Portland, OR. The Portland Book Festival will look different than the picture above this year. Book Lovers won’t be crowding in to hear from noted authors as in the past. The literary staple of the Pacific Northwest since 2005 is changing its long-standing event from in-person to entirely online. This news comes in the wake of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that has essentially curbed all social events and gatherings for the foreseeable future. Rather than canceling the annual festival scheduled for November, event organizers at Literary Arts say they want to continue community outreach during a time when people need it the most.
In years past, Portland Book Festival focuses on bringing families and the community together by offering their events for free and across many platforms.
Perhaps the most important change that Literary Arts has offered is to make the festival almost entirely free this year. This change comes during a time when many individuals may be uncertain about their financial stability and may not have been able to afford the previous cover charge for the event. Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts, says that this decision was made in order to better support the community during a national pandemic
Author readings will be viewable both live and backlogged for the attendee’s convenience.
Alongside the change in format, the festival will also be held across a fifteen-day span (Nov. 5-21) rather than staying as a single-day event. For this year’s attendees, that means that every seminar, class, and author reading can be accessed over the two week period, and often at their own leisure. It also means that the event becomes more accessible to everyone living here in Portland or anywhere else in the world. With formats ranging from podcasts, online blogs, and live streaming events, participants will have a range of options to suit their needs and limitations during these unprecedented times.
While things like book signings may not be available this year, online formats will still allow for attendees to interact with the festival’s many artists.
From Literary Arts:
To find out more about the upcoming 2020 Portland Book Festival, check out the Literary Arts website page on the event here. If you’d like to support a great organization, you can donate here.
Portland, OR. The Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children has faced challenges moving its services online but continues to advocate for foster children in the courtroom. One silver lining is that online orientations due to the pandemic have unexpectedly helped the organization recruit younger volunteers. CASA Executive Director Betsy Stark Miller explains that there was some initial concern that recruiting CASA volunteers online, instead of in-person, would be an issue, but it has had unforeseen benefits. “I have watched the age demographic drop,” she said. “This is great because having a young CASA advocate is very beneficial if you are working with teenage or preteen youth.”
Before this change, most volunteers were 50 to 60-year-old women. Now, they are seeing volunteers in their 20’s.
Anyone can be a CASA volunteer. They train for 35 hours before taking on their first case. Then, work under a supervisor.
Along with diversifying the age range, CASA for Children has been working to be more culturally responsive. Many kids in foster care are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), while the vast majority of CASAs are white and may have a socioeconomic situation that enables them to do highly time-intensive volunteer work. Miller and her associate Laura Collins (Major Gifts, Development & Communications Director) said that CASA’s “Knowing Who We Are” training helps volunteers recognize their own social positioning in order to help them better assist kids who come from different backgrounds. “I think the community needs to know that we are doing everything we can by training our CASAs and our staff to be culturally sensitive and responsive to the kids that disproportionately come into foster care who are children of color,” Collins said.
CASA for Children’s social awareness training helps mitigate the racial divide that often occurs between advocates and clients.
CASA for Children already had a remote plan prepared when the pandemic hit, and fortunately has been able to keep all staff supervisors employed. However, Major Gifts, Development & Communications Director Laura Collins said that virtual interaction is not ideal for CASA volunteers and their clients. One CASA said that it’s challenging to not be more physically present with the kids. “It really speaks to the commitment these CASAs have to this program,” Collins said. “We are still able to successfully provide really high-quality advocacy to the kids who have CASAs right now.”
Many volunteers are even taking on a second case. “The thing that’s been really powerful is our team is experiencing that emotional commitment,” Miller said. “What’s been really impressive to me, and overwhelmingly uplifting, is that our CASAs have stuck through this really difficult time. Our CASAs would not stay if our team was not doing a wonderful job, because it’s not easy.”
COVID-19 has made some things more difficult. In many cases, hearings have been postponed due to technical difficulties. This takes a major toll on the kids and their families. Courts are backlogged in Washington and Multnomah counties. “With COVID in place I am really concerned that we’re gonna see cases last longer than they should,” Miller said. Miller and Collins also said that going into the future, they expect to see an increase in the number of kids who need their services. During pandemic restrictions, domestic abuse is still happening, but kids aren’t leaving home as much, which allows it to stay hidden.
