Junior League Volunteers Help With Rose Haven School Supply Giveaway

Junior League Volunteers Help With Rose Haven School Supply Giveaway

by | Sep 19, 2020 | Events, Features, News

Portland, OR. While the school experience has changed during the pandemic, the need for school supplies has not. Rose Haven is a day shelter and community center serving women, children, and gender non-conforming folks, experiencing poverty, trauma, and other issues. The nonprofit held its annual School Supply Giveaway in August. Over the course of two weeks, it supplied 265 children with all they need to get studying again, no matter where they live.

The Junior League of Portland provided volunteers to help with distribution.

Nike donated hundreds of brand new backpacks. Rose Haven converted its outside courtyard to a physically distanced, safe space for families.

Each child was given a grade-appropriate box of supplies. The packages were filled with paper, pens, calculators, binders, and more. This year’s giveaway offered families books, new clothing donated by Macy’s, family hygiene packs and more.

Organizers say that they’re pleased. “In the midst of all that is happening in our world and our community, it was so refreshing to spend time with our children! With them, we find so much hope for the future.”

From Rose Haven: Rose Haven is a day shelter and community center serving women, children and gender non-conforming folks experiencing the trauma of abuse, loss of home and other disruptive life challenges. We break the cycle of homelessness by providing meals, clothing, first aid, mailing addresses, hygiene, restrooms, showers as well as educational programs and guidance through medical and social services. By meeting basic needs and building trust, we empower our guests to explore long-term change.

Portland Art Museum Has “New on View” Offerings, Including an Early Picasso

Portland Art Museum Has “New on View” Offerings, Including an Early Picasso

by | Sep 18, 2020 | Events, Features, News

Portland, OR. The Portland Art Museum (PAM) has some new art on-loan to display this fall.  One notable offering is Pablo Picasso’s, Portrait of Lola, The Artist’s Sister. This painting (seen above) suggests how much the twenty-year-old artist rapidly assimilated and innovated upon the techniques of his predecessors and peers.

About the painting:

Maria Dolores Ruiz Picasso was called Lola by her family. Picasso drew and painted his younger sister many times while he was an adolescent and teenager. This work on loan captures Lola at seventeen years old in 1901, the year that marks the beginning of Picasso’s famous “blue period.” The portrait shares the somber mood and cool colors that characterize that first mature body of work, created over a brief, three-year period. It retains some of the realism that Picasso-the-student would have observed and admired in paintings at Madrid’s Prado Museum by Spanish court painters Diego Velazquez and El Greco. He merges this influence with the stylistic trends of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists that he would have seen on his first trip to Paris in 1900.

Another standout is an early painting by the German expressionist painter Max Beckmann, Die Barke (The Skiff) which is on view now at PAM.

Throughout his career, Beckmann painted the sea as a subject matter full of allusion and symbolism. The artist often drew from his own life experiences to create images conveying life’s triumphs and great tragedies. Die Barke (The Skiff, seen on the left) depicts a vivacious party rowing out on calm waters. 

In late 1925, Beckmann and his wife Quappi traveled from their home in Frankfurt, Germany to Italy for their honeymoon; the bright color palette and sensuous figures seem to reflect this time of love, promise and pleasure. The Skiff is hanging next to The Mill (1947), a fixture in the Mary Beth and Roger Burpee Gallery. The pair form a compelling contrast. In the 1940s during World War II, the Beckmanns fled to Amsterdam to escape the Nazi regime. In The Mill, the artist depicted people tied to a Dutch windmill and crowded into a cage with a dark green sea churning in the background, serving as a vivid reminder of the destruction and trauma of years just past.

Two very special works on loan are now on view in the Jubitz Center’s Schnitzer/Novack Gallery on the second floor: Morris Louis, Number 38 and Donald Judd, Untitled (DSS 25).

Both paintings date to 1962, and this unique opportunity offers insight into a significant year for each artist. Number 38 is Louis’s final “stripe” painting made in the last year of his life. It demonstrates his masterful control over the process of staining raw canvas with diluted paint. The Museum’s collection is rich in other color field painters, and visitors will see a range of works created with this process hanging near this piece. The Judd wall-mounted work is one of his earliest “specific objects,” a phrase he used to describe his works that were neither painting or sculpture, yet contained elements of both mediums. While Judd came to be regarded as the master of minimalism, this work reinforces his attention to the expressive qualities of industrial materials. The pairing shows how artists took different paths but still moved away from illusionism and the representational in art in the early 1960s, forging the experiments in stripped-down abstraction that characterize Modern art in mid-century America.

