At 19, Scott Moorhouse had already been caught – twice – smuggling marijuana across the Canadian border. He’d spent time in ICE detention and was in and out of treatment for addiction. “I really had no focus at all,” he says. “All I knew was crime and crummy people.”

But all that changed that year when a stranger named Jim noticed that Scott had a passion for music. “If you’re serious about this,” Jim told him, “I can get you an internship.”

Soon, Scott was sitting in on recording sessions with the likes of Audioslave and Alice In Chains while rubbing shoulders with record executives at Seattle’s storied Bad Animals studio. “I just sort of clung on to them and was like, ‘Teach me, teach me, teach me,’” he says. “And it all had to do with that one guy who gave me an opportunity.”

From mentee to mentor

Today, Scott has a new passion: Being the “Jim” for the roughly 100 kids and teens who live with their families at Solid Ground’s Sand Point Housing. As the Children & Families Program Manager there, Scott works to create opportunities for kids who’ve experienced homelessness and other traumatic experiences, helping them find and pursue their passions.

That’s why, on a recent Friday evening, Scott hunched over a computer monitor in a small office crowded with musical instruments and recording equipment at the Sand Point community center, showing 9-year-old Mysun how to lay down beats. Soon, Mysun moved to an electronic keyboard he’d brought when his neighbor friend Kaylan popped into the room and started banging away on a nearby set of drums.

And the Friday jam sessions are just the beginning. Every day after school, young people at Sand Point gather in the community center lounge to play chess or Xbox, cook meals together, make music, or just hang out in the teen corner.

There are also special events, like visits with staff from local museums, and field trips, including chances to try rock climbing and snowshoeing.

“I want kids to see that their dreams are not unreachable,” Scott says. “It’s about giving kids something to grab onto – whether it’s coding or snowshoeing – and helping them chase it.”

Encouragement to dream big

That’s how Mysun got his well-loved electronic keyboard, which he’s labeled by hand with the notes for individual keys. When Scott noticed last year that Mysun had an interest in music, he arranged to get him the keyboard for Christmas.

“Scott seems to truly care about these kids and appears to have a deep well of energy to tap into to give them things maybe he wishes he had as a kid,” says Mysun’s mom, Jalyssa Elliot. “That’s what we need in a program manager.”

“The biggest thing is that kids know they have a safe place that’s theirs, where their voice is heard. … It all comes back to that.”

~Scott Moorhouse, Sand Point Children & Families Program Manager

Scott says his personal experiences as a teenager – including addiction and interactions with the criminal justice system – helps him connect authentically with kids who are facing their own struggles. It’s also earned him the respect and trust of parents working to build better lives for their children after moving beyond homelessness.

“One thing I know about families,” he says, “Is if you want to build trust with parents, the quickest is way to start by building trust with their kids, because that’s their prized possession. If they know their kid is being treated properly by you, then maybe they can trust you too.”

And while exposing kids to opportunities is critical, Scott says it isn’t nearly as important as the space in which kids encounter it.

“The biggest thing is that the kids know they have a safe place that’s theirs, where their voice is heard,” he says. “I can plan all the programs I want, but it all comes back to that.”

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Photo at top: Scott cruises around the Sand Point Housing campus on his new ride (credit: Michael B. Maine).