How a social worker gives something back to his childhood community

Editor’s Note: This story comes from the Next Generation Radio Project, a journalism education program sponsored by NPR, OPB, and public media organizations across the country.

Damien Wheeler stands on Council Bluffs Way in the Skyline Crest community. Wheeler is a community resources liaison at the Bridgeview Resource Center, where he provides resources to families in the Skyline Crest community that link them to housing, education, and employment.

Cat Duque / OPB via NextGenRadio

While working as a student attorney at Fort Vancouver High School, Damien Wheeler bonded with a student who was at risk of failure. Wheeler said the student hadn’t asked his teacher for help, so he jumped in.

“He was comfortable because he had someone by his side,” said Wheeler. “And he knew I wasn’t going to target him and say, ‘Oh, you’re going to fail your class.'”

Wheeler said the student received the credits to pass his class.

“They were Ds, but they were still passing through,” said Wheeler.

He no longer works in high school, but the work he is now involved in is similar. Wheeler is a community resources liaison at the Bridgeview Resource Center, where he provides resources to families in the Skyline Crest community that link them to housing, education, and employment.

Damien Wheeler is pictured with his mentor Shawn Hamburg before graduating from high school in 2012.

Courtesy Damien Wheeler / OPB via NextGenRadio

“Life is not the same for everyone, but being able to help them do it and being that consistent part is the most important thing,” he said.

Wheeler grew up in Skyline Crest, a low-income community of the Vancouver Housing Authority in Vancouver, Washington. Today he is 27, married and a first-time homeowner to fulfill his American dream.

“To be American is to offer opportunities to those who may not see it, to be an example to the next generation because they will be the ones who determine what happens next,” said Wheeler.

The community is a small version of America’s Melting Pot, where people like Wheeler connect homeowners with important things like housing, education and employment.

“You don’t feel any less American with this low income,” he said.

“There may be times when you feel like you’re being attacked and stuff, but I think you’re connected to the resources … America to the land of opportunity and stuff. The opportunities are out there, I just think people just need help finding them. “

Wheeler has spent most of his career in social work, advocating for “vulnerable” youth.

“Low-income children are considered at risk due to certain factors,” said Wheeler. “First and foremost, I have worked with young people who are at risk of drug and alcohol addiction and gang participation. I can build relationships with these children to help themselves, they know that I am not there to harm them in any way. “

Damien Wheeler went on an excursion to the University of Washington, Seattle with his mentees in 2018.

Courtesy Damien Wheeler / OPB via NextGenRadio

In the six years that Wheeler worked with young people, memories of the children he helped have stuck with him. He’s helped them in school or helped them work through trauma while taking them on field trips and college tours, or playing at weekly basketball games.

Today he gets to know the young people he used to look after and learns about their successes. “It’s a great feeling to see them move forward,” he said.

Wheeler’s passion is to give his community the same American rights everyone is entitled to, an apartment, an open community, and a comfortable life.