From Portland Art Museum:

Welcome, we are excited to see you. We have been thoughtfully planning for our reopening under the guidelines set forth by the Oregon Health Authority and Centers for Disease Control.  This planning has been a thorough process that considered many variables and included connecting with medical professionals, government officials, and peer institutions across the city and country.  We’ve studied our facilities and infrastructure to understand what’s possible in this time of social distancing and made changes to best serve our staff and public in the safest possible way. Our reopening plan includes a shared belief that each of us plays a role in a safe reopening. The Museum and our community are in this together.

WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU VISIT

In the interest of personal safety and community health, visitors and staff are required to adhere to safety precautions while in the Museum. Thank you for helping our community stay safe and healthy. An inherent risk of exposure to Covid-19 exists in any public spaces where people are present. Covid-19 is extremely contagious.

  • New Hours: The Museum will be open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (10–11 a.m. Members only)
  • Face coverings required: Ages 2 and over.
  • Social distancing: Visitors must maintain 6 ft distance.
  • Advance ticket sales: Advance tickets are strongly encouraged; capacity is limited and it is possible that some times may fill up by the day of your visit.
  • Museum Grounds Café closed
  • Coat/bag check closed: Please leave larger bags and backpacks at home.
    Individuals experiencing disabilities will be allowed to keep their bags.
  • For your safety and the safety of the art, please do not touch.

If you have Disability Access Requests and are unable to reserve tickets online please contact us on our Disability Access line at (503) 276-4284 or via email at [email protected].

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

We have taken the following precautions to ensure the safety of our visitors and staff.

  • Staff wellness checks conducted before shifts.
  • Hand sanitizer available for guests and staff.
  • Increased cleaning in high touch areas.
  • Plexiglas shields at admissions and shop checkout areas.
  • Designated routes to promote social distancing.

Help us protect our community!
Do you have a fever or cough, or are you experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms? Have you been exposed to anyone with these symptoms? ​If so, please join us at a later date.

 

Oregon Nonprofits Face Huge Challenges Due to Pandemic

Oregon Nonprofits Face Huge Challenges Due to Pandemic

by | Sep 17, 2020 | Events, Features, News

Portland, OR. Oregon nonprofits are facing some big obstacles because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonprofits like Boy & Girls Club (seen above) are still serving kids in our area, but fundraising is tougher.

Across Oregon, the nonprofit community is pulling together in amazing ways to combat the impacts
of the COVID-19 pandemic, including responding to emergent needs by establishing new services and programs and responding to new clients. Even as creative as the nonprofit sector has become in moving programs online, investing in PPE, and physically distanced staff and volunteers, a new study indicates many of our vital institutions – domestic violence shelters, children’s museums, food banks, and homeless shelters – are at the breaking point.

The Nonprofit Association of Oregon (NAO), along with several other organizations, worked to quantify the impact and challenges of the COVID-19 crisis on 501(c)(3) nonprofits through a survey that ran from June 2 to June 28, 2020. This preliminary report is a summary of key findings from responses shared by 490 Oregon nonprofit leaders. The respondents represent a broad cross-section of charitable nonprofit types and sizes from across the state.

Key Findings:

Researched by the Nonprofit Association of Oregon (NAO), Portland State University’s Nonprofit Institute, Mercy Corps Northwest, and Oregon Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (ORVOAD)

Nonprofits are Essential to COVID-19 Response Efforts: 49% of the nonprofits reported adding new clients, services, or programs since the start of the pandemic. Of these nonprofits, 77% have added
new services to directly assist with COVID-19 response, demonstrating the essentiality and agility of nonprofits in responding to societal needs and emergencies. Additionally, 23% reported they are serving brand new clients from their pre-COVID programming.

Summer at the Club looks different this year at Boys & Girls Clubs with masks and social distancing.

Pandemic significant Impacts on Core Programming:

Nonprofits indicated that their current levels of operations or services have been significantly impacted by the pandemic. 60% of respondents reported functioning at reduced levels of services, while 14% reported seeing no change, and 18% reported an increase in their levels of services or operations.

Changes in Demand for Nonprofits’ Services: 38% of respondents have seen an increase in demand for their services, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. 31% have seen a decrease, with 22% seeing no change.
It should be noted that some demands for services
of educational, arts and culture, and environmental nonprofits have decreased as a direct result of government-mandated shelter-in-place requirements.