“Children aren’t going out and getting their voices heard,” Miller said. “They’re showing up in emergency rooms with more severe abuse markers than doctors have seen in recent history.” As abused kids return to school and life outside the home, mandatory reporting will expose these cases and the kids will turn to services like CASA as they go through the foster care system.
Children in the foster care system without permanent living arrangements need community support during the pandemic more than ever.
CASA for Children was able to move its annual auction online to maintain some revenue, but the nonprofit still needs support from the community during this time.
“We really need the support of our community to still step up and help us,” Collins said. “Sure we are in the foster care sector, but really were about healing and resiliency. We’ve always been about that, it’s at the core of our mission, helping kids who have gone through profound trauma heal and hopefully have a better chance of a life that has potential.”
Here’s a video about the organization:
From CASA for Children:
A CASA is the tireless and passionate protector of a child who has been abused or neglected and is experiencing the trauma of involvement in the system. They are granted tremendous authority by the court and are able to do what it takes to see that a child is not ignored, their best interests and critical needs are addressed, and that the presiding judge is able to understand the true facts of a child’s condition in an over-burdened child welfare system.CASAs are in a unique position to work in the system without being of the system. Throughout the process, CASAs have permission to visit the children regularly, talk to a child’s parents, teachers, caseworkers, doctors and therapists in order to hear all perspectives and give an unbiased portrayal of the case to the judge. CASA advocates help kids through the system safely, quickly, and more effectively.
Portland, OR. Despite the challenges that have ensued in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Compassion Connect has continued to provide resource connections and unite some churches that serve Portland neighborhoods. Thanks to the continued support of donors, the nonprofit was able to raise over $10,000 for COVID-19 relief programs this spring.
The Portland-based nonprofit (which also has chapters in Washington and Arizona) has had to put its main outreach programs on hold until further notice due to health and safety concerns as well as state mandates. These programs include free health clinics and after school groups for vulnerable youth who face a higher risk for sexual exploitation.
Setbacks, have not stopped the small staff from brainstorming ways to invest critically in the communities they serve. Communications director Anna Johnson offers some insight: “During this time of hiatus, our team hasn’t ceased tackling the challenging question of how to resume operations safely so we can continue helping churches serve their neighbors in a time when they need the support more than ever.”
At the beginning of the outbreak, the company held area-specific Zoom meetings with church leadership from eight local neighborhoods to provide a platform for prayer and collaboration on how to meet the needs of the community. According to Ana, the “meetings culminated in a webinar in late May, where we shared ways for the church to make the ‘new normal’ look more like the Kingdom of God by providing a framework and tools for churches to build relationships, work together in unity, and transform the neighborhoods.”
While working from home, staff have rallied volunteers and churches to collect care package items for youth, many of whom now find themselves immersed in unstable home environments. The kits include essential hygiene items like masks and hand sanitizer along with games, treats, and encouraging notes.
Compassion Connect Health Clinics saw patients before the pandemic (above). The nonprofit is offering a community support form for clinic guests in need of medical services while the organization’s clinics are closed.
For those who have been without healthcare or have lost job-based insurance due to layoffs, Compassion Connect hopes to resume clinic services in late August with additional safety features in place, configured by staff, volunteers, board members, and outside experts. With additional precautions, the nonprofit has also been working on gradually relaunching its after school program, as well as its Adorned In Grace bridal shops, which offer new and gently used wedding gowns, formal wear, and accessories to support its work in anti-trafficking.
The nonprofit is currently exploring completely virtual or small group options for its largest fundraising event in October, which typically sees an attendance of around 300 guests.
About Compassion Connect:
Interested in volunteering with the Compassion Connect team? The nonprofit is looking for a technology coordinator to help plan virtual events, as well as other virtual volunteers, donors, and interns to make a difference in the community during this challenging season. For more information, go to www.compassionconnect.com or Compassion PDX on Facebook or @compassionconnect on Instagram.
We believe in the volunteer leaders, in those who are yet to rise up and in the potential of any community in the world to make a difference by uniting in Jesus-like service to its most hurting members. You have the heart to make a difference. We have the tools to make it a reality.
