By Ray Pitz
Dougy Center, a Portland-based organization supporting children and families who are grieving someone close to them before or after a death, is expanding to the westside. Plans are to open Malcolm’s House in Beaverton, a $13.5 million location that’s expected to double the number of in-person services available and reduce the number of those on a waitlist hoping to receive services, according to the National Grief Center for Children & Families.
The future center, set to open in early 2027, is located in the former Allegro Microsystems building at 15985 N.W. Schendel Ave., a site the Dougy Center purchased in 2023 near the Walker Road Fred Meyer.
“We’ve never served more people or had a longer waitlist,” Dougy Center Executive Director Brennan C. Wood said in a statement. “The westside of Portland is one of Oregon’s most diverse and fastest-growing regions, and the families who live there and need our services have told us clearly: The need is real, the transit barriers to the eastside are increasing, and the time is now.”
Renovations to the 14,000-square-foot building recently began and will include “grief-informed program spaces built around Dougy Center’s signature music, art and ‘big energy’ rooms that are designed to help children safely express and process grief,” center officials say.
Malcolm’s House is named in honor of a “transformational gift” received from the estate of Dr. Malcolm Marquis, the late Portland ophthalmologist and longtime supporter of the Dougy Center.
The new location will feature indoor and outdoor play areas, a 1,500-square-foot room to serve as Dougy Center’s national hub for grief-informed training and community gatherings and a recording studio for the organization’s internationally distributed “Grief Out Loud” podcast, Dougy Center officials say.
“Beaverton has been asking for a Dougy Center presence for years, and Malcolm’s House is exactly the kind of resource our families deserve,” Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty said in a news release. “Grief doesn’t wait, and neither should the children and families in our community who need support. We’re proud to welcome a true Dougy Center home to the westside.”
This will be the second full-time permanent brick-and-mortar location for Dougy Center activities, with the original building and headquarters located at 3909 S.E. 52nd Ave. in southeast Portland.
However, Dougy Center has had a presence in Washington County for the last two decades, first operating in Hillsboro at various locations beginning in 2006 and more recently serving families inside Beaverton’s B4Church on Walker Road.
According to Dougy Center officials, there are 213 children and adults on the organization’s year-long waiting list, hoping to access the organization’s no-cost, peer-based grief support groups.
“Malcolm’s House, when complete, is projected to double the number of children and families served through in-person programming at all Dougy Center locations — to 5,000 annually — within five years of opening, without doubling staff or budget,” according to information from Dougy House.
Officials added that one in 11 children experience the death of a parent or sibling before they turn 18, and in some parts of Washington County, that number is as high as one in eight.
Dougy Center is named after 13-year-old Dougy Turno, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness in the early 1980s. Frustrated no one wanted to talk about it, before his death Turno helped other children talk about their fears, aided by Bev Chappell, a former nurse who helped found Dougy Center.
