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She and her partner have five children between the ages of three and Then, dining room prep begins. Country music usually streams from the radio. Some of her regular volunteers also speak Mandarin. As service is about to begin, a short, round-faced man with wispy white hair walks up to the counter pointing to the back of the kitchen, then his wrist.
He shakes his head no, and gestures like he has a mug in his hand.
She effortlessly slides a heavy a tub of rice into the warmer and laughs. And she probably will. Wednesday is food box day. Clients show up as early as 7 am to receive pantry items delivered to the center by the Oregon Food Bank. Most of the patrons stay for lunch. On box days, Woods typically serves more than Wednesday afternoons she also leads a teen cooking class through the community center. She is a passionate advocate for unheard voices and unheard stories. I t was the tattoo of an ink pen that got her the job, A.
She supervises interns and volunteers, manages in-house events, and meets with instructors. Most afternoons are spent elsewhere, often conducting writing workshops at the Columbia River Correctional Institution. I try to give them tools for how to do that. The nonprofit sector is broad in its scope and not everyone is doing work that saves lives.
Instead, she spends large parts of the workday standing in her doorway. As the syringe exchange program coordinator at Outside In, she encounters more than clients daily, and sees them one-on-one whenever they need her. I have no criteria. Wheelock has a lot to talk about. The syringe exchange program, which promotes health among people who inject drugs, exists in part to offer HIV testing and a safe, clean spot for needle exchange, but also provides Naloxone trainings on demand.
Now, clients at Outside In can become trained to administer Naloxen by Wheelock and her staff. And I want people to have a chance. According to Wheelock, there is an overdose-related death every 19 minutes. But since the Naloxone law was passed last year, and Outside In began training Portlanders in its use, heroin deaths have dropped by nearly 29 percent. I find that brilliant and beautiful. She remembers her first training for a nonprofit job in New York.
And I love that. Haven coordinates the exchange of more than , needles annually and has conducted Naloxone trainings in the past 18 months. More than of those clients have reported an overdose reversal. He is the best ambassador for these kids and they really need someone to be that for them. A s an eighth-grader, Jared Hoffman began playing soccer with Latino teenagers in his hometown on the Oregon coast.
The familial way they got together for pickup games on weekends and their high level of play made Hoffman love the sport even more. So he quit all other sports for soccer. His skills improved and his parents began driving him to Salem to play in clubs. Two or three kids from less cushioned backgrounds might earn a scholarship to join a team, according to Hoffman, but most others were left out. Hoffman makes one thing clear: We want to project that. The energy and vibrant culture he finds in neighborhoods where AC Portland runs programs motivate Hoffman. His prize was generously sponsored by Adidas.
But Tyrone does more than just that: He helps clients break down barriers that stand in their way of housing. He advocates, cajoles, follows up, networks, and works his butt off so that people can change their lives and move out from under bridges and off the streets. Rucker, 32, steps through the door. Immediately, a woman in a black jacket and headscarf meets him midstride. Having been in similar circumstances, he understands the urgency homeless individuals often feel. TransActive, located in Southeast Portland, seeks to improve the lives of transgender and gender noncomforming youth and their families through counseling, community outreach and legal advocacy.
In addition to emotional support, Kit Crosland, 26, hopes to provide trans youth with something tangible. Men who no longer need their binders, a device used to flatten breasts, donate them to TransActive. Crosland then ships those binders to youth who are in need throughout the U.
To date, the program has sent more than chest binders and has a waiting list of more than 1, We call them the "band of brothers," Crosland says. Gladys Ruiz, 33, grew up in New York City public housing in the s. In , Ruiz moved to Portland where she now serves as the Audubon Society of Portland's eastside conservation education coordinator.