“We expect to see a food insecurity crisis… that will be unlike anything we’ve seen for generations. We also expect to see a significant increase in mental health and addiction crisis…”

Impact of COVID-19 on Oregon Charitable Nonprofits Preliminary Report ‒ Key Findings Summary – July 30, 2020

Impacts on Paid Staff and Volunteers: The capacity to serve the missions of nonprofits has been severely impacted by a decrease in the total number of volunteer hours worked, due to state closures and social distancing measures. 73% of nonprofits that rely on volunteers have seen a decrease in volunteer hours. In addition, 38% of nonprofits reported a decrease in the number of hours worked
by paid employees. To cope with resource pressures, nonprofits have implemented several austerity measures, including layoffs (79 nonprofits), furloughs (75 nonprofits), reduced employee salaries/wages (45 nonprofits), and reduced leadership salaries/wages (47 nonprofits).

Impacts on Funding: Charitable nonprofits rely on earned income, government contracts and grants, and charitable contributions to offer their services. The survey showed these streams have been significantly impacted by the pandemic.

  • 54% of nonprofit respondents reported losses in earned income, 35% consist of nonprofits losing more than 50% in earned income. For 28% of the nonprofits, earned income remains stable. Looking ahead through the end of 2020, nonprofits expect this picture to remain relatively similar, with slightly fewer nonprofits (23%) anticipating earned revenue decreases of 50% or more.
  • Regarding donations from Individuals, 22% of nonprofits reported seeing “No Change,” with 23% seeing an “Increase” in support from individuals. Looking ahead through the end of 2020, only 13% anticipate donations to remain stable, 18% expect an increase, and 38% anticipate losing 16% or more in individual donations, with 17% unsure of what to expect.
  • Also encouraging, only 12% of nonprofits reported losing more than 50% in donations from foundations or corporations; with 29% reporting no change. 28% of respondents saw an increase since the pandemic started.
  • Nonprofits also reported positive results regarding government contracts and grants (excluding Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan). 48% of nonprofits did not see any change as of June, and 22% reported an increase. Looking ahead through the end of 2020, nonprofits are less sure of government funding sources, with 18% anticipating cuts of 16% or greater. Interestingly, 40% of nonprofits remain optimistic that they will not see any changes. This was a surprise to the research team in light of announced cuts by the State of Oregon and grim budget forecasts for most counties and municipalities. Permanent Closures: Only four nonprofits reported making the tough decision to permanently close. An additional two organizations anticipate closing permanently before the year is out. Experience with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL): Not all nonprofits are eligible for the PPP or EIDL programs. Out of 480 respondents, 31% did not apply for PPP. Only 58% that applied, reported successfully receiving requested amounts. 89% of respondents will seek full forgiveness, and 8% will seek partial forgiveness. Only 11% of nonprofits successfully applied and received their requested amounts of EIDL funding. 76% of the respondents did not apply for EIDL funding. Some organizations that did apply were still awaiting a determination at the time of the survey.

“We canceled our 2020 season of 50 concerts and school programs, furloughed our permanent staff of 4.5 and did not hire our seasonal staff of 5 tour crew.”

“We work to protect community health from pesticide exposure. Communities of color and low-income communities are already disproportionally affected by pesticides, and now the impact of COVID-19 has increased health risks. We are dedicating more energy and resources to assist front line farm worker communities as they continue to work with inadequate PPE and support.”

Equity, Inclusion, and Access: 40% of organizations reported applying an equity lens to program and operating decisions caused by COVID-19, but only some gave specifics. In an environment where
so many programs have moved online, 35% of respondents indicated serious concerns about the technology available to their clients.

Top Five Concerns for the Future: Nonprofits reported being either “Very Concerned” or “Extremely Concerned” about the following:

Ability to Maintain Program Service Levels

56% of nonprofit respondents had significant concerns in their ability to maintain program service levels.

Mental Health/Stress Reduction for Our Employees

49% of respondents had serious concerns about the mental health and stress of their employees.

Revenue to Cover Operating Expenses through 2020

46% of nonprofits indicated they are worried about covering operating expenses through year-end.

Meeting New Social Distance Operating Procedures

44% of respondents reported they are concerned and sometimes confused by changing social distancing procedures.

Keeping Our Volunteers Engaged

42% of nonprofits are feeling stress in keeping their volunteers engaged.

