Arin's House sets the PACE

Teen center celebrates its new home on the border of Nature Park

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Sep 9, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Christina Lent / Times Newspapers

Project PACE’s Eric Hamblen and Kathi Calouri welcome the chance to share space with Allyson Jameson and the Arin’s House – A Teen Center team.

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Arin’s House — A Teen Center has found an ideal roommate in a longtime friend.

The nonprofit teen center is moving in with Project PACE (Parent and Child Enrichment), a Beaverton organization that specializes in working with children with autism spectrum disorders and their families.

After years of partnering together on service projects, team-building activities and community celebrations, Arin’s House and Project PACE leaders have decided to share a 3,000-square-foot building on slightly less than an acre at 2360 S.W. 170th Ave., adjacent to the western border of the Tualatin Hills Nature Park and across from Beaver Acres Elementary School.

“We’re really excited about the opportunities ahead of us,” said Allyson Jameson, executive director of Arin’s House. “We were getting kind of cramped in the house we’ve been renting.

“It was a great starting point, but we are really looking forward to moving into a facility where we can spread out and continue to grow.”

The new location will improve the teen center’s visibility in the community while also offering a safe haven for middle and high school students to hang out, get homework help, use computers, play music, create art and organize community service projects.

“In the house we’re renting right now off of Murray, we’re not allowed to post a sign,” Jameson said. “We’ve kind of felt like an undercover teen center.

“Now we’ll be able to really let people know that we’re here. Our teens already love this place.”

For the past couple years, Eric Hamblen and Kathi Calouri, founders of Project PACE, have hosted several events for Arin’s House on their property along 170th Avenue, including two pirate parties and a graduation celebration.

When Hamblen and Calouri began considering a plan to rent out a portion of their building that they were not using for their practice, it seemed only natural to open their facility to a group they knew that has a mission they support.

“These are people we know and trust,” Calouri said of the Arin’s House team. “They understand what we do and respect our work and we respect them.

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