But for the first 21 years of her life she was afraid of birds. When she was 19, she worked as a coastal steward for a nature conservancy, helping count endangered bird species. Two years later, she joined AmeriCorps, where she began work with an ornithologist. Her job was to band chicks and trap the adults. The adults were aggressive, often pecking at her. But she bonded with the chicks. She firmly believes that our community needs citizens who are dedicated to the common good. She takes the responsibility seriously. At a young age, Kristin "Minka" Wallace lost her father to suicide and subsequently became a mom at She wants to make Portland a better place to live for her daughter.
As the development associate for the Library Foundation, Wallace runs the summer reading program, which encourages kids to read outside the classroom. No one is turned away. And many leave with the tools they need to build a better future for themselves. In addition to lending books on how to make a terrarium or knit, the library hosts classes to help hone job interview skills. Her prize was generously sponsored by Intel. Fifteen Oregonians died from domestic violence this year, according to the Portland Women's Crisis Line.
PWCL hosts a hour phone line for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Over the phone, survivors find immediate intervention, safety planning and connections to resources. She first volunteered at Rose Haven, a shelter for women and children, where she says many women told her their houselessness was a result of their abuse.
She wanted to find a place to work on the root of the problem. In addition to answering the crisis line and responding to the hospital, Weitzel, 28, provides one-one-one support to survivors experiencing houselessness. T ransition Projects Inc. In , following a recommendation from his oldest brother, Aiosa enlisted in the Air Force. Following his tour, Aiosa attended Temple University in Philadelphia, where he would discover Philabundance, a nonprofit food bank. Its Fresh for All program, which takes excess fresh produce from grocery stores and distributes it to low-income communities, introduced Aiosa to working with those experiencing poverty.
In the locker rooms! Each year he works with nearly 50 students at risk of failing. I just needed one adult to help me get through those barriers. L upita Mendez was born in Washington, D. She is a woman, a Latina, a lesbian and the daughter of an undocumented worker. It was August when Bradley Angle, a Portland domestic violence shelter, interviewed Mendez for a smaller position. With constant outreach into the communities they serve, Mendez and Bradley Angle feel there are always ways to innovate.
This is why year-old Rob Klavins first moved here, he explains. Since joining the team in , Klavins has worked on several issues, including roadless-area protection, wolf and wildlife recovery, and public-lands policy. He organizes educational outdoor programs in which he takes hikers to wolf country so they can see where the animals are and talk to those who have learned to live with them.
Yet, every year, Oregon faces anti-wolf legislation in the State Legislature. The nonprofit field chose me, long ago. To be frank, I was skeptical. I vividly recall standing in the wings of the Aladdin, totally awestruck by the power and heart when the PHAME choir hit the stage that night. I work best in a collaborative environment, and believe that our collective creativity is more powerful than that of any single individual.
Both the structure and intention of the nonprofit model resonate with this belief. Why he chose to work in the nonprofit arena: I grew up witnessing the positive effects that nonprofit organizations can have on individuals, families and communities. I understand on a personal level that nonprofit organizations can provide opportunities that break negative cultural cycles and create positive support systems that are transformative for both individuals and communities. Nothing makes more sense to me than investing in the lives of our young people.
What motivated him to do this: I was motivated to found, and work for, My Voice Music after I witnessed the unique and powerful role music can have in connecting with youth who are not being reached in typical settings. Why she chose to work in the nonprofit arena: I chose to work in the nonprofit field, specializing in youth services, so I could contribute to breaking generational cycles of inequities in order to make real differences within communities.
In my childhood, I was the recipient of services provided by nonprofit organizations specializing in foster care and education. The impact they made on my life, and the ripple effect this has had on my family, have created a passion within me to make the same commitment toward making a difference for others. I feel compelled to provide a road map to other youth who have experienced similar childhood challenges. I believe in the mission to take strengths-based approaches to help youth in challenging situations to overcome their barriers and become resilient.
Hall, 33, grew up in a family of alcoholics, and spent her early adult life addicted to methamphetamines. By the time she entered a residential treatment center at age 25, she was facing the prospect of prison time and her eldest daughter had been placed in temporary foster care. These days, Hall works as a parent mentor for Morrison Child and Family Services, helping people in situations similar to the one she escaped. On a typical day, Hall will take her clients to step meetings, or just out for coffee.
