Northeast Coalition Launches

With a proposed 18 percent cut in city funding, the Neighborhoods Small Grants Program will be discontinued. This program has offered direct funding for volunteer-driven community projects such as: gardens, helping seniors, tutoring, tree planting, community dialogues, etc.

In response, the Northeast Coalition is launching a new Community-Building Fund dedicated to continuing the Neighborhoods Small Grants Program and funding additional community impact programs.

The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, in collaboration with its neighborhoods, local businesses and FunDAZ organization, is proud to offer membership in: Our Community Investment Club dedicated to inner North and Northeast Portland including -- Alameda, Boise, Concordia, Eliot, Grant Park, Humboldt, Irvington, King, Sabin, Sullivan's Gulch, Vernon, and Woodlawn neighborhoods. This is in partnership with local business districts and clusters featured including- Alberta, Broadway, Fremont, MLK Jr Blvd, Mississippi, Vancouver and Williams.

Community members, businesses and media are invited to a Campaign Launch on April 17th, 2009 from Noon to 1 pm at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, 4815 NE 7th Avenue, Portland, OR 97211.

• Your support will provide the on going funds needed to continue this program. (For the past three years, we have infused over $25,000 annually into the community for local projects)
• Given the current economic conditions, it's more important now than ever for us to connect neighbors and strengthen our community.
• For less than $30 annual donation, members receive a "Community Savings Card" yielding discounts at participating businesses (see below)
• Save Money
• Support Local Businesses
• Raise funds to sponsor local community building projects
 

Retailers, Restaurants, Entertainment and more.

Below is a partial list of participating businesses…

• 1-2-3 Fit
• Alberta Grocery Cooperative
• Green Micro Gym
• Horn of Africa Restaurant
• Mr. Formal
• Reflections Coffeehouse
• Rocks
• PetSmart
• Pizza Schmizza
• Play n Trade
• Regal Cinemas
• Safeway
• Shilo Inns
• Than Thao Restaurant
• And many more local, regional and national businesses!

… which support small grant programs bringing neighbors, businesses, organizations and agencies together like these:
 
• Blue Door Project. King Neighborhood residents develop and implement a monthly service project to assist elderly, disabled, and single parents living in single family households. This project honors the King neighborhoods' past and present by creating 14 volunteer efforts that enhance the lives of both old and new residents, builds sustainable neighborhood-based relationships, creates an asset inventory for King neighbors, and a snail mail and e-mail database of King residents to notify residents of upcoming neighborhood meetings and issues.

• Boise Voices: Intergenerational Oral History Project. An oral history project pairs at-risk youth with elderly long-time residents in the Boise Neighborhood. Youth gain employable skills and confidence from interviewing and audio-journalism workshops, while long-term residents have the opportunity to share their stories and wisdom from their lifetime. The culmination of this project is a publication of a "Boise Voices" website which will allow visitors to access historical information about Boise Neighborhood, as well as listen to excerpts of the recorded interviews.

• Crossing the Generation Gap from Adolescence to Senior Living. Middle and high school students will work with tenants at Weidler Commons, a senior rental community, to build and maintain a community garden. The project begins this month April and culminate in a community wide harvest festival at the end of August where the newly founded collaboration and the group's effort can be celebrated by the seniors, youth, and neighbors from throughout the community.

• Building Community Involvement and Access to Healthy Food in Northeast Neighborhoods. The Portland Fruit Tree project reaches out to residents in NE Portland and engages volunteers in leadership roles to form neighborhood-based networks. These networks take part in the fruit tree registry, harvesting parties, tree scouting, tree care education, and food preservation education.

• Bridges: Community Building Tools in the Time of Gentrification. Phase one of a Portland based grassroots media project raises awareness about gentrification, strengthen communities and promote civic participation. The culmination of this project will be the development of a curriculum to accompany a video as part of a community organizing tool. This tool will assist neighborhood associations and community organizations to access meaningful and effective tools to raise awareness on the complex issues of gentrification, address real tensions in neighborhoods, and lift transformational solutions for change; while simultaneously supporting their on-going work and mission.

• Tools and the Knowledge to Use Them. The Northeast Portland Tool Library's educational initiative is a series of free workshops on home repair and improvement and gardening taught by local craftspeople and artisans. Outcomes of this project include increasing home-improvement knowledge of NE Portland residents, promoting home and neighborhood beautification, growing the NE Portland Tool Library's membership and tool collection to serve NE Portland residents, and promoting economic development of small businesses.

• Leaders Through Literacy. The "Journeys to Freedom" program, which kicked off at Jefferson High School in October 2008, teaches African American youth their history in the United States along with increasing their reading and writing skills. The high school youth in this program become trainers to share their knowledge with students at Humboldt and Beech Elementary Schools, will participate in a literacy fair in partnership with Sabin CDC and their new Learning Center.

• Straightway Services Youth Program. 120 kids learn to give back to their community through community service in a 12 week program. This program provides each student with a mentor and classroom training on environmental sustainability methods with a focus on recycling. This program is incentive based and each child receives a monetary stipend to be used to purchase school clothes or to offset athletic fees for participation in school sports.

• Saturday with the Arts. Saturday with the Arts is a multicultural outreach program that targets the underserved youth living within the boundaries of NECN. Professional artists and volunteers from the various art genres share their expertise and craft with youth. Youth enroll in dance/ballet, visual arts, piano/keyboard, strings, percussion, voice, choir and drama. As the matrix of NE Portland has changed, this project presents an ideal environment for positive interaction among new and old residents within the community.

Save Money and Invest in Your Community!

Join the Fundraising and Community-Building Partnership for Northeast Portland!

Memberships can be started quickly by sending a short email to info@necoalition.org (website www.communityfundNECN.org coming soon!)

Business participation sign-ups can be started now with an brief email to sanchez@fundaz.net

(a complete list of participating businesses will be found on our website www.communityfundNECN.org by April 17th)