“We serve anyone homeless or near

homeless due to domestic or sexual violence, or sex trafficking… Our shelter has remained… open and is full…. We are using emergency funds to pay for hotels. This is not sustainable…”

Future Sustainability: 48 out of 56 nonprofits reported significant concerns over their future survival and ability to sustain their funding, fundraising, and programs. This group of nonprofits is dominated by arts, culture and humanities, and human services nonprofits. Of these nonprofits, 40% have budgets between $1K – $5K, and 22% have budgets between $1M – $5M.

Impact of COVID-19 on Oregon Charitable Nonprofits Preliminary Report ‒ Key Findings Summary – July 30, 2020

Returning to pre-COVID-19 Levels of Operations: 28% of nonprofits foresee taking between six months to one year to return to pre-COVID-19 levels of operations. However, all this is based on the COVID-19 pandemic being contained. Only 17% of nonprofits believe they can return to pre-COVID-19 levels of operations in the next one to six months.

Conclusion

The future outlook is that the needs of communities and the resources available for response will simply become incongruent. For instance, while a sizable number of nonprofits are optimistic about the stability of government contracts and grants through 2020, the extent to which this optimism is aligned with the announced cuts by the State of Oregon and the grim budget forecasts for most counties and municipalities remains to be seen.

The data reveals that nonprofits organizations need to work to improve outreach and inclusion efforts in a totally changed environment. Even well-intended response efforts are also dramatically highlighting and exacerbating the damage and harm of the serious racial and social inequities in our nation and state. Lack of access to regular health care has compounded the pandemic for minorities, immigrant communities, the homeless, and the poor. The ‘digital divide’ denies many people both in cities (due to income disparities) and in rural areas access to vital information about the pandemic and online portals for financial assistance. The debacle that is the Oregon unemployment filing system has caused even greater strains.

The sustained support of federal and state governments and foundations with direct and continuous fiscal assistance is imperative. The nonprofit sector is part of our “critical civic infrastructure” and
must be thought of in terms of not only preserving and providing our safety net but also building the quality of life we want in our communities. Unavoidable cuts in state and county budgets due to a down economy and less taxable income from individuals and companies will undercut much of the relief effort for people and communities in need. This is the time when the government and foundations need to release funds from their respective emergency reserves. Without immediate attention and firm commitments of resources to this critical sector, our efforts to recover and move forward as a state will severely be impeded.

“We are having to completely remake our school. The state mandates on stable group size and other health and safety mandates will shift our daily work and ability to provide programming.”

Researched by the Nonprofit Association of Oregon (NAO), Portland State University’s Nonprofit Institute, Mercy Corps Northwest, and Oregon Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (ORVOAD)

Local Charities Respond to Growing Needs of Oregon Wildfire Victims

Local Charities Respond to Growing Needs of Oregon Wildfire Victims

by | Sep 16, 2020 | Events, Features, News

Portland, OR. Fires continue burning in Oregon and whole communities have been displaced. An estimated 40,000 people have been evacuated and remain displaced from their homes. As the state of Oregon faces wildfires and smoke threats many are asking what they can do to stay informed and help out. There are many options, but first, the Oregon FBI is cautioning generous individuals about charity fraud amid Oregon’s major wildfires. Here are some tips for safe giving:
  • Donate to charities you know and trust.
  • Designate the donation to go to a specific disaster relief effort as opposed to a general fund.
  • Never click on links or open attachments in unsolicited e-mails, texts, or social media posts.
  • Verify the legitimacy of any solicitation by contacting the organization directly through a trusted contact number.
  • Do your research. Use the Federal Trade Commission’s resources to examine the track record of a charity.
  • Beware of organizations with copycat names similar to, but not exactly the same as, those of reputable charities.
  • Avoid charities that ask for you to pay by cash, gift card, virtual currency, or wire transfer.
  • Pay by credit card or write a check directly to the charity. Do not make checks payable to individuals.
  • Know that most legitimate charity websites end in .org rather than .com.
  • Make contributions directly, rather than relying on others to make a contribution on your behalf.

Those affected by the fires can use your help – and there are plenty of legitimate charities out there to do that work. You just need to do your research before giving.

The Nonprofit Association of Oregon also compiled a list of resources we’d like to share with you.

