Our Resilient Places
Caring for our natural and built environments in ways that are rooted in culture and community
Guiding Principles
- Center frontline voices: Recognize that communities are experts in their own experiences and should be the primary architects of their solutions.
- Shift the narrative: Use education and storytelling to help Oregonians understand and engage with environmental challenges.
- Honor multiple perspectives: Hold space for a range of complex ideas – from restoration to reconnection, action to adaptation.
Portfolio Themes
- Movements require capacity: Strengthening organizing efforts is essential for long-term resilience and systems change.
- Aiming for energy sovereignty: Community control of natural resources, including lands, waters and energy systems, will ensure environmental and economic independence.
- Resilience is attainable: Thriving, regenerative local economies are possible with the right programs and policies.
Portfolio Goals + Strategies
- Affirm BIPOC communities’ relationship to place
- Build power with frontline communities
- Move towards a Just Transition
Goal 1: Affirm BIPOC communities’ relationship to place
Colonization and extractive policies and practices have led to inequitable patterns of land ownership and fractured marginalized communities’ connection to nature. We must prioritize restoration and healing.
Strategy 1: Support Native reclamation and restoration of tribal lands
Strategy 2: Support place-based projects focused on healing, belonging and climate resilience
Goal 2: Build power with frontline communities
BIPOC communities face disproportionate exposure to environmental harms and exploitative working conditions. They need the opportunity, access and support to advocate for their needs.
Strategy 1: Sharpen frontline communities’ advocacy and leadership skills
Strategy 2: Expand organizational capacity for movement building
Goal 3: Move towards a Just Transition
Transition is inevitable, but justice is not. To survive the climate crisis, we must shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative one.
Strategy 1: Drive policy and systems change towards regenerative economies
Strategy 2: Implement community-driven climate solutions