Three days a week, she goes to the county courthouse to help parents through preliminary hearings. She fills out paperwork. She helps them heal. Seventy-five percent of the mothers Hall mentors get sober and have their children returned. Only half the parents who go through the process unassisted are successful. One of them is now a parent mentor herself. Hall is humble in the face of her success as a mentor. Seven years ago I was on my way to prison. The bimonthly street paper, which covers issues relating to poverty, gives the homeless vendors who sell it a chance to make some money 75 cents a paper and interact with a wide range of people.
Bayer, 35, started volunteering for the nonprofit newspaper soon after it started in He has since become director, overseeing fundraising and advocacy efforts as well as the 70 volunteers who contribute articles and photos, and the nearly vendors who sell the finished product. Though he shies away from saying if he was ever homeless himself, Bayer grew up poor. Raised by a single mother in the gritty industrial town of Alton, Ill. Though affected by the recession, the paper is growing. Bayer hopes to eventually publish weekly.
Though he works hard on the big picture, Bayer tries to stay in contact with the people the paper serves. He sleeps on the streets with the vendors at least once a year and interacts with them as much as he can. The Washington native, who plays the oboe and English horn, dreamed up Vibe while attending Portland State University.
The arts and music program at Harrison Park offers seven classes for students, including comic-book illustration and guitar instruction. Students are provided top-notch instruments which they can check out and supplies Streib either receives in donation from other nonprofits or buys herself.
In the coming years, Streib hopes to begin programs at other schools while increasing course offerings. Streib also envisions an artist-in-residence program for artists and musicians who teach classes to have space in a future permanent home for Vibe. More programs mean more money, and Streib works tirelessly applying for grants and organizing benefits. At a recent gala, a Texas man bought the entire collection for his home and asked that the artists sign the back of their work.
Gaby Mendez is so persuasive, she can talk a fourth-grader into attending summer school voluntarily. She helps parents find employment or housing when they need it, and connects them to other social services. In an example of just the sort of activism the Skidmore Prize is designed to recognize, Mendez started a monthly Latino Parents Meeting in But for your child to be successful, we do need some parent involvement. At the meeting, Mendez has brought in experts to teach home math exercises and other teaching skills, a financial adviser and representatives from the County Library and Hacienda CDC.
Mendez says she enjoys her work, but, like everyone in social work now, she struggles to make the most of tight assets. The Pixie Project, which Sacks, 26, has directed ever since, is part animal adoption center, part pet supply store. Her adoption center does not take owner surrenders or strays but instead functions as a support system for existing shelters that struggle with overpopulation. Sacks wants to get the message out to future pet owners: Sacks often compares the Pixie Project to more traditional shelters hidden on the outskirts of cities across the country.
She admits the scenes in them are often gruesome: As for Pixie Project, Sacks is hoping a crafty combination of friendly faces and a chance to play with the dogs in their open shelter or to sit in a room surrounded by cats will entice people to adopt. Brandi Tuck found her passion for working with homeless families while at school in Florida.
After moving to Portland, she began volunteering at Goose Hollow Family Shelter, an emergency facility where parents and children can find meals, beds and advocates who will work to find them permanent homes, while also working at the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force on anti-hunger policy. Two years into volunteering, Tuck was hired as the executive director of Goose Hollow.
Three to four nights a week I try to stay at the shelter and have dinner with the families. And then there is the business side of things. While its capacity to help has grown, Tuck says the need for the service has grown as well: The average length of a stay the year before that was 17 days, which I think just shows the signs of the economy. The hope is it will take some of the pressure off families as they work toward obtaining affordable housing. It represents a large step for Tuck toward reaching her ultimate goal: Fowzia Abdulle knows all about trauma.