The Ford Family Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and the Oregon Community Foundation have jointly created the 2020 Community Rebuilding Fund with a goal of gathering resources and to plan for what comes next after the extraordinary devastation brought by wildfires across a state already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and consequences of racial injustice.

The United Ways across the state have set up Wildfire Relief Funds and are working to coordinate with partner organizations in their regions. Here are the United Ways that are responding:  United Way of the Columbia-Willamette,  Mid-Valley (Salem).

The  MRG Foundation  continues to fund organizations and efforts that are focused on BIPOC, Immigrant, Tribal communities, and social/racial justice organizations.

CAUSA of Oregon has set up a wildfire relief fund to purchase emergency supplies for immigrant Oregonians who have been evacuated or lost their homes due to the wildfires.

Beachie Creek Fire where firefighters are working hard to create a ‘Fireline’. It’s the hand or bulldozer line that firefighters put in down to bare mineral soil to hold the fire and keep it from growing.

GOVERNMENT RESOURCES:

The State of Oregon Wildfire Resources page is the official state site for all resources related to the wildfires in Oregon. It contains updates on firefighting efforts, evacuation maps, and alerts.

Oregon Office of Emergency Management volunteer management and donation page: https://oregonrecovers.communityos.org

If you must travel, please check  Oregon Department of Transportation’s TripCheck  for the latest conditions before you go anywhere.

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION ALERTS

Keep track of wildfires near you. Sign up for emergency notifications. Most counties in Oregon have a network that you can sign up to receive alerts in case you need to evacuate. The Oregon Federal Executive Board has a complete listing of notification sign-ups by county.

Smoke covers the Portland area on September 9th. The smoke remains for the better part of a week. (Photo credit, Josh Williams)

RESOURCES FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS

The Red Cross has a listing of shelters across the state for people displaced by the fires. These are updated regularly as needs change.

211 Info can connect community members with needed resources.

Project Wildfire has great tips on preparing for evacuation and other resources.

You can also track Oregon Smoke Information updates via an interactive map with the locations of current fires and the latest information about air quality advisories.

White Bird in Eugene is maintaining a great resource list for individual community members impacted by the Holiday Farm fire.

Various county and regional COADs and community builders have set up resource pages, many of them using the Supporting Resilient Communities Inc. system. These pages are designed to coordinate response efforts, avoid duplications, and share information.

CAUSA of Oregon has set up a wildfire relief fund to purchase emergency supplies for immigrant Oregonians who have been evacuated or lost their homes due to the wildfires.

Netflix Film Explores How Social Media Exploits Users

Netflix Film Explores How Social Media Exploits Users

by | Sep 15, 2020 | Events, Features, News

Portland, OR. A new Netflix documentary called The Social Dilemma is exposing the consequences of our growing dependence on social media. Filmmakers explain that hidden artificial intelligence is hijacking our attention to the detriment of our health and wellbeing.
Here’s a trailer for the film:

More about the film:”Set in the dark underbelly of Silicon Valley, The Social Dilemma fuses investigative documentary with enlightening narrative drama. Expert testimony from tech whistle-blowers exposes our disturbing predicament: the services Big Tech provides—search engines, networks, instant information, et cetera—are merely the candy that lures us to bite. Once we’re hooked and coming back for more, the real commodity they sell is their prowess to influence and manipulate us.”

One of the main people behind a movement to educate the public about how social media is exploiting users is a former Google designer named Tristan Harris.
He founded an organization called “Center for Humane Technology”. It has some recommendations for taking action to avoid being taken advantage of.
Here are the recommendations to help you and your family disrupt the social media cycle:

As technology takes over more of our lives each day, the tips, explanations, and resources here can help you take back control. Given how many new technologies and apps are constantly emerging, our Digital Well-Being Guidelines can also help you with a more generalizable, principles-based approach.

Turn off all notifications except from people.

Notifications appear in RED dots because red is a trigger color that instantly draws our attention. But most notifications are generated by machines, not actual people. They keep our phones vibrating to lure us back into apps we don’t really need to be in.

Visit Settings> Notifications and turn off all notifications, banners, and badges, except from apps where real people want your attention; e.g. messaging apps like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Signal, Telegram, WeChat etc.

Go Grayscale.

Colorful icons give our brains shiny rewards every time we unlock. Set your phone to grayscale to remove those positive reinforcements. It helps many people check their phone less.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut (bottom) > Color Filters. This allows you to quickly triple-tap the home button to toggle grayscale on and off, so you keep color when you need it.

