In honor of National Volunteer Month, The Next Door Inc. (TNDI) is pleased to announce our 2023 Volunteers of the Year, John Fine and Colleen Ballinger.

When Alex was 12, he made a mistake that would change his life forever. Convicted of a crime, he was sentenced to three years at a youth correctional facility hundreds of miles from his home where he felt lost, alone, and afraid. However, fate had a different plan in store for Alex.

Natalia’s life was on track to becoming everything she’d hoped for. She was happily married, living in Hood River with her new husband and kids, and had another baby on the way. Little did she know, her entire world would soon come crashing down around her.

There are currently 41 Gorge Youth Mentoring matches across three counties. However, we still have over 30 mentees on our waitlist, waiting for a consistent, positive relationship with a mentor they can depend on.

For the last several months, The Next Door Inc.’s (TNDI) Marketing and Development team have been working on redesigning our organization’s website. The team embarked on this much-needed project at the end of Summer 2023 to rethink the structure of our site and improve its accessibility to the people we serve, our partners, and our community.