Congratulations to our 2024 Grantees!
We would like to thank the Grant Review Committee for their many hours of careful consideration and thoughtful discussion. Together they evaluated and provided feedback available to 57 applications!
Scroll to view the IDEA Communications Grants Recipients and the Community Small Grants Recipients.
2024 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Communications Grant Recipients:
SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition Awards $3,900 in IDEA Communications Grants to 4 Community Projects for 2024!
Each year, SE Uplift provides community groups with a small amount of funding to be used for communication and outreach efforts. Our priority for communication and outreach funding in 2023-24 is to make funds available to our diverse SE Portland community and to ensure funds support strategies and best practices for effective and accessible outreach and community engagement. The IDEA Communications Grants will be awarded to communications projects that focus on inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility.
Organization | Description |
Growing Gardens via their Home Gardens Program have translated a Vietnamese gardening manual that is provided to each participant. Their next step in the process is to gain community feedback and insight through community member review and a focus group regarding the translation. | |
While most neighbors engage with the Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association (MSANA) via their website and ZOOM stream of their public board meeting, MSANA will use grant funding to maintain their existing web and video conferencing services as well as expand their capacity to engage directly with neighbors at local community spaces. | |
The Reed Neighborhood Association will create inclusive and translated postcards and print materials for underserved populations living in apartment complexes, nursing homes, and local businesses. | |
The Richmond Neighborhood Association will produce and hand-deliver a newsletter four times a year that reaches over 4,000 residents and businesses. |
2024 Community Small Grants Recipients:
SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition Awards $75,085 in Community Small Grants to 20 Community Projects for 2024!
Community Small Grants program offers the opportunity to engage community members across the city. By offering seed-money, training, and technical support, the program enables people and organizations to identify community needs, develop collaborative projects, and see ideas through to completion. The Community Small Grants program builds the skills and capacity of project leaders to shape the place where they live. Increased capacity creates confidence and from confidence grows ongoing engagement of new community leaders.
| Organization | Description |
| Squires | Squires produces a Young Father Workshop that is free for young and expecting fathers (ages 25 and under) in Portland and surrounding areas. Attendees receive a gift card, a children’s book, food, and child care. |
| Liberated Stories | Liberated Stories will create a ‘Musical Bench,’ which is an inclusive art installation that celebrates BIPOC narratives, specifically centering the life and career of Portland Jazz artist, Leroy Vinnegar. This installation creates music through touch and connection, utilizing a micro-controller and copper armrests to detect resistance changes when people interact. The Musical Bench will allow children to explore the Oregon Jazz soundscape, challenging them to play iconic jazz pieces through touch, and connecting history, music, and human interaction. |
| Portland Indigenous Marketplace | The Portland Indigenous Marketplace plans to host a SE Indigenous Marketplace at the Native Arts and Culture Foundation Building. This will be a free, weekend event with performers, artists, and Indigenous art exhibits. |
| Eastside Jewish Commons | Eastside Jewish Commons (EJC), in collaboration with the “Independent Lens” TV series and OPB, will present “Indie Lens Pop Up”, a neighborhood series that brings people together—virtually and in-person—for film screenings and community-driven conversations. Featuring documentaries that will subsequently be seen on PBS’s “Independent Lens”, “Indie Lens Pop Up” draws local residents, leaders, and organizations to discuss what matters most, from newsworthy topics and social issues, to family and community relationships. |
| Empower House | The Empower House project will provide rental assistance to vulnerable households in SE Portland. Targeting households with at least one member with a disability who identifies as BIPOC, they aim to promote stable housing, improve financial stability, and provide financial education. |
| Shelter Now | Shelter Now seeks to better the lives of our houseless neighbors by uplifting the voices of those with living/lived experience of houselessness in policy/budget decisions. The independent Lived Experience Council of Multnomah County that Shelter Now founded empowers those with living/lived experience to better the community through collective action. They will use grant funds to cover costs of printed promotional material, food for meetings, and compensation/stipends to members. |
| Montavilla Collective | The Montavilla Collective Beautification Project will recruit, train, supervise, and support a number of individuals from the local unhoused community to care for the Montavilla business area through sidewalk cleaning, light landscape maintenance, trash pickup, graffiti removal, and occasional odd jobs to help local business owners. The project aims to provide a supportive context for Montavilla residents living in extreme poverty to gain supportive work experience while building mutually beneficial relationships with the local business community. |