The center, which opened in , seeks to provide emergency shelter and affordable, long-term housing to African and African-American women in need. She is often the first person a survivor of domestic abuse sees on arrival at Healing Roots. And Abdulle has the added challenge of empowering women who were raised in cultures that discourage the slightest discussion of abuse.
Her experience gives women in her care reason to trust her. Even if a bed is available, however, the cultural divide often makes it impossible for women to feel comfortable in the shelter. She already has one in computer information systems. And she is learning more Arabic. Jennifer Gilmore could have gone for the big bucks. There were plenty of options for this promising young lawyer, many of them much more remunerative, but she chose to work for a nonprofit organization that represents children in divorce proceedings. Unfortunately, these also happen to be the lowest-income families.
They have no access to any kinds of services. Which is why Gilmore took the gig. Her deepest concern is that during the domestic-relations process, the parents tend to fill up the room. Parents see through their own lens, their own hurt. Kolker, 28, is the executive director and sole employee of the Portland Fruit Tree Project, an organization devoted to harvesting unwanted fruit from trees across Portland to feed families in need.
In their own neighborhoods, Kolker and another AmeriCorps member picked fruit and pruned trees belonging to elderly or infirm homeowners who were unable to pick the fruit themselves. That first year they had so much interest that they decided to take it beyond their neighborhoods. Last year the Project went citywide. Fruit-tree owners submit their underharvested trees to a registry, and Kolker and her board organize harvesting parties.
Half the fruit goes home with the volunteers and half goes to various local food banks. In addition, half the volunteer slots for which there is a substantial waiting list are reserved for people living on low incomes, so fully three-quarters of the harvested fruit goes to people in need. The Fruit Tree Project hosted 12 harvesting events in , picking over 4, pounds of fresh fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste.
So far this year Kolker estimates some 1, families have benefited. In about a year, Kolker hopes to begin a community orchard planting program, partnering with other organizations to plant orchards in public sites like churches, schools and community gardens. Amy Harwood never intended to get into environmental activism. Her first love was the political world, and her background is in election campaigning.
What started 10 years ago as a passionate act of volunteering is now a full-time gig. Harwood currently works as a program director for Bark, a grassroots organization devoted to protecting all the roots, grasses, trees and waters that make Mount Hood the hulking thing of beauty it is. Harwood dreams of the day when Mount Hood will be seen as a scenic hideaway and great source for clean drinking water, and not simply a place to harvest lumber.
The beautiful natural areas that surround the city are part of what makes Portland so exceptional, and she fears their loss. On the second Sunday of every month, she leads tour groups to parts of the park in danger of being stripped for their resources. She describes the treks as relatively easy and a great way to educate lay people about the problems Mount Hood faces.
Oftentimes members of her group climb the mountain only to find their favorite part of the forest has been logged. These events frequently lead to what Harwood cites as her greatest source of pride: She wants to use her prize money to expand Signal Fire signalfirearts. They take artists from the city and place them in a remodeled studio trailer on the mountain for two weeks with a bike and enough food to survive. Rodolfo Serna winces with embarrassment recalling his brief stint as a used-car salesman. And I sold her a lemon.
Eventually, he joined the Portland nonprofit p: And while art may be what is most visible to observers, Serna credits p: Asked what aspect of p: After Polly Bangs graduated from Portland State nine years ago with an English degree at age 24, she set out to find a job. They just wanted to work. No one was giving them the chance. Bangs used that insight to take the plunge into a daunting arena: Amid the Atkins craze of , and despite the abundance of doubters, Bangs opened Pasta Bangs on North Mississippi Avenue to serve the dual mission of offering delish dining and real-life job skills training for at-risk and homeless youth.
