SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition has awarded $23,018 in Neighborhood Small Grants to 9 community projects for 2016.
Now in its 9th year, the Neighborhood Small Grants Program funds small but powerful community efforts aimed at connecting and engaging residents, building community capacity, improving neighborhood livability, and increasing community impact on public decision making.
Funded projects range from a community mural to language exchanges, leadership trainings to emergency preparedness workshops, student journalism to environmental restoration, and much more.
Neighborhood Small Grants are made possible by the City of Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement.
Below is a complete list of funded projects.
Catholic Charities, Kateri Park and Esperanza Court Resident E-Prep Program
Award Amount: $4,000.
Catholic Charities will educate and empower the low-income residents of Kateri Park and Esperanza Court, who are primarily immigrants and refugees from over 18 countries, on emergency preparedness. The project will include five culturally sensitive educational workshops for adults, four emergency preparedness classes for children, and assistance for residents to develop their own unique emergency plans and kits. They hope to apply the findings from their project to support similar vulnerable populations city-wide.
Exchange to Engage, Intercambio SE!
Award Amount: $2,000.
Intercambio SE! will promote bilingualism and parent engagement in schools by hosting an 8-week Spanish-English language exchange at three SE elementary schools, proving a space for leadership opportunities and relationships to develop between adults who may not normally interact, due to language and cultural barriers.
Johnson Creek College, Art Aiding Restoration
Award Amount: $3,250.
Johnson Creek College, a new experimental school, will partner with Johnson Creek Watershed Council and Portland State University’s MFA program in Art and Social Practice to offer free art classes in exchange for unique forms of payment that directly aid in the awareness and restoration of Johnson Creek. Open to all, art related courses will take place at various sites along the creek with supplementary volunteer restoration activities unique to each class. The project seeks to harness the skills of artists to enliven the community in efforts surrounding Johnson Creek.
Know Your City, The Jade Journal at Harrison Park School
Award Amount: $2,200.
Know Your City will work with students in Harrison Park K-8 to publish the second edition of the Jade Journal, a newspaper project that showcases the voices of young people from diverse backgrounds. During the course of a 12-week term, students will collaborate with artists and learn photography, interview, and creative writing skills. The project aims to empower students, celebrate the unique assets of the Jade District, and educate and engage the broader public on the inequalities the students face.
North Tabor Neighborhood Association, Oregon Promenade Park Planning and Outreach
Award Amount: $1,665.
The North Tabor Neighborhood Association will organize two community events and create promotional materials that engage neighbors in the visioning and planning of a multi-year project aimed at improving connectivity, access to public space and strengthening community identify through transforming NE Oregon Street into a promenade park. The outreach and engagement blitz will include a live street demo to help neighbors imagine and test the possibilities for the street.
Portland Underground Grad School, The PUGSpdx People’s Law Project
Award Amount: $4,000.
Portland Underground Grad School will organize three courses to people of color in SE Portland focused on making legal and political systems more accessible. The courses, led by local lawyers and community organizers, will teach participants how to strategically promote social change, what their rights are as employees, and how to engage with and influence our political system through grassroots lobbying. The project seeks to make the law and government into tools for the underserved, rather than against them.
Rogue Pack, Storytelling Theatre Workshop
Award Amount: $2,500.
Rogue Pack will facilitate storytelling theatre workshops that help foster youth write their unique stories and transform them into a professional performance for the community. Through the performance, the community will learn the realities of foster care, break down stereotypes, and discover ways to get involved.
Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League, Workshops and Trainings for Emergency Preparedness
Award Amount: $1,257.
Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League will hold quarterly trainings on emergency preparedness to engage the community in becoming prepared for a major disaster. They will also host a neighborhood overnight event at the park where families can test out whether they have the supplies they will need in their emergency kits. The project hopes to keep recently trained neighbors engaged while motivating more community members to get involved.
Wild Lilac, Wild Lilac Garden Mural Project
Award Amount: $2,146.
Wild Lilac will partner with community organizations serving minority youth and a local artist to collaboratively design and paint a community mural that incorporates the ideas of the larger community and students at Wild Lilac. Through this process, the youth involved will learn how to take an image from the design process to mural completion and work with the community. Wild Lilac will also partner with Portland State University capstone students to host a series of community visioning sessions and other events that create opportunities for neighbors to connect, collaborate and invest in the vibrancy of the Foster-Powell neighborhood.