| Friends of Portland Community Gardens | The Friends of Portland Community Gardens in partnership with WeShine Village will construct four mobile gardening beds and purchase materials, plants, and tools for gardening and landscaping in the Avalon Community Village near SE 19th Ave. and Division St. Avalon will be a transitional shelter micro-village providing small-pod housing and wrap-around services for 10 homeless, female/female-identified adults, with a focus on people who are BIPOC or have disabilities. |
| Municipal Eco Resiliency Project | The Municipal Eco Resiliency Project will hold a four-part workshop series educating the public on a range of farming and food production skills throughout the 2024 growing season. |
| Growing Gardens | Growing Gardens will offer garden programming in SE neighborhoods to provide home gardens at no cost in order to increase food access for families and households with limited resources and experiencing food insecurity. |
| Montavilla Farmers Market | Montavilla Farmers Market will continue their winter season Power of Produce and Two-Bite Club to promote and support farmers, educate market-goers on winter vegetables, and engage their youngest community members in the local food system. |
| Black and Beyond the Binary Collective | Black and Beyond the Binary Collective (BBBC) will build leadership with a cohort of Black queer and trans youth in their Umoja Kijana Shujaa program by empowering them to organize a community event called Night Out for Safety and Liberation (NOSL). This annual August event is a time when they redefine and reimagine what safety means for their communities. Youth will help plan and lead this event with the mentorship of the BBBC team. |
| Reading Results | Reading Results partners with schools to support students from systemically excluded communities in becoming successfulreaders. They work to increase access and break down barriers through supporting students with an effective, individualized, culturally-responsive reading intervention program. This project will serve first through fourth grade students with individualized literacy support. |
| MediaRites | To combat the increase in Youth suicide rates in Multnomah County, Media-Rites, in partnership with Adulting IRL, will conduct trainings called, #YouGoodFam. This training is designed for youth and young adults to learn First Aid Suicide intervention. They propose a three-hour youth peer-to-peer leadership training workshop focused on suicide intervention techniques with youth ages 14-18 in southeast Portland. The workshop will also include a listening session, which will be recorded and later featured on a podcast. |
| The Shadow Project | The Shadow Project will partner with 15-20 elementary and middle schools in the SE Uplift neighborhood district to deliver their Goal Setting program, primarily to students with disabilities. Goal Setting teaches kids to face challenges with a “What is strong?” perspective instead of “What is wrong?” With a youth-centered, individualized approach, Goal Setting helps students build an understanding of their own identity and needs, and an appreciation for the value of diversity in their community. |
| Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association | The Welcoming New Neighbor Project is an ongoing project and committee of the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association. The project and eight-member committee were formed in 2019 to provide a warm and inclusive welcome to all new Eastmoreland residents – both renters and owners. This is accomplished by one-on-one contact with each new neighbor and presenting them with a packet of information that educates them about the neighborhood with the intent to raise awareness of how to become involved in all aspects of neighborhood life. |
| Samewave Radio | The Samewave Upstart Program aims to provide training to local minority community members on the possibilities of broadcast radio. This program will teach a diverse class of creatives the in’s and out’s of setting up, planning, executing, and promoting their very own radio programs. By the end of the program, participants will have the opportunity to perform at a live showcase and become a regular host on our community station. |
| Portland Area Theatre Alliance | Portland Area Theatre Alliance (PATA) will host a series of free educational workshops to benefit individuals producing their own work. This series will be specifically aimed at supporting new/independent producers who wish to participate in PATA’s Fertile Ground Festival of New Work. They will benefit anyone who wants to produce their own work in the future. These workshops, led by veteran theatre producers and marketing experts will cover essential aspects of self-producing: marketing, fundraising, budgeting, example production schedules, and important logistics like insurance and contracts. |
| Naturally Beautiful Project | The Naturally Beautiful Project Academy will teach the basics of hair braiding and natural hair styling and prepare students for the state of Oregon natural hair care certification exam. Each student will learn to start their business successfully in two six-hour class sessions and multiple private mentorship sessions. Each course attendant will receive a tool kit that includes a practice mannequin, braiding and styling tools, resource materials, and financial assistance for the fees associated with testing and establishing a business. |
| Lavender League | The Lavender League aims to establish a queer and trans centered soccer league. Their project will engage LGBTQ+ adults, providing them with a safe environment to connect, play soccer, and build relationships. Their goal is to provide this league at no cost to community members and promote healthy living that centers community, joy, and movement. |