Portland April 11th, 2016. Friends of the Children, a nonprofit that provides paid, professional adult mentors for at-risk children, was recently the beneficiary of a comprehensive lighting upgrade valued at nearly $22,000. New energy efficient lighting will reduce their energy consumption by nearly 80 percent. (Mayor Charlie Hale attended a previous fundraiser for the group.) The lighting upgrade was donated by Evergreen Consulting Group as part of its annual “giving back” community outreach project. Each year, Evergreen rallies lighting contractors and its employees to design and install a lighting improvement project at no charge for a local charitable organization. Headquartered in Portland, Evergreen develops and implements commercial, industrial and residential energy efficiency programs for utilities and organizations across the country.
Modern and energy-efficient lighting will help Friends of the Children save energy, improve light quality for staff and volunteers, and reduce maintenance and repair issues. Evergreen’s contribution included the cost of products, labor and installation, and is expected to save Friends of the Children more than $4,800 in annual energy cost.
“This is a tremendous gift,” said Megan Lewis, executive director, Friends of the Children. “All of our lights work now, which is something we couldn’t say before. We would not have been able to invest in such a major project on this scale without Evergreen’s support. Not only are we saving energy but the new lighting has improved the work environment for our staff – they love the better quality light in their work space.”
Modern technology shines new light on historic building
“This project was an interesting challenge,” said Roger Spring, owner, Evergreen Consulting Group. “Friends of the Children is housed in a beautiful century-old building with many old and dated lighting fixtures, many of which we don’t see any more. Our mission was to maintain the historic charm of the property while installing 21st century lighting technology.”
Evergreen’s lighting team replaced Friends of the Children’s inefficient incandescent, metal halide and T8 lighting with the popular LED lighting technology based on its long lamp life, energy savings and better light quality. In many areas, schoolhouse style fixtures were selected to match the building style. In total, the team replaced 208 fixtures in both interior and exterior areas including public spaces, halls and stairwells, gym, kitchen, offices, parking areas and the main entrance. Occupancy controls were added for even more energy savings.
A team of volunteers and professionals spent more than one week retrofitting lighting throughout the 16,400 square foot office space, plus exterior and parking lot installations as well. Brian Morrison, Evergreen lighting specialist, managed the project, conducted the initial audit and worked with Friends of the Children to approve the recommended upgrades. Evergreen partnered with Pacific Lamp Wholesale and Portland Development Commission’s Green Features Grant Program to complete the installation at a reduced cost.
“Evergreen’s donation saves us on future capital costs but it will help us save on our monthly energy and maintenance costs,” said Lewis. “That savings means we can invest more into the youth and children we serve, which is where we want our dollars to co. Our donors invest in our outcomes and our organization, and our ability to invest more dollars in direct service is critical.”
Evergreen has donated past lighting upgrades to Medical Teams International, Friendly House and Union Gospel Mission.
Evergreen Consulting Group, LLC is a full service consulting firm based in Tigard that manages energy efficiency programs, with a specialty in commercial and industrial lighting, for utilities and energy efficiency organizations across eight states. In 2015, Evergreen’s work with trade allies and businesses around the region delivered approximately 254 million kilowatt hours in energy efficiency savings for 31 clients across 9 states.
About Friends of the Children:
Friends of the Children – Portland is the founding chapter of a nationwide organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of generational poverty through salaried, professional mentoring. We select the children in this community facing the highest risks and commit to working with those children from kindergarten to graduation. www.friendspdx.org
Portland, January 21st, 2016. Trail Blazer Al Farouq Aminu hit the hardwood to celebrate the grand opening of the Friends of the Children 8,500 square foot youth service and community center. It’s a place that can make a difference. Officials say neighbors in the Rockwood region of East Multnomah County have to battle violence and crime. Many struggle to cope with the chronic stress that results from being poor and disadvantaged. Friends of the Children directly addresses such social problems through its successful mentorship program that focuses on changing the lives of the most vulnerable children in our communities.
Trailblazer Al Farouq Aminu shared his vision with Friends of Children Founder Duncan Campbell.
The center also has places for kids to learn and Marie Marshall was lending a hand in the science lab.
The needs are great for youth and community services in this region. According to a 2014 Multnomah County report, Rockwood is top among a handful of metro area neighborhoods that face issues such as low-income, high unemployment, low voter registration, higher teen pregnancy and gang violence.
“For too many children in our community, their zip code determines their opportunity to succeed in life,” explains Megan Lewis, Friends’ executive director. “Sixty percent of the youth in our programs come from homes where at least one parent did not complete high school and 50 percent have a parent who struggles with substance abuse. While we have already been making an investment in East County – more than tripling our presence since 2010 – this facility will continue that momentum and allow mentors to spend more high-quality time with the young people in our programs.”
The new facility will provide a broad scope of opportunities for program youth, including a teaching kitchen where children can learn the essentials of healthy cooking, a full-size gymnasium that will promote the value of physical activity and computer and video rooms – featuring a green screen – to encourage the young people to explore and create in a digital environment.
All these features, combined with the direct one-on-one relationships between the mentors and youth, will allow Friends of the Children to continue to have a positive impact whose outcomes include: 83 percent of its youth graduate from high school, 93 percent avoid the justice system and 98 percent avoid early pregnancy.
From Friends of the Children:
Friends of the Children–Portland is the founding chapter of a nationwide organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of generational poverty through salaried, professional mentoring. Founded in Portland in 1993, it selects the area’s highest risk children and commits to working with those children from kindergarten through graduation. Currently, Friends–Portland serves 425 youth in 120 schools across Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties in Oregon, and Clark County in Washington.
Portland, May 14th, 2015. Friends of the Children is celebrating one of its most successful fundraising efforts after raising $1.8 million at “Friend Raiser”, the annual signature charity auction event. Mayor Charlie Hales makes his way through the “High Five Tunnel”, and a youth looks amazed to meet him. The 700 attendees, consisting of many of the Portland metro area’s most prominent community and business leaders, showed their eagerness to help Friends of the Children expand their impact the lives of more children facing the greatest risks by generously bidding on exciting packages and trips. The benefit took place at Friends of the Children’s offices at 44 NE Morris in Portland.Friend Raiser’s success will allow Friends of the Children continue to grow and help break the cycle of generational poverty by giving children facing the highest risks the ability to create a new story.
Friends of the Children Board Chair Diana Bianco and her sister Christina.
Local radio personality Paul Linnman and his wife.
A Friends of the Children program youth shakes the hand of donor Shane Wall after he wins a live auction package.
Attendees also had the opportunity to meet Friends of the Children’s new Executive Director, Megan Lewis. Lewis had previously served as the organization’s Director of Development and Marketing and will now steer the nonprofit through many exciting growth opportunities such as their new youth center under construction in Gresham, allowing Friends to be closer to the children they serve.
Lewis thanked auction attendees by saying, “Thanks to your generosity, even more of our community’s most vulnerable children will be matched with a salaried, professional Friend. Thanks to you, those children will be able to break generational cycles of school failure, early parenting, and incarceration. Thanks to you, our community receives more than $7 in social benefits for every dollar invested in our program.”
From Friends of Children:
Mission To provide our most vulnerable children a nurturing and sustained relationship with a professional mentor who teaches positive values and has attainable expectations for each child to become a healthy, productive member of the community.
Vision To provide a Friend to all vulnerable children who need one and to change the way the world views and treats our most vulnerable children.
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