P:EAR – Beth Burns
Growing up in Chicago, Beth learned about economic and social inequality, and, perhaps inspired in part by her parents, was drawn steadily into relationship-based service work. Her travels took her to villages in Guatemala and, later, to Portland Sister’s of the Road Café, where she found important work helping homeless people to continue surviving and thriving. In 2002, she and her two co-founders, Pippa Arend and Joy Cartier, opened p:ear, a new program and facility to serve homeless and transitional youth. Over the last 11 years, p:ear has seen and helped around 3,000 young people—offering them opportunities for study, creative and artistic expression, the development of life skills, even the completion of their high school diplomas.
“I went into a ceramics class and sank my hands
into the clay and I found myself”
Connie Zehr , Ceramic Artist