Even before Pasta Bangs sold its last plate of pesto penne, Bangs was working on her next venture: Less than two months later, Urban Opportunities was born. Ironically, in her own unconventional way, Bangs is also the epitome of a great teacher. As for the future? Polly Bangs is always spinning those wheels. Amid bright walls painted in orange and yellow, chairs are covered in boxes of fresh pizza and bags overflowing with candy. Jama, a Somali-born Muslim, founded the center four years ago to counter the Islamophobia he felt mounting around him after Sept. All that pizza is left over from a party to kick off a letter-writing campaign encouraging grassroots organizations throughout Oregon to fight two proposed statewide ballot initiatives.
One initiative would cut funding for English-as-a second-language classes; the other would require local government to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The center has members, half of whom are immigrants or refugees. We facilitate and provide the trainings for them to organize cross-culturally, allowing the community members to take charge. Jama left war-torn Somalia in and came to the United States, where he worked hour days in San Diego without wages in exchange for room and board.
My goal is to prevent other immigrant-refugees from experiencing what I have seen and experienced. Jama encourages immigrants to become organizers and take free classes at the center to learn about civil engagement. The center is working with Oregon Action and Latino Network to create the Diversity and Civic Leadership Academy, where refugees, immigrants and people of color can learn leadership advocacy techniques plus the ins and outs of local government.
We provide a space where they can come together to organize and strategize to impact the issues that they are facing. Hundreds of bikes of all makes and sizes and in all states of disrepair are everywhere: There is the Create a Commuter Program, in which low-income adults get a bicycle complete with lights, lock, helmet and rack to help with their commuting needs.
By any measure, he has succeeded. Armstrong sees volunteering, which he has been involved with in one shape or another since high school in Tucson, as a way for people to become more involved and invested in their community. Boulevard and Prescott Street. This is the office of the Giving Tree, a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to providing disadvantaged, low-income people access to the arts, culture and recreation.
Founded in by Wendi Anderson, the Giving Tree already serves at least 50 to 70 people a week. Anderson spends 30 unpaid hours each week visiting people who are moving from homelessness into single-room occupancy housing. The Giving Tree also provides a space for kids to come after school and do their homework. And in the summer, the Giving Tree hosts an all-day program with as many as 22 kids supervised by Anderson, who got into social services through her work as human-services coordinator for a property-management company.
The Giving Tree aims to expand its scope in the future. But what Anderson is really anticipating is watching the kids she is working with grow up. Since , the year-old Montreal native has focused on the Southeast Portland center dedicated to providing a safe and supportive place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth. She sees an average each day of 40 to 80 at-risk youth age 23 and younger. And Gibbs obviously loves her job. Gibbs is in charge of supervising the approximately 75 adult volunteers who run the place. Her days at the center are as surprising as the kids who walk in.
Everyone needs to get their needs met, and everyone has different needs. Having suffered from asthma since childhood, she became so inspired by the progress of her LGBTQQ youth she decided to take part in an Ironman competition. And this past summer, with full support from SMYRC youths and coworkers, plus seven years of training, she completed her goal. Darren Linder loves kids. Since , the tattooed year-old has worked full time as a mentor for Portland-based national charity Friends of the Children. Founded in , Friends of the Children matches kindergarten-age at-risk children with professional mentors who stay with them until they graduate from high school.
Linder spends four hours a week with each of the youths assigned to him, acting as a positive role model, helping with academics, supporting their parents and exposing them to opportunities they might otherwise miss.
Some of the children Linder started working with seven years ago are still with him; others have moved on. Working with youth all over the Portland area keeps Linder busy. But the drastic circumstances of some of his wards also lets Linder see the importance of his labor: In , he and fellow U of O grad Amanda Gribben founded Pawsitively Pit Bull, a privately funded nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating pit bulls from around the country.
They and their 60 to 70 volunteers run a pit bull sanctuary near St. In a tiny, map-strewn office in North Portland, wedged between an enormous printer and a computer monitor that looks to weigh as much as he does, Erik Fernandez spends every day on the front lines of the battle to protect the wilderness areas around Mount Hood. Now, with preservation bills from Oregon legislators before both the U.
