The award-winning projects range from entrepreneurial training for youth with disabilities to the sustainable renovation of a building and site to create a family-friendly, community gathering space. Projects were selected in each of the "Five Elements" identified through the visionPDX process: Built Portland, Economic Portland, Environmental Portland, Learning Portland and Social Portland. In addition, six equally weighted selection criteria were used to evaluate proposals to ensure that they:
- Actively advance the community vision articulated in Portland 2030: a vision for the future;
- Use innovative approaches to realize our shared vision for the future;
- Tap into existing community support;
- Impact as many people as possible given the scope of the project;
- Be short term in duration and long term in effect; and
- Advance community partnerships.
2009 Vision into Action Award Recipients
Built Portland Recipient
Tabor Commons / Café Au Play: Tabor Commons Renovation - $12,060 Mt Tabor
Estimated number of people engaged: 50 volunteers and hundreds of families who visit the caféThe Tabor Commons Renovation project will result in a beautiful, environmentally innovative community gathering space. This project has already brought neighbors and nonprofit organizations together around building, depaving and fundraising, and this grant will help complete the renovation. Directly across from Atkinson Elementary school, Tabor Commons and Café au Play will provide a vital, safe and cross-generational meeting space for the neighborhood and a model that other groups can follow.
Economic Portland Recipients
Incight: Youth Oregon Disabilities Association (YODA) Project - $17,550 Downtown
Estimated number of people engaged: 100 youth with disabilitiesA truly groundbreaking project, YODA provides entrepreneurial training to youth with disabilities. This program offers empowerment and possibility to often underserved youth through interactive workshops conducted by successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople who also have disabilities. Utilizing fun, interactive methods, YODA connects youth to skill sets in a meaningful way, culminating in the development and launch of a business idea at a community showcase event.
Community Energy Project: Community Marketing and Jobs Skills Development - $15,000 King
Estimated number of people engaged: 20 directly; outreach recipients in the thousands
Community Energy Project addresses many issues at once in this unique program: providing job skills training to people in need, offering money-saving weatherization tools to low-income households and spreading awareness about energy conservation. Participants will gain knowledge in marketing, public speaking, green technology and customer service to diverse constituencies. As the sole local retailer of a high-quality, hard-to-find, low-cost weatherization product, this nonprofit organization aims to increase sales to those who can afford it while making the resource more readily available to households that cannot.
Environmental Portland Recipients
Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon: Environmental Policy Project - $10,000 Humboldt
Estimated number of people engaged: 300Though extensive outreach and educational forums, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) will engage Portland's diverse Asian and Pacific Islander communities in dialogue surrounding environmental and green economy issues. This effort will result in the training of grassroots community leaders to become vocal participants in local environmental and economic development policy decisions.
Buckman Community Association: Buckman Community Composting Project - $1,000 Buckman
Estimated number of people engaged: 80 neighborsSeeking to transform an environmental hazard into a valuable community resource, the Buckman Community Association will work with both renters (80% of the targeted neighborhood) and homeowners to create a neighborhood composting site. This effort will not only serve to reduce household waste by providing compost to local residents, it will also facilitate community discussion and cohesiveness through a shared learning process.
Learning Portland Recipient
Friends of Portland Community Gardens: Vestal Community and Learning Garden - $17,000 Montavilla
Estimated number of people engaged: 800An excellent example of a community-led effort to create green space, Vestal's project turns a parking lot in Outer East Portland into a vibrant community garden and connects the culturally diverse Vestal Elementary School student body with neighborhood residents. Construction will result in both shared garden plots and an educational garden used by the school.
Social Portland Recipients
The Iraqi Society of Oregon: Iraqi Social Adjustment and Integration - $15,000
Estimated number of people engaged: 2,000-3,000 Iraqi refugees in PortlandThis project provides resources for the 3,000 Iraqis already living in the Portland area as well as the 2,000 Iraqi refugees forecast to arrive in the next two years. The Iraqi Society of Oregon will help integrate the Iraqi population into Portland life through an approach that addresses basic skills, the need for community, and reconciliation. This holistic method will help empower new arrivals while circumventing the conditions that often lead to depression and isolation among this community.
Street Yoga: The Mindful Caregiver Program - $18,000 Buckman
Estimated number of people engaged: 90 parents, social service staff and caregiversThis project addresses the root causes of social issues by providing cutting-edge mindfulness and compassionate communication tools to 90 social service staff, parents and caregivers, and children grappling with cycles of abuse, extreme poverty, homelessness and/or involvement with foster care. An outstanding example of social sustainability, the Mindful Caregiver Program recognizes that homelessness, abuse, and negative parenting practices are perpetuated when underlying trauma fails to be addressed.