Portland, OR. With quarantine keeping people at home, Literary Arts was forced to rethink how to best support the literary community of Oregon.A month ago, the organization released the winners of its annual Oregon Book Awards. Unlike previous years,where writers like Samiya Bashir (pictured above) accepted their awards in person, for the 2020 event, writers stayed home and tuned into a radio broadcast.After being rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic from April to June, Literary Arts partnered with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) to make the event happen. The winners of this year’s Oregon Book Awards were Beth Alvarado, Cathy Camper, Kesha Ajọsẹ Fisher, Deborah Hopkinson, Greg Means, MK Reed, Julian Smith, Ashley Toliver, and David Wolman.Winners would typically tour Oregon later in the year, reading from their works at various schools, bookstores, workshops, and libraries, but plans for this are yet to be determined due to the pandemic. Such tours help promote public knowledge of the authors and their diverse works, creating a significant influence on the success of their career.
The works of the Oregon Book Awards winners
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn, Literary Arts decided to grant funds to writers and artists in need. The Board of Directors unanimously agreed on turning a portion of the Brian Booth Writers’ Fund into the Literary Arts Booth Emergency Fund for Writers. Literary Arts received applications for the firsts round of grants beginning at the end of April. One-hundred lucky applicants received a grant of $1,000. The second round of grant applications is currently underway.
In giving to the community, Literary Arts put special focus on providing for people of color. Surveys found that 45% of first-round grant winners identified as people of color.Literary Art’s website states: “COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting communities of color. Literary Arts is prioritizing funding for writers identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who meet the eligibility criteria.”
Associate Director of Communications Jyoti Roy expressed the organization’s intentions to work with the community to create space for people of color, whether through specialized workshops, funds, or other means.
Literary Arts also works to inspire youth and help them develop their own voices. Back in April, Literary Arts adapted their slam poetry competition for teens known as Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam. Although the competition itself did not occur, Literary Arts created an alternative event geared toward the same audience.
Authors Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Rion Amilcar Scott, and Lesley Nneka Arimah discussed the art of short-form on a virtual panel moderated by Dantiel Moniz.
Roy described their thought process as: “How do we serve the students who benefit from this event in a different way?”
Local poets led a virtual slam poetry workshop at the time the event was to occur. Participants were then invited to share their creations with Literary Arts, which are still being collected, to create a video featuring the youth’s talent.
From Literary Arts: Literary Arts is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.For the past 35 years, Literary Arts has built community around literature, books, and storytelling, and the essential ideas and issues they raise. Literary Arts is committed to remaining a dynamic and responsive organization that will continue to evolve with our community’s needs and deepen our equity work across all our programs.
Portland, OR. Boys & Girls Aid (B&G Aid) has been helping struggling youth find foster families and support for over 135 years. According to CEO Suzan Huntington, foster parents have stepped during the pandemic more than ever. B&G Aid’s day programs are temporarily closed for public health concerns. Without the day program and without school, parents have their foster kids 24/7. But they are taking extra responsibility in stride.
“I can’t say enough about how grateful I am to their generosity of continuing to open their homes and hearts,” Huntington said. “These kids have had abuse and neglect since they were born, and that does something to our brains, and it’s hard. And not one foster parent said I won’t do that. Not one.”
Caring for the kids full time is extra work for foster families, but they say their kids are actually helping them to weather this tough time. “Foster children were born to live through a pandemic … I never thought about it like that until one of the foster parents said that these kids are actually helping us because they are used to total uncertainty and chaos,” Huntington said. “It isn’t a place where anyone thrives, but they have the skill set.”
Although the current COVID-19 situation challenging, this isn’t the first time the organization has had to face a flu pandemic.
Boys & Girls Aid has faced many challenges of its 135 years.
The Boys & Girls Aid day program is reopening because many foster parents are returning to work. Residential programs continue to be open as well. B&G Aid is proud to say it hasn’t had to lay off or furlough any of its staff during the lockdown, even though it has lost significant revenue from seven major fundraisers that were canceled.
“It is because our staff are diligent and committed to the work and the kids that we serve,” Huntington said. “Our foster parents are angels walking this earth, as are foster parents across the nation. We’re not gonna come through totally unscathed, but we’ve been able to keep everyone employed during the height of absolute chaos.”
The staff has been working hard to keep programs operating amidst limited funding.
Kids leave B & G Aid with the support they need to exit the foster care system.
