Youth On Their Own

Near the southeast corner of Pima and Alvernon is a complex of two buildings with a parking lot between. It's called Youth on their Own. On the south side is their mini-mall, at 1642-B North Alvernon; an Isaac Caruso mural graces the north wall of that building with a young woman graduate and saguaro blossoms:

The north side has another building, at 1660 North Alvernon; a long wall stretches from it toward Alvernon. On the wall is a mural with the theme of blowing a seed off of a dandelion. It's hard to see the whole thing from a distance:

The right-hand end looks to me like a stylized flower. Next to it is a dandelion, with seeds floating toward the left end of the mural. Here's the view from the left:

Next, the seed and the dandelion:

Nice, isn't it? It was painted by Porter McDonald; he calls it “Flight.”

I was there on April 10th.

Update (December 7, 2021): The Arizona Daily Star's online section #ThisIsTucson has published a story about Youth On Their Own: For three decades, this Tucson-area nonprofit has helped homeless teens navigate life.

Update (May 3, 2024): Today's post shows a long mural at YOTO's new administration building, a few miles away from here on Country Club Road, painted sometime in the past year.

Update (July 5, 2024): Today I saw the article Youth On Their Own Moves to New “Forever Home” at 2525 N Country Club Rd and realized that the “administration building” actually holds all of YOTO. That complex opened in November, 2023. I stopped by this old location; the murals are still there.