50+ Years of Impact

In 1971, concerned community members opened The Next Door Inc. (TNDI) to provide a safe home for local teens. In those early days, our work was centered around three programs that met children and families where they were to build something better alongside them.

Today, TNDI serves over 13,000 people in a seven-county region throughout the Gorge. Our employees facilitate more than 30 programs in 6 service areas that continue to meet children and families in moments of crisis, transition, and hope.

1971-1998

  • Established in a rented farmhouse in Hood River, The Next Door Inc. (TNDI) housed, educated, and offered treatment to teenage foster children beginning in 1971.

  • In 1984, services began in The Dalles. TNDI’s certified foster homes provided shelter for runaway and homeless youth detained by local law enforcement.

  • Services for foster youth changed from a residential treatment facility to a co-ed therapeutic foster care program in 1994, with community-based education and mental health treatment.

  • Support and education for new parents and their babies became a primary area of service for The Next Door in 1995. Skills training for foster teens learning how to live independently also started at this time.

  • In 1998, services began in Washington state, providing therapeutic foster care in partnership with the state's welfare department. The partnership ended in 2008.

2000-2010

  • In 2000, The Next Door added a youth mentoring program for children and teens, which became a cornerstone of the current Youth Services department.

  • Nuestra Comunidad Sana/Health Promotion Services joined The Next Door in 2002. This program was one of the first in the country to train and utilize community health workers to provide health and prevention services to Latino families.

  • Healthy Families Oregon, TNDI’s home visiting program for parents with infants, earned national accreditation through Prevent Child Abuse America as an evidence-based home visiting program in 2007.

  • After a 10-year search, The Next Door made its first real estate purchase on Tucker Road in Hood River in 2010.

  • Economic Development Services started Promoting Prosperity/ Promoviendo Prosperidad to support Latino entrepreneurs and their small businesses in the Gorge, as well as the Raíces Cooperative Farm, a program cultivating opportunity and leadership for Latino farmers.

2015-2020

  • After an organizational rebrand in 2015, The Next Door’s service areas were organized into five departments: Treatment Services, Family Services, Youth Services, Economic Development Services, and Health Promotion Services.

  • In 2017, The Next Door added a sixth department, Consulting Services, to provide the Gorge community and surrounding areas with diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops, focus-group facilitation, and Spanish-language interpretation.

  • The Next Door purchased a second building on Kelly Avenue in The Dalles, providing space to enhance and grow services in the eastern Gorge in 2018.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the Gorge. Over the next year, The Next Door added 15 new programs to meet the unique, growing needs created by the pandemic, including Counseling Services.

  • In 2018, The Next Door established outpatient mental health services for youth and young adults ages 3 to 26 to support a range of needs including anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, behavioral challenges, substance use, and grief.

2021-2024

  • Economic Development Services started Promoting Prosperity/ Promoviendo Prosperidad to support Latino entrepreneurs and their small businesses in the Gorge, as well as the Raíces Cooperative Farm, a program cultivating opportunity and leadership for Latino farmers.

  • In 2023, with an ongoing shortage of foster homes and a growing need in our community, The Next Door purchased a home in The Dalles for youth in behavioral rehabilitation services at the Klahre House.

2025-Present

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    Program Participant

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    Program Participant