In the last 7 years, B&G Aid has been relying on a trauma-informed care model, which sets it apart from other similar organizations. Huntington said this switch made the organization’s work and her job much more meaningful.
“Before [switching to this care model], we were a stop along the way. Now, we’re really meeting the kids where they’re at,” Huntington said. “We’re really diving deep into mental health, we’re making sure they have those lifelong connections, and really starting to see the trajectory of those relationships change with kids and how their growth is.”
Alongside coordination with foster families and guardians, B&G Aid works in family counseling to rebuild broken relationships to the best outcome for each client. Furthermore, they connect kids with stable figures, like an uncle or a teacher, to act as a point of guidance and support.
B&G Aid works to get kids into stable guardianships and loving homes.
“Kids do better when they have someone in their corner,” Huntington said. “We all do better when someone’s got our back.”
Huntington said she would like to see B&G Aid as a more visible part of the community. Historically, the stigma around adoption has limited the publicity for this long-standing organization.
“I would like to see in the future that Boys & Girls Aid is a more prominent figure in the community,” she said. “We could be a tremendous resource to a lot of community organizations.”
From Boys & Girls Aid:
Boys & Girls Aid is committed to ensuring children exit the foster care system to loving, stable families.
Portland, OR. Despite shelter-in-place, Friends of Trees(FOT) managed to finish its planting season in neighborhoods and urban green spaces in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Staffers like Tyler Rise (pictured above) are keeping things moving, but operations are quite different than usual because the typical neighborhood volunteers arenot allowed to work.
A pod from the Northwest Youth Corp, a roving group that does summer maintenance, helped plant trees in Forest Park. The planting season lasts from November to April, so thankfully the COVID-19 pandemic did not hit until near the end of the season.
Friends of Trees relied heavily on staff and trained crew-lead volunteers to finish projects by themselves. Trained individuals are continuing typical summer operations by surveyingtrees that were planted earlier in the year. These volunteers mulch and prune the trees as needed.
Friends of Trees’ impact in 2019
The benefits of trees
Future operations will look much different than normal. Interim Executive Director Whitney Dorer predicts that more plantings with fewer people will take place in order to prevent larger groups from congregating. The attendance of past planting events has reached over 250 people. Unfortunately, the traditional post-planting potlucks will be put on hold. Friends of Trees focuses not just on the environment but also on the community.
“It will take a lot of creativity on the part of our team of our supports and volunteers to find new ways to engage community while we are still planting trees throughout the city and in natural areas,” said Dorer. “We are just going to have to work with whatever is given in terms of social distancing guidelines.”
A volunteer shows her love for nature during a winter planting session pre-COVID
Friends of Trees is remaining active on social media. Short, educational videos on different trees have been put together by various FOT staff. In the spirit of community, every Thursday, a staff member is introduced on the FOT Instagram. Introductions include name, pronouns, position, favorite tree(s), favorite potluck food, and hobbies. Corporate and Business Relations Specialist Sam Erman even included his favorite hummus recipe.
In this time of isolation, Friends of Trees recognizes the growing importance of community building while remaining safe.
From Friends of Trees: We bring people together. Inspiring our community members to plant, care for, and learn about trees is key to our mission. We welcome individuals, families, and businesses throughout western Oregon and SW Washington to help restore and beautify our region.Friends of Trees recognizes that not everyone has equal access to the benefits of trees. As we work to remedy that, we strive to be a welcoming and safe place for everyone, regardless of age, ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, political views, or economic status. Without our volunteers, we are nothing. But together, we do amazing things.
Many Portlander’s know Darcelle XV as the beloved “world’s oldest working drag queen,” who has been a staple of the Portland LGBTQ+ and nightlife scene for five decades. But what many may not know about Walter Cole—Darcelle XV when he is in drag—is that he lives in the historic “Elmer and Linnie Miller” Residence in Northeast Portland. The home was recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Walter Cole in his home, the Elmer and Linnie Miller Residence.
The new exhibit will feature the work of Portland photographer Tom Cook, and showcases Darcelle XV in the historic residence.
