Sunday, February 1, 2015

Upcoming PCL Allocation Committee meeting: Feb. 10

The Allocation Committee will meet from 2 – 4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 10th in City Hall Council Chambers. An agenda can be found on the PCL website here.

Also, items related to the agenda can be found on the PCL website here for viewing and/or printing as PDFs. Please be advised: because of the length of the reports we will not have extra handouts at the meeting.

Join PCL at the upcoming 2015 Fix-it Fair


There is just one remaining Fix-it Fair: Saturday, Feb. 21st at David Douglas High School, which will have classes in Spanish.
  
Thanks to all the PCL grantees who came out to the Jan. 24th  Fix-it Fair Saturday at Rosa Parks Elementary: PPS Head Start, Bradley Angle House, Insights and NAYA.
  
  
The fair is a free event where people can learn simple ways to save money and connect with community resources. The PCL has several tables at the fairs: if your organization is interested in attending any or all of the fairs to spread the word about your services, please contact marygay.broderick@portlandoregon.gov

Pass it On

All Hands Raised released it new report on community efforts to improve the lives of 225,000 children and young adults in Multnomah County Get an update here.

Oregon Mentors introduces the Youth Work Methods Training Series. These 10 trainings build skills for people who work directly with youth in out-of-school-time programs. The trainings cover a wide variety of information and are designed to help nonprofits have exceptional programs. Learn more about the series at this link. Each training costs $60 per person and registration is required in advance.Oregon Mentors is committed to bringing the trainings to the rest of the state and will share dates as more trainings are scheduled.

The Black Parent Initiative has its Annual Fundraiser Luncheon Feb. 25th at the Leftbank Annex. Go here for more info.

The 10th Anniversary of “Power of the Purse” benefiting Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest is Friday, March 6th at the 
Portland Hilton.  There will be a boutique, silent auction, dinner and live auction. For more information and to purchase tickets visit here.

Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Center is a non-profit organization located in Oregon City providing therapeutic horseback riding and recreation to the children and adults of the Portland metro area. Sycamore Lane changes the lives of individuals with mental and physical disabilities through the use of horses. From Feb. 1 through March 31 Sycamore Lane is having a  Drive To Ride fundraiser and would love help from the community. Go online to www.sycamorelane.org. for more info or to volunteer call503-593-7084.

The eighth annual SW HOPE: Feed the Hungry community food and fund-raising drive starts Feb. 15 and will run through March 29. The goal of the six-week drive is to collect 175,000 pounds of food or the cash equivalent to benefit the Neighborhood House Emergency Food Box Program. Each $1 donation is equivalent to almost four pounds of food.There will also be non-perishable food collection barrels available at participating sites across the SW Portland. Cash and food donations can be made at any of the churches displaying a SW HOPE banner or at the Neighborhood House office at 7780 SW Capitol Hwy. Participating local businesses will also have food donation boxes or coin canisters available for collections. 

For organizations working with older students, understanding how to land a top internship can help students accelerate their real world learning and improve future job prospects. Go here for a comprehensive guide on college internships.    

Meals 4 Kids, a PCL-funded program through Meals on Wheels People that delivers meals to children and their caregivers throughout Portland, is looking for volunteer drivers. Interested? Contact lynette.vicens@mealsonwheelspeople.org

In the News: Oregon Food Bank & Boys and Girls Aid  

Thank you to all of PCL’s wonderful community partners: Metropolitan Family Service, Mult. Co, SUN, Urban Gleaners and lots of great volunteers who earlier this week celebrated the opening of the PCL-supported Oregon Food Bank school pantry at Glen Fair Elementary in the Reynolds School District as part of 18 new and/or expanded pantry sites in Portland area schools through the Levy’s new hunger relief initiative. View/read the KOIN story here. 

Mike Balter has retired after 30 years serving as the CEO of Boys & Girls Aid.  Suzan Huntington has been appointed the new CEO having served as the agency’s VP of Development for the past seven years. Read about Suzan’s path to Boys and Girls Aid here in this Oregonian story.