Try keeping your home screen to tools only.

Do you open apps mindlessly because they are the first thing you see when you unlock your phone?

Limit your first page of apps to just tools–the apps you use for quick in-and-out tasks like Maps, Camera, Calendar, Notes, or Lyft. Move the rest of your apps, especially mindless choices, off the first page and into folders.

Launch other apps by typing.

Swipe down and type the app you want to open instead of leaving bad habits on the home screen. Typing takes just enough effort to make us pause and ask, “do I really want to do this?”

OnAndroid you can use the Search Box on your home screen.

iOS: For best results, turn off Siri Suggestions (Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Suggestions to off)

Charge your device outside the bedroom.

Get a separate alarm clock in your bedroom, and charge your phone in another room (or on the other side of the room). This way, you can wake up without getting sucked into your phone before you even get out of bed.

Go cold turkey: Remove social media from your phone.

This one is tough, but effective! If you really want to use your phone less, we recommend removing all the major social media apps from your phone. It’s the easiest way to cut back, as these apps can easily gobble up so much of our time. Train yourself to use them from your computer only (if at all).

Note: You can delete the Facebook app and still get some specific features, i.e. Facebook Messenger for messages, and “Local” for events.

Send audio notes or call instead of texting.

Studies show that it’s common for people to misinterpret text messages, even from romantic partners, while voice is rich with tone and less vulnerable to misinterpretation.  Recording a quick voice message is often faster and less stressful than typing out each letter. Plus, it doesn’t require your full visual attention.

Note: Sometimes people are not in an environment where they can listen to an audio note, so be patient with your expectations of response time.

Texting shortcut:  Use quick reactions.

On iOS, press and hold on a text message and you’ll see this menu of quick reactions. It’s faster than crafting a response, and can also add some context, giving a taste of the emotion that’s often silently conveyed in a real, face-to-face conversation.

These are some recommended tools to manage social media:

Flux (Mac, Windows)
Reclaim 15 mins of quality sleep by cutting the blue light from our screens.

uBlock Origin (Chrome, Safari, Firefox)
Reclaim ~30-40% of your attention with every article you read.

InboxWhenReady (Gmail)
Focus your inbox by only showing messages when you click “Show Inbox” instead of getting distracted as new emails arrive.

THRIVE (Android)
Set boundaries with your phone for set periods of time by turning your smart phone into a dumb phone. Automatically lets others know when you’re taking a break.

Turn on NightShift (iOS)
Blue light from screens late at night tricks our body into believing it’s still daytime, which disrupts our natural ability to sleep.

Freedom (Mac & Windows)
Temporarily block specific websites or apps on your desktop, tablet and phone for set periods of time.

Moment (iOS)
See how much time you spend on your phone.

RescueTime (Mac, Windows)
See how much time you spend on different apps on your desktop along with various websites.

Enable “Send + Archive”
Gmail only. This archives the email right after you send it. The email will reappear in the inbox when the person replies.

Gboard
50% faster “swipe” typing than regular keyboards so you can respond to a message and get off your device more quickly.

Calm
Helps create calm and stress-free time in your day and reduces anxiety. Leading popular meditation app.

Calendly
Rapidly allows others to book time on your calendar by sending them a quick link. Helps each user save 10-15 minutes per meeting scheduled.

Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator
Removes the Facebook newsfeed and blurs the sidebars and notifications, allowing you to use some of the more utilitarian features of Facebook without getting sucked into the newsfeed.

NoMoRoBo
Blocks robocalls and decreases the time you spend dealing with spam and telemarketers.

Siempo
Siempo protects you from distractions & mindless use by letting you replace your home screen with an interface that allows you to batch notifications, unbrand icons, randomize their location, and set restrictions to prevent unconscious usage.

Distraction-Free YouTube
(Chrome) – Removes recommended videos from the sidebar of youtube, making you less likely to get sucked in to unintentional content-holes. (Does not currently disable autoplay.)

Flipd
This company boasts that users have spent more than 100 million minutes distraction-free. The app protects you from distraction by temporarily locking you out of distracting games, social media, and other apps. (Apps temporarily disappear from your phone).

From “Center for Humane Technology”

We envision a world where technology is realigned with humanity’s best interests. Our work expands beyond tech addiction to the broader societal threats that the attention economy poses to our well-being, relationships, democracy, and shared information environment. We must address these threats to conquer our biggest global challenges like pandemics, inequality, and climate change.