Radical Alternative Development: in the news

Many years ago, BriJit Jenkins was 17 years old, living in a tent, pregnant with her daughter and seemingly out of options. Now, Jenkins is one of the most active organizers in the local punk community and is creating spaces for vulnerable community members.

Have you ever felt the overwhelming urge to buy chainmail and a screen printed patch that says “ANTIFA Princess” while a live band serenades you with screaming vocals? At the Radical Alternative Development’s Moshpit Market, you absolutely can. 

This year, Radical Alternative Development, a punk nonprofit, is hosting its eighth annual Punks Who Give Benefit For Native Youth Wellness. BriJit Jenkins, one of RAD’s founders, says she started Punks Who Give in 2017 because “I just wanted to start doing more community building in Eugene.” 

Together We Are Enough is a two-day punk festival featuring more than 20 bands performing free at Washington Jefferson Skatepark, aiming to provide resources for at-risk youth and connect them with the appropriate service providers to meet their individual needs. 

Every summer, Radical Alternative Development, or RAD, hosts a mental health awareness benefit punk show. The show, hosted at Washington Jefferson Park, is meant to bring the community together and give the people who need it most a sense of belonging.  

For the founders, as well as one of the board members of Radical Alternative Development, the punk scene is all they’ve ever known. “If I didn’t get into this field, or get pregnant when I was a teenager, I probably would be dead, too, and punk rock really saved my life,” founder BriJit Jenkins says.

With the rate of suicides in Lane County increasing by 80 percent from 2000 to 2020 — and one in ten 6th graders and one in five 11th graders seriously considering suicide in 2020, according to Lane County Public Health Prevention — something needs to change. This is where Radical Alternative Development (RAD) steps in.