According to a press release: “Cook’s portrait series captures the unique character of the 1896 Queen Anne style house and its longtime owner, Walter Cole, best known as the female impersonator and performer Darcelle XV. The home’s décor has taken on the lavish style of Darcelle XV while still maintaining its original layout and details. Among the house’s features are stained glass windows created by Jerry Bosco and Ben Milligan, glass artists, work and life partners, and founders of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation, under which the Architectural Heritage Center operates.”
On top of being an example of historic architecture, the home has been a gathering place for political activists and gay rights events over the years. The residence also shows the indelible mark that Darcelle has left on the home.
Elmer and Linnie Miller House, Portland, Oregon.
The exhibit will be open to Architectural Heritage Members July 24–25, and will open to the public after that on Thursdays–Sunday’s from 11am–5pm. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, safety protocols will be in place for those who visit the exhibit, and masks will be required.
“My home is overdone, over-decorated and over jeweled, just like Darcelle, but it reflects me,” Cole recently told The Oregonian. “If someone gave me a framed photo, I wouldn’t have one spot on the wall to hang it.”
Darcelle XV sitting in the Elmer and Linnie Miller Residence.
Owned and operated by the non-profit Bosco-Milligan Foundation, we empower people in the Portland region to preserve both landmark buildings and the regular “vernacular” vintage homes and storefronts that collectively define our neighborhoods, traditional downtowns, culture, history, and quality of life.
Portland, OR. When shelter-in-place went into effect in March, Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors’ (ECO’s) programs shut down immediately. Classes and service trips, like the planting pictured above, were canceled (photo credit, Wasim Muklashy Photography). ECO is a nonprofit focused on educating the younger generation about the environment through hands-on experiences. Coincidentally, ECO was already exploring online programming.
In order to reach more rural areas of Oregon, ECO began developing and implementing online learning materials prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Known as Place-Based Units (PBUs), these programs are customized for different schools. Where ECO Educators would typically go to learning sites, this allowsprograms to reach areas that were not as easily accessible.Free resources can be found on the ECO website to continue environmental education from home.
Before facing the effects of COVID-19, students search for frog and salamander eggs while monitoring the wetlands.
One child’s response to ECO’s “Dear Nature” reflection activity
Children who are under-privileged are of special focus to ECO. It has been found that people of color and those with lower income are more affected by environmental injustice. For example, according to the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 11.2% of African American children and 4% of Mexican American children suffer from lead poisoning, where only 2.3% of white children are affected.
ECO was founded in 2005 by two women, Sarah Woods and Bethany Shetterly Thomas. All ECO educators happen to also be female, providing role models for young girls interested in STEM.
In February 2020, ECO received theImpact Award in Environment & Sustainability from Ninety-Nine Girlfriends. The mission of Ninety-Nine Girlfriends is as follows: “We are an inclusive women’s collective giving organization that provides opportunities for learning and grant-making to engage local women in our community. We strive for impact by making significant grants and becoming more informed and engaged philanthropists.” The impact award came with a $100,000 grant.
Students use movement to learn about leaf arrangement pre-pandemic.
A portion of this grant went to creating a new initiative known as Climate Action Education.According to Operations Manager Reade Weber, such a program was requested by students and teachers alike who wanted to know what they could do to fight the environmental issues they were learning about. Made of actionable steps the youth can take, the Climate Action Education program is made up of three lessons: Climate Science and Solutions, Green Jobs, and Consumption and Waste.
Directed toward all grades K-12, ECO hopes to relate to youth in a way they can understand, empowering students to create change.
From Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors:
ECO inspires students to care for nature through innovative, hands-on science education. All our content is developed in-house by our team of outstanding educators, who draw from their STEM degrees and experiences as field scientists, park rangers, and environmental educators around the country. For over 15 years, ECO has implemented these lessons in classrooms and on trails, and empowered thousands of students to become the scientists and change-makers of the future. ECO prioritizes reaching low-income and minority students at under-resourced schools as these students are most impacted by environmental injustice. Together with Ninety-Nine Girlfriends, ECO is working to equitably integrate ecology education into science curriculum in Oregon.
Portland, Oregon. The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon(FCCO) promotes the wellbeing of stray and feral cats around the Portland area. FCCO focuses largely on its trap-neuter-return program, meant to combat the overpopulation of feral cats and decrease their chance of disease. In July 2019, FCCO cared for Boo — their 100,000th cat (photo credit, Kathi Lamm Photography). In order to maintain social distancing guidelines, however, operations have been limited.