House and Senate, Fernandez and his colleagues are finally seeing their work pay off. These days, Oregon Wild formerly known as Oregon Natural Resources Council is working closely with backers of the bills to determine what areas of the mountain merit preservation. To do that, Fernandez has had to become intimate with the lay of the land. From his Portland office, he uses geographical-analysis software to produce maps of areas in need of protection; to find those areas, he has to spend a lot of time in the field. Are there fish in this stream? Are there rare plants in this area?
And then I document that. A graduate of the University of Portland, Fernandez, 31, started at Oregon Wild as a volunteer and eventually became a paid staffer seven years ago. Now he puts in 50 hours a week in the effort to save the natural spaces he cares about. In its three-year existence, NW Digital Art Kids, the nonprofit of which he is the executive director and sole paid employee, has gained national recognition for teaching Portland youth and quite a few adults the basics of music production in a professional-caliber recording studio.
Kleiman, 27, has been with the organization since its inception and says it took over a year to get up and running after he signed on as director in This year, Kleiman hopes to use computers donated by Reed College to build music labs at some of the schools he partners with, including the alternative high school Youth Employment Institute. They recorded over 10 hours of music at the Old Library in the last year; some have written soundtracks for arts nonprofit Film Action Oregon; and several have told Kleiman they want to produce albums this year.
Most of the gardeners Bender works with are the heads of low-income households who might not be able to afford to buy fresh, organic produce. With tools, seeds and advice from Growing Gardens, families build garden beds in their back yards, make their own compost and get a little closer to self-sufficiency. The easygoing year-old is full of stories of lives made better by backyard gardens, from a shy first-time gardener who has become an active volunteer to a single mother of seven whose children fell so in love with their garden they dedicated their entire yard and much of their house to horticulture.
Bender says Growing Gardens is hoping to expand its services in coming years and to create a support network of experienced gardeners to help first-timers. Imagine a good day at work. Does it involve a classroom of teenagers and an enormous model of a penis? Is sculpture an effective way to teach teens about sexuality?
Johnson says the students thought so: So how do you make HIV awareness cool? Johnson uses low-key social marketing techniques: It's unglamorous, but something about this place in Washington County keeps Iancu, a petite, well-spoken, poised year-old, committed and enthusiastic.
Iancu had not even owned a cat until she answered an online plea from CAT for volunteers two years ago. She had graduated from George Fox University and felt unsure about how to get started on a career. So she signed on, helping where needed and becoming a counselor who learned to match cats with families.
As an adoption counselor, Iancu pairs young children with their first kittens, introduces a lap cat to an elderly woman craving companionship, finds homes for the old cats, the paralyzed ones, the ones who wouldn't stand a chance in another shelter. She finds a family for each cat, and gets misty-eyed when they leave. Though she's the youngest on the person staff, Iancu carries herself like a veteran.
Here are some options to consider: A variety of book sizes and options are available, including color covers, trade paperback, hardcover, color interior options and more. The beautiful natural areas that surround the city are part of what makes Portland so exceptional, and she fears their loss. Her next goal includes finishing a second degree in human development. Bayer hopes to eventually publish weekly. Most afternoons are spent elsewhere, often conducting writing workshops at the Columbia River Correctional Institution. The Skidmore Prize winners will be announced in the Give!
Volunteers twice her age stop her with questions. She rattles off statistics about stray cats in Oregon, why she thinks cat overpopulation can be fixed and how much volunteers are needed. She calmly discusses a stray kitten with the 7-year-old team's founder, Evan Kalik. And it's not even 10 am. But the cats Iancu cares for don't care about any of that. A large white tabby, whose cage is labeled with a hands-scrawled "I'm a Grumpy Boy" sign, rubs against her.
Cooing at each cat during her morning rounds, Iancu pauses by a cage with an IV bag where a large yellowing white cats sit inside, a large growth almost completely obstructing its left eye. The cat, which receives an IV drip because of suspected kidney falure, seems grateful as she purrs and nestles into Iancu's bosom.