Resources for you and your staff: 

*ARC looking to partner with other nonprofits
*New Avenues for Youth’s “INK” enterprise  
*YWCA offers training 

The Arc of Multnomah-Clackamas is interested in partnering with organizations in the community to do fund raising clothing and cloth item drives. ARC pays per pound of cloth items collected along with getting the word out about services and advocacy for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Interested? Contact  

jkillen@thearcmult.org

Is your organization looking for quality screen printing at a competitive price for a good cause? New Avenues INK is a social enterprise owned and operated by New Avenues for Youth. Its mission is to be a leader in the the screen printing industry while helping young people become self-sufficient. The program provides job training for homeless and at-risk youth as they assist with every aspect of the business, from hand-printing apparel to marketing to graphic design. So with each order placed, youth are building the skills and experience to achieve their goals. For more info go here

The YWCA of Greater Portland offers a series of workshops that explore how modern day forms of oppression persist, as well as our role in dismantling or perpetuating them. Participants will work with knowledgeable and skilled facilitators to increase their own level of self-awareness and explore how they can operate in the world as part of the solution, rather than the problem. For schedules, go here

PCL Programs Making a Difference: 

The Oregon Food Bank


PCL celebrated the opening of a new school food pantry at Glen Fair Elementary in the Reynolds School District: a wonderful community partnership helping feed Portland’s children and families to mitigate hunger in Metro Portland.

A $1.3 million grant awarded last spring from the Levy to OFB will create and expand pantries in 18 Portland schools. The pantries serve school families in need of food assistance. After months of planning and coordinating with integral community partners, including the ones mentioned in the previous story,  along with Camp Fire, Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization, Catholic Charities, Impact NW, and local school districts, new pantries were operating in the Portland area by November 2014 and existing pantries began receiving additional support. 

PCL Allocation Committee Chair Dan Saltzman said PCL’s investment in OFB will go a long way to getting more food to the students and families who need it. Also attending the Glen Fair event were AC member and Mult. Co. Chair Deborah Kafoury and AC member Julie S. Young.

“Like” us on our new FB page

The Portland Children’s Levy has a new, more dynamic FB page. Click on the link above to “like” it and please pass along to your colleagues, clients and board members as well.

Check out the PCL 2012-13 Progress Report

Take a look at the PCL 2012-13 Progress Report celebrating 10 years of serving Portland’s children! Click here to view the PDF online. Also, hard copies will be available at all  Allocation Committee meetings or by contacting

marygay.broderick@portlandoregon.gov   

Online PCL Org Directory

We have published an online directory of PCL organizations, including program descriptions and contact info, that we hope is useful to your staff and their clients. It’s on the home page of our website in the “Spotlight” section atwww.portlandchildrenslevy.org  

Contact PCL Staff for the Following Areas

*Director, After School & Hunger grants: 
lisa.pellegrino@portlandoregon.gov
  
*Assistant Director and Early Childhood & Mentoring grants:
meg.mcelroy@portlandoregon.gov
  
*Child Abuse Prevention/Intervention & Foster Care Grants Manager:
lisa.hansell@portlandoregon.gov
  
*Communications Director:
marygay.broderick@portlandoregon.gov
  
*Fiscal Specialist:
john.kelly@portlandoregon.gov

Who We Are

The Portland Children’s Levy was created by city voters in 2002 and overwhelmingly renewed by the electorate in Fall 2008 and Spring 2013. Funding for the new five-year Levy began July 1, 2014 and includes hunger relief as a new focus area.
 
The Levy is supported through a property tax paid by City of Portland homeowners that generates $11 million toward investments in proven programs serving 10,000 Portland children and their families in areas of Early Childhood, After School, Mentoring, Child Abuse Prevention/Intervention, Foster Care and Hunger Relief.
 
The Levy is annually audited and administrative costs do not exceed 5 percent. 
Questions? Contact: Call Mary Gay Broderick at 503-823-2947 or e-mailmarygay.broderick@portlandoregon.gov
See our website at www.portlandchildrenslevy.org