Powerhouse began as a collaborative partnership between three agencies: The Inn, Inc., Casey Family Programs, and Oregon's Department of Human Services. Through this partnership, service coordination and housing support were offered, along with the development of resources in the community. With a generous start-up grant from The Meyer Memorial Trust, Powerhouse was able to develop the current mentoring program.
In addition to our collaborative partners, the Powerhouse Mentoring Program is a member of the Provider Council of Oregon Mentors and meets all the quality assurance standards for mentoring programs as defined by Oregon Mentors.  In 2006 Powerhouse was named the Exceptional Mentoring Program in Oregon by Oregon Mentors.

The Powerhouse Mentoring Program has also been fortunate to receive financial support from Oregon Mentors, The Helping Hand Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, The Saltzman Family Fund of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, Wells Fargo Community Support Campaign, the parish of The Madeleine Church, and a small, but generous, group of individual donors.

Staff of Powerhouse are members of NOVAA (Northwest Oregon Volunteer Administrators Association) (www.novaa.org).  The Powerhouse Advisory Board contains members who represent The National Mentoring Center (www.nwrel.org/mentoring), Department of Human Services Child Welfare (www.oregon.gov/DHS) and area businesses, such as Intel (www.Intel.com).