Two giant north-facing windows rattle in the wind, something Steely says she doesn't like to think about. It's doubtful there's much Steely doesn't think about. She's a fast-talking dynamo, articulate and focused, who blushes at the thought of talking about herself. It really is an honor to work here. It was an honor to be a volunteer. It was an honor to be a donor. And it's an honor to be on staff with the organization. That selfless humility makes Steely, 34, anything but the stereotypical blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty.
She logged 13 years working in the labor movement, as well as four years volunteering for WRAP before becoming director in this past spring. Dressed in a black turtleneck and green cowboy boots, Steely has a smile shiny as the silver hoops hanging from her ears. Right out of college, she landed a job in the labor movement, but after five years working for social justice in conservative Missouri, she was ready for a change. Like so many others, she decided to move to Portland sight unseen. She was "blown away" by the organization, which provides writing workshops for folks who may be impeded by income, isolation or other barriers.
WRAP then organizes readings for workshop participants, open to the public, and also publishes anthologies of their work. Steely says she's not unusual. Many of the or so volunteers who help run WRAP are committed to the organization, stay for a long time and do a lot. I think a lot of people have jobs that are just jobs. For me, it's not It's a lot more than that. Steely's commitment to community doesn't end when she punches out.
She makes time volunteer as a trainer for Wellstone Action, teaching grassroots community organizing. She also works in running, yoga and Six Feet Under. So the Skidmore Prize will provide everything they need for one, including journals, pens, food, bus fare, childcare and facilitator training.
Inside the large white house, sunlight glances off walls hung with quilts and children's drawings. Stuffed animals are everywhere. On a couch in the living room, surrounded by binders from the weekend's volunteer training, sits a small blonde woman sporting a denim jacket and pink-and-black sneakers. With one foot tucked up beneath her, Jana DeCristofaro nurses her morning coffee and muses about her job as the center's Coordinator of Children's Grief Services. Wry sense of humor. Always learning and questioning. What she does have, people say, is a lot of heart.
The following year, she moved here to stay. A friend recommended she volunteer at the Dougy Center. Despite having no formal experience working with grief and loss, she gave it a shot. She was hired a few months later. Now, DeCristofaro leads support groups for kids, teenagers and young adults who have lost a parent or sibling. She also coordinates the center's plus volunteers, teaching them to lead groups and helping them deal with the with of grief that's a constant reality for all Dougy workers and volunteers. DeCristofaro calls physical activity the key to staying healthy when death becomes your everyday occupation.
And indeed, a glance around Hatt's tidy office reveals a Furby, a mini-Connect Four set, and other toys and games to make her work with homeless youth fun.
One of Hatt's clients is an impulsive young man who loves coffee. Hatt makes him think through his moves and announce them beforehand. Sometimes he gets frustrated, plays recklessly and doesn't get coffee. But more important than being fun, simple therapy impulse control, it's a way for Hatt to build a connection. Hatt excels at building those relationships, says her supervisor, Laurie Kress: Clients respond well to her because of her passion and creativity.
Hatt, 30, manages about 20 cases at once for New Avenues, a Portland nonprofit that helps homeless kids get off the street. She works with the kids to figure out barriers like poverty or drug abuse that are keeping them homeless, then designs a plan to address those barriers. Hatt was homeless when she was She was "resource poor. A messy home life during her senior year in high school led to her living on the streets in Huntington W. A year and a half later, with the help of relatives in Ohio, Hatt had bounced back.
She moved to Columbus and enrolled at Ohio State University, where she majored in social work and own the social-work student of the year award in She also worked at a runaway shelter for teenagers. At 19, she was doing family therapy sessions for year-olds and their angry parents. Hatt doesn't usually reveal her earlier homelessness to clients, because sharing personal history runs counter to her training as a social worker. But there have been some clients who really needed to see how people can rebound. Hatt is a living example. After completing her bachelors degree, she moved to Portland because it seemed like a progressive place.
