MountainStar Family Relief Nursery (MountainStar), a place of hope and support for vulnerable children and families across Central Oregon, is thrilled to announce the arrival of its new facility in La Pine. This site is MountainStar’s fifth location and marks a momentous step forward in fulfilling its mission to prevent child abuse and neglect in our community.

The building, composed of three modular units, arrived in La Pine on September 12, and installation is currently underway. MountainStar is thrilled to invite the community to celebrate this new location serving children and their families in La Pine. After more than six years of outreach services, this permanent location fulfills MountainStar’s long-standing goal to provide more direct support to La Pine families.

MountainStar gives special thanks to the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners who demonstrated their commitment to South Deschutes County children by allocating funds from the American Rescue Plan Act for this project. This initial funding was critical for this new site and will have a lasting impact on the community.

As MountainStar prepares to open its doors, they are excited to announce that they are hiring for multiple positions. Tobiah Brown, MountainStar’s Program Director, shares “If you are passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of children and families in the community, we encourage you to explore employment opportunities with us. And part of what makes our organization so special is our volunteers. We will be inviting community members to join us in our therapeutic classrooms to help nurture children’s emotional, physical, and intellectual development in a safe environment.”

Kara Tachikawa, MountainStar’s Executive Director, expresses her enthusiasm, “We’ve been working on this project for over a year and are really excited to be opening our doors to the community. Everything we do is connected to child abuse and neglect prevention. Our services are customized to meet the unique needs of each child and their family in our program. Keeping children safe and parents successful is the work we have done in Central Oregon for the past 22 years and work we will continue to do for many years to come.”

For more information about our new La Pine facility, job opportunities, or how you can get involved as a volunteer, please visit our website at mtstar.org