Brandi Tuck found her passion for working with homeless families while at school in Florida. After moving to Portland, she began volunteering at Goose Hollow Family Shelter, an emergency facility where parents and children can find meals, beds and advocates who will work to find them permanent homes, while also working at the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force on anti-hunger policy. Two years into volunteering, Tuck was hired as the executive director of Goose Hollow. She was 24. And though shes proud of being the head of an organization thats making noticeable changes in her community, the now-26-year-old still feels like shes sacrificed the respect of loved ones who view money as an indicator of success.

More to the point, shes got more than enough to keep her mind occupied. I have about 17 to-do lists at any given time. I try to do a little bit of fundraising every day, whether its writing grants, or working on appeal letters, or working with the donor base. Three to four nights a week I try to stay at the shelter and have dinner with the families.

And then there is the business side of things. While families stay at Goose Hollow, they work with case managers to help them find permanent housing, Tuck says. Last year 71 percent were able to find permanent housing before leaving the shelter.

Over two years, she has expanded Goose Hollows services to seven months out of the year, with the help of a legion of volunteers. Last year Goose Hollow applied forand was grantednonprofit status, more than 10 years after its doors first opened to families in need.

While its capacity to help has grown, Tuck says the need for the service has grown as well: The average length of a stay last year was 31 days. The average length of a stay the year before that was 17 days, which I think just shows the signs of the economy.

Tucks next project is Goose Hollows first day shelter, which opened a little over a week ago. The hope is it will take some of the pressure off families as they work toward obtaining affordable housing. It represents a large step for Tuck toward reaching her ultimate goal: The one thing that I really want more than anything is for us to be open year-round. Theres a huge needsomething like 850 homeless families on any given night in Portlandbut theres only space in shelters for 68. During the summer, theres only 35. Id love to stay open year-round, but its purely funding.