The FCCO clinic was closed for approximately six weeks during shelter-in-place before reopening in mid-May. Upon reopening, FCCO workers were split into A and B medical teams, ensuring no overlap between staff and minimizing contact. Fewer veterinarians are allowed in the building at a time, decreasing efficiency. Only 30-35 cats can be spayed/neutered per day.
Bubbles was brought into the clinic in March 2017 with 16 other felines.
Fluffy was recently brought into the FCCO clinic from Hillsboro.
“It’s disappointing and frustrating that we’re not operating at full capacity, but we’re doing everything we can to grow our capacity and be there for the cats in our community,” said an FCCO staff member.
The temporary closure in operations occurred during kitten season. This leads the FCCO community to worry that new kittens won’t find a home.Tame kittens that are brought into the clinic are given the option to join the Kitten Caboose program, where FCCO partners with the Oregon Humane Society to find permanent homes for the kittens. With less of these kittens being brought in at this time, they become more likely to live on streets and breed more in the future.
Appointments are now required to bring cats to the clinic, and no caregivers are allowed in the building. A full explanation of appointment instructions can be found at http://www.feralcats.com/covid19.
Services for feral cats are of no charge, but FCCO requests donations from caregivers at the time of service. In recent months, the average donations per cat dropped from $18 to $13, although FCCO recommends $40.Low-cost services for pet cats are not currently available.
From the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon:
FCCO is a spay/neuter program for cats. Our services are no-cost for feral, stray, and barn cats (donations requested) and low-cost for pet cats, including vaccines. The mission of the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon is to improve the welfare and reduce the population of feral and stray cats through spay/neuter programs and education.
Portland, OR. Although Unite Oregon’s office has been closed since March, the nonprofit continues to strive for intercultural justice through direct aid and policy advocacy. It did so last summer with a program called Rise for Refuge seen above.The organization’s mission is to serve the community by building a unified movement of people of color, immigrants, refugees and working-class people of all backgrounds.
Communications and policy associate Andrew Riley explains that recent events prompted a critical look at police activity. “I wouldn’t say yet that we are an abolitionist organization but we are having these conversations about what is the ultimate solution to this challenge … there can sometimes be friction with folks who have been doing abolition work for a long time, but finding ways to work together and finding folks with all these different orientations and all these different tactics working together has been really encouraging.” Riley continued, “I think that that has been a big change from previous uprisings and previous protest movements.”
Differences with regard to the best strategies for organizing have also divided activists in the past, but Riley said recent protests have shown more unity.
“I think one of the things that’s really good to see is that there’s a better appreciation of a diversity of tactics, in organizing, in the sense that there’s a lot more people pushing back against the idea that there’s a good way to protest and a bad way to protest,” they said. “I’ve seen a lot of folks working really hard to deconstruct that, because that’s a dichotomy that’s gonna just ultimately serve people in power.”
The nonprofit works to create safe and equitable communities for immigrants and refugees.
The workload at Unite Oregon has increased over the past couple of months, with efforts going both to anti-racist advocacy and the needs of community members during this economic crisis. Riley hopes to sustain this level of work over the coming months.
While Unite Oregon used to rely on community meetings to discuss the current challenges people were facing and how those needs could best be met. However, large gatherings are not feasible in light of public health concerns; furthermore, many members of the communities UO serves don’t have regular access to high-speed internet or technology, so switching meetings to Zoom is not an option. The organization has opted instead to check in with people through individual calls.
Unite Oregon has been distributing aid to community members since the pandemic hit, especially focusing on a donation-based relief fund for those who are not eligible for state programs like unemployment or stimulus checks. These funds go to grocery store gift cards, rent payments, and more. One current initiative is to provide translated and linguistically accessible public health informational materials to immigrant and refugee communities.
“We’ve been really fortunate to get a lot of support for the fund from the Portland community,” Riley said. “We’ve had a call to donate and a lot of folks have given to that so it’s really enabled us to meet some communities’ needs.
From Unite Oregon:
You can help the work at https://www.uniteoregon.org/covid19_support_fund
Led by people of color, immigrants and refugees, rural communities, and people experiencing poverty, we work across Oregon to build a unified intercultural movement for justice.
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