The beauty of Spring at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Alameda.
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Summer community events coordinator(s)
for tabling events at Hollywood Farmers Market (date tba), Fremont Fest (Aug. 1-2), and the Alberta Street Fair (Aug. 8). These will be fun events, providing lots of opportunities to sign up volunteers and future members for our Village. Duties are not at all arduous: register NE Village PDX for each event; secure volunteers for 2-hour shifts through our e-mail list; copy handout materials (provided); facilitate setup and breakdown of the table area at each event (canopy, table/chairs, banner - provided). This is a great volunteer stint for a couple, too. If interested, contact: Jane Braunger, janebraunger@gmail.com, 503-528-9768
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How You Can Be a Village Builder
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To date we have built the foundation for our Village with only $1,000 in seed money, but now we need to make the final push so that we can be a fully functioning, service-providing organization by June 2016. You can make it happen by giving as generously as you can at one of the following levels:
Friend $10 - 49
Partner $50 - 99
Sustainer $100 - 249
Visionary $250+
Please give a tax-free donation today. Make your check payable to Villages NW fbo NE Village PDX and mail it to:
NE Village PDX
c/o Margaret Baldwin
2842 NE 48th Ave.
Portland, OR 97213
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Northeast Village PDX is teaming up with North Star Village, its neighbor to the west, to offer a combined Village 101 at the St. Andrew's Martha Terrell Community Center (4940 NE 8th Avenue) on Sunday, June 7, at 11:00 a.m.
Or Offer One in Your
Own Home
Would you like to host a 101 presentation in your home for friends and neighbors? Contact Jane Braunger to arrange for a speaker and materials. janebraunger@gmail.com, or 503-528-9768.
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| North Star
Village-at-Home Talks
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| Saturdays, April 25, May 9, and May 30 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
North Star Village, which covers North Portland and Northeast Portland roughly west of 15th Ave., as well as some areas in the Northwest, is presenting informational meetings about the affordable services, activities, and other benefits it will offer in the future. If you have friends in North Star's service area, please encourage them to attend and find out how they can be involved in creating that Village. Space is limited. To receive location information, RSVP at northstarvillagepdx.org or 503-978-0540. |
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See You at the Next General Meeting!
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Our next General meeting will be on Wednesday, May 13, at the Rose City United Methodist Church, 5830 NE Alameda, just east of Sandy Blvd. The meeting will start at 7:00 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m.
Hope to see you there!
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| How a Village Is Born in Northeast Portland |
"We held our first meeting at Velo Cult," explains Margaret Baldwin, an avid cyclist who now serves as Northeast Village PDX chairperson. Margaret had recently moved from the San Francisco Bay area and was surprised to find that her new neighborhood wasn't part of a Village, so she set about establishing one. That was October 2013 and those in attendance numbered 12.
"Since cyclists are hardy folks, the building was not well heated. We accomplished a lot in a short time," explains Neil Malling, who now serves as Web master and treasurer. Joan Malling, now vice chair, started working with Margaret that same month, strategizing how to get a Village started. By March, a few more had stepped forward to form a Coordinating Council: Jane and John Braunger (Community Events Coordination), Craig Lindsay (Neighborhood Association Outreach), and Linda Dreyer (Resources).
First Steps
After that first meeting, the small but rapidly growing group began establishing the framework of an organization and attracting other interested residents. Among other things, they:
- Wrote a Mission and Values Statement;
- Scheduled monthly planning meetings;
- Brainstormed ideas, and learned from experts;
- Developed a logo and Website;
- Defined Village boundaries;
- Built partnerships with the Hollywood Senior Center and Villages Northwest;
- Developed a simple database of interested individuals and set up financial systems;
- Reached out to the community, speaking to neighborhood organizations, putting on Village 101s, and holding tabling events at street fairs and farmers' markets;
- Set up a Resource Committee to find out what services and resources are already available;
- Surveyed residents regarding their volunteer interests;
- Started an electronic newsletter.
Next Steps
More recently, the Village (now over 200 strong) has joined a central "hub" organization, Villages Northwest; picked a launch date (June 2016); and set up a timeline to accomplish the tasks needed to open for service.
And now, the time has come to raise the $7,500 that will be needed to make our dream a reality. This means an opportunity for those of us who are passionate about this effort to become
Village Builders (see left-hand column for details).
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Velo Cult on NE 42nd. Ave., the birthplace of NE Village PDX
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Resource Committee Update
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Reinventing the wheel is rarely a good idea, which is why the work of the Resource Committee is so important to our Village's success. Linda Dreyer, who convened the group, comes from a career in aging services and public health. The group has built on her knowledge of governmental organizations and programs serving seniors in the Portland area. Their goal is to avoid duplicating services already provided by others and to partner with them in the future.
Members of the Resource Committee include Anne Lindsay, Bill Roberts, Susan Roberts, and Don Tarbutton. They began meeting once a month in April 2014. Recently they conducted an e-mail survey of those in our database to determine current interests in volunteering to provide services to Village members.
96% of people who responded to the question, "Would you be interested in becoming a Village Volunteer," said Yes or Maybe.
Most people selected two or more service categories, showing that the Village has a broad talent pool to draw from.
All service categories had a supply of volunteers, so the Village should be able to meet member requests.
Several respondents indicated an interest in helping to develop the Village's Volunteer Program. The Resource Committee will help convene a joint meeting in the near future to explore how the two groups can work collaboratively.
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Volunteer Don Tarbutton,
Helping on Several Fronts
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Two years ago, Don Tarbutton, a lay Buddhist chaplain who facilitates hospice bereavement support groups, attended a Village 101 presentation by Ann Adler, now executive director of Villages Northwest, and was hooked. Don lives in Columbia Ecovillage, a co-housing complex in the Cully neighborhood, and enjoys the built-in camaraderie and caring support of the 50 adults and 12 children who live there. "It's interesting to see how it works," he says, explaining how the community rallied to support its oldest member after she suffered a stroke. "And two years ago, 'our' first baby was born!"
"Ecovillage is one layer of support," Don says, "but I was looking for another." He found it in Northeast Village PDX.
Early in the history of our Village, Don was on the committee that wrote its mission statement. Now he sits on the Resource Committee (see the article, opposite) and serves on the Villages Northwest Transportation Task Force, which is busy exploring ways the Villages can partner with "Ride Together," a program of Ride Connection.
Don also is a co-founder of the local Death Caf? PDX movement, which has drawn a following of 900 and often has waiting lists for its caf?s. He finds the response amazing but, he notes, "Our society isn't used to talking about death, and it's something people really want and need to do."
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