She got a master's degree in social work from Portland State University in , and earned her license to practice clinical social work in August. Hatt plans to continue applying her creativity and energy to fight youth homelessness, and perhaps focus on therapy. A self-described "vision person," Gavin Shettler has an imaginative flair well-suited to the task at hand. Currently, faded newsprint still covers the windows of the unassuming building at SE Belmont St.
Inside, a dusty yellow hard-hats lie piled in the center of the unfinished gallery. But Shettler has it all mapped out. The Portland Art Center will provide a meeting space for artists and nonprofits alike will showcase local artwork that can't find a home in Portland galleries. Shettler is especially interested in installation art, "which can't be done in commercial gallery because you can't sell the stuff. The son of a minister, he learned the important of community service early on. Shettler attended college at Texas Christian University on a full ride, but decided to drop out to play cello in a rock band, which, he now concedes, "was not that great of an idea.
In , Shettler, who was born in Aberdeen, Wash. In , began helping a friend run a gallery in the Everett Lofts. Shettler loved the work and decided to pen his own space, the Gavin Shettler Gallery. During this endeavor, he encountered a stream of artists needing advice about how to prepare portfolios, show their art and find buyers. Shettler, responded with his first nonprofit enterprise, the Modern Zoo, which showed installations in donated spaces throughout the city. The young director's cell phone rings incessantly. A sleeping bag lies crumpled in the corner of his office, and one gets the impression that his life and work are one and the same.
Or, at least it was. When asked what he planned to do with the Skidmore Prize money, Shettler replies with glee. I quit my job. I don't want to bartend, I want to do this," he says, with a gesture encompassing the empty building. To get submissions for the bathroom. To use the whole space, you know? Pegged as a hipster capital of the West Coast, Portland attracts its fair share of graduates from small liberal-arts colleges. But not all of them come to start an indie-rock band.
Emily Root, a graduate of Earlham College in Indiana, landed here in , when she was hired at a local organization that uses animal-assisted therapy to help people who have development disabilities. The firebrand in her family of five, Root, 29, has always been drawn to social services. Here are some options to consider: Reveal details about your company history Share compelling customer case studies Tackle an important issue in your industry Provide methods for using your products and services effectively Hold a contest to collect story submissions and generate media exposure from the start!
Feature the story of a company executive or multiple executives Create a workbook for use with your products or services Sponsor a charity by developing a book that they can use for promotion or as a profit center Compile articles, essays, personal stories, case studies, materials from strategic partners or any other content that can be assembled into a great anthology-style book Internal Book Projects Authority Publishing can also assist you in producing books for employees.
Explain company mission and culture Compile orientation materials Detail your sales processes Create an operations manual Compile worksheets Develop a workbook to support company processes Services Provided by Authority Publishing From book idea inception to production and distribution, the team at Authority Publishing produces high quality book projects that can help you attract media coverage, gain interest with prospects and clients, establish credibility in your field, build brand awareness and much more.
Book Idea Development — We can help you create and analyze your book concept to define goals and outcomes and get the maximum return on investment ROI. Ghostwriting — Our team of professional writers can write all or part of your book. We will work with your existing materials, interview appropriate parties, conduct research and go the extra mile to write a compelling and professional book.
Editing — Every book needs professional editing and we have experienced professionals who will make your manuscript shine. Copywriting — We can develop sales copy for the back of the book, supporting sales materials, articles, press releases and anything other professional copy needed to support your publishing project. Book Cover Design — The reality is that people do judge a book by its cover. Our designers specialize in designing captivating book covers. Book Interior Design — Our professional layout services ensure that the interior of your book meets the level of professionalism that you expect from Authority Publishing.
Printing — Our book printing services can deliver as few as 50 copies of your book or tens of thousands of copies. A variety of book sizes and options are available, including color covers, trade paperback, hardcover, color interior options and more. Distribution — Our clients benefit from optional distribution to major retail outlets including Amazon.