would have to say my motivation has shifted from being excited about an opportunity to use my art to feeling grateful that I am part of this community.”
“Our relationship model,” he explains, “is what differentiates us from other organizations.” Mentors
form close, lasting bonds with p:ear’s budding artists, with no set agenda for progress or benchmarks. Because p:ear is “privately funded, for the most part”— as opposed to relying on grant money—funding is not “tied to outcomes,” thus freeing Serna to pursue less measurable goals.
Asked what aspect of p:ear he finds most satisfying, Serna pauses to think, then speaks seriously. “Some things can't be fixed,” he says. One p:ear mentee is 16 years old and HIV-positive. “I'll never fix that. Just being able to be there, being able to be present—that is a blessing.” |
