by Jacob Espinoza

If you walk through Riverfront Park this Saturday and hear the bands, know that it is not simply a concert. 

Underneath the punk rock is a resource fair built for youth. It served more than 800 young people last year. Volunteers handed out over 1,700 hygiene products, 1,000 clothing items and 75 pairs of shoes along the way. 

Punx With Purpose is a Salem nonprofit focused on serving Salem’s youth, and their annual Punx in the Park lands Saturday, Sept. 5, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Riverfront Park amphitheater. 

Also, it's free.

I sat down with co-founders Hailey and James Kelly to talk about how a five-week scramble to throw one event grew into a year-round operation. I also heard from two of their biggest community partners: Ryan Tribbett of Pac/West Lobby Group and Kim Hanson of Maps Community Foundation.

Most resource events run into the same wall: getting the people who need help to actually show up. Punx flips that. 

It’s a  family-friendly event with six live bands picked entirely by a youth vote, free meals for youth ages 11 to 18 from local food trucks, a clothing closet, haircuts, school supplies and creative stations for building a battle vest or a new hairstyle.

Here's how the help works underneath the fun. Kids check in through a short, low-barrier survey (no name required, just basics like a zip code), get a wristband, then carry a passport to collect stamps from more than 50 resource booths. They keep it simple. Fill the passport, come back, win a prize.

“Young people come because it's fun and approachable, but surrounding that experience are 50 or so organizations that can help with everything from STD screenings to signing up for food stamps or the Oregon Health Plan,” Tribbett told me. “Punx with a Purpose brings all of those resources together in a setting where young people actually feel comfortable engaging with them.”

That comfort is the point. As Tribbett put it, walking into a government office and telling a stranger about an abusive parent or an empty fridge carries real risk for a teenager. “Punx with a Purpose has people they identify with and trust enough to share their story with, and then helps these young people navigate the system of available resources,” he said. “It's hard to overstate how important it is to have someone like Punx filling that role.”

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The first Punx in the Park four years ago came together in five weeks, before the group even had its own nonprofit status. A partner organization let them run donations through it. About 500 people showed up, and Hailey said some of the 32 resource tables were wary of setting up at a punk show. By last year, at Riverfront Park, the event drew 810 youth through the survey and had a waitlist of organizations wanting a booth.

What grew out of it is a set of year-round programs. Stormie's Place, their downtown drop-in center, lets youth hang out, play games and get basic needs met. Many of the kids don't even register it as a “resource” until they're getting case management. Their outreach team walks the community handing out hygiene and snack bags. 

This past summer they added field trips and, with a grant from Maps Community Foundation, bought a vehicle to transport youth and supplies.

Hulsey is blunt about it: not just kids who are visibly homeless, but a full spectrum — foster youth, straight-A students, dropouts, kids in loving homes and kids sleeping in cars. A lot of young people, she says, don't realize their own situation counts as homelessness. Couch surfing, doubling up, an unsafe home you technically can return to. She pointed out that homelessness doesn’t always mean you are living in a tent. 

For scale, Hulsey points to the Salem-Keizer School District's McKinney-Vento program — the federal support system for students without stable housing — which she says serves close to 2,000 kids from kindergarten through high school, with only eight workers to cover them. (That figure comes from Hulsey; the district would have the official count.)

For partners, the draw is watching it work. “Hearing stories of the youth who find care, resources, and access to shelter who otherwise would be on the street is the why behind our partnership,” Hanson said. Maps has backed Punx since its inception, nominated Hulsey for one of its first Community Awards, and helped fund that first vehicle — “this black Suburban transporting youth and supplies around the community,” as Hanson described it.

Punx is a real punk show, so expect loud, high-energy music — little ones may want ear protection. Parking is at the lot in front of the park, the downtown garage across the street or the Marion Parkade a block away.

The event runs almost entirely on volunteers. Punx in the Park alone takes around 100 people. The group is looking for volunteers, clothing donations, meal sponsorships for its Wednesday community meals, and prizes. You can learn more at punxwithpurpose.org.

Ready to help? You can also check out their Amazon Wishlist.