Until eight months ago, 16-year-old Ayanna Beaudoin had never touched a fishing pole. She’d never camped. With few exceptions, she rarely left the Portland area.

But over a weekend in May, Beaudoin awoke in a tent under the towering conifers of Willamette National Forest, and by 10 a.m. she was wading knee-deep into the rushing spring waters of the Middle Fork Willamette River, 140 miles from home and light-years from the day-to-day stresses of urban teenage life.

She was among 14 teens who had come to this river on a trip organized by Soul River Inc., a Portland-based nonprofit that connects veterans and urban youths with experiences in nature designed to nurture environmental and community leaders. Most of the youths on this trip were Portland-area residents whose race, socioeconomic status, or other life circumstances can leave them at a disadvantage to their peers.

Ostensibly, they were here to fish. Over three days on the Middle Fork, they would learn to tie a fly and properly cast a line and how to identify fish species. But Beaudoin had a simpler, more profound explanation for the trip’s purpose.

“Creating a family,” she said. “Everyone here is super encouraging and positive. That’s kind of what family is supposed to be.”

Finding ‘Soul River’

That’s exactly the experience Chad Brown aims to provide the kids in his program.

Fishing and outdoor experiences are Soul River’s hook, he said, but the core goal of every outing is to create an environment that encourages personal growth among the youths. He calls it finding their soul river.

“When you can understand what that is,” Brown says, “that becomes your special place that can help you build a stepping stone in coping with the life challenges that come before you.”

The trips, which Brown dubs “deployments,” are central to Soul River’s mission and deeply personal for Brown.

A U.S. Navy veteran whose four years of service included deployments to the Gulf War and Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, Brown emerged from duty with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. When his trauma pushed Brown to the brink of suicide, fly-fishing became the coping mechanism that pulled him back.

He founded Soul River in 2013 to share his belief in the power of rivers to heal and transform, particularly with underserved urban youths who might lack the means to access Oregon’s wild places.

“The gear can be expensive. Transport to the river can be expensive. It’s time-consuming,” Brown said. “You don’t find a lot of blue-collar folks who can commit to all that. Mom and Dad are working hard. They don’t have time to buy into that lifestyle.”

National surveys of outdoor recreation participants indicate the community skews older, whiter and wealthier. A 2014 report from the Outdoor Foundation found 40 percent of people who recreate outdoors have a household income of $75,000 or more. Although minorities make up more than a third of the U.S. population, they represent only a fifth of visitors to national parks, according to National Park Service survey figures released in 2011. A survey of U.S. Forest Service visitors from  2008 to 2012 found even starker underrepresentation: Ninety-five percent were white.

Since launching Soul River, Brown has transported youths to the far-flung reaches of Oregon and even to the Arctic Circle. Combat veterans serve as their guides and mentors.

On the deployments, the kids learn practical outdoor and survival skills and get lessons on how to be stewards of the land. They’re given opportunities to lead their peers and expected to take responsibility for the duties inherent in keeping camp. And perhaps more importantly, they’re given the time, space and encouragement to learn about themselves.

“What makes fishing so special is that it welcomes an opportunity to learn about science, to learn about art, history, culture, yourself,” Brown said. “The river connects to everything.”

Knowing the Willamette

This time, part of the curriculum would include a comprehensive primer on the Willamette, a well-known but oft-misunderstood river.

Once a dumping ground for industrial waste and municipal sewage, the river of today is clean enough to swim in, fish in and use as a drinking water source. Yet its polluted legacy continues to stoke fears that prevent some Oregonians from connecting with the watershed in their own backyards.

With support from Meyer, Brown used this fishing trip as an opportunity to teach the youths something new about their home watershed by arranging for Willamette River conservation leaders to speak each night.

Gabe Sheoships, education director with the Friends of Tryon Creek and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, detailed the river’s historic importance among Oregon’s tribes. He taught the campers about the Willamette’s First Foods — the salmon, lamprey, wapato and other foods that have sustained tribal people for eons — and shared techniques for cooking them.

Scott Youngblood, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s Willamette River Greenway ranger, taught them that the river is 187 miles long and that 13 dams plug its tributaries. He detailed its history and tipped the students off to internship opportunities in the Willamette conservation field.

And Michelle Emmons, serving in the roles of Willamette Riverkeeper south valley advocate and education and outreach coordinator for the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council, discussed why youth conservation leadership and advocacy efforts were important, how to get involved, and which career opportunities exist.

The kids also learned about the river firsthand during afternoons spent plunking lines into the blue-green water.

“I like to think of my arm as a windshield-wiper,” 15-year-old Andre Tharp explained as he took a break from fishing. “You don’t want to cast with your wrist.”

Healing souls, growing leaders

But it’s not all for the kids. The veterans who help Brown lead the trips say they get just as much out of the deployments as the students.

The kids don’t recognize their guides as battered soldiers, said Matthew Dahl, an Army veteran and Soul River volunteer. They see them as friends and mentors. In this setting, the veterans’ experience with pain becomes a teaching tool, making them ideal mentors for youths dealing with teenage traumas.

“They make me realize that what I’ve been through doesn’t define me,” Dahl said.

The program hasn’t been around long enough to track students’ success long-term. But if Kolby Cantue-Cliette’s experience is any indication, Soul River seems to have landed on a successful model for bringing up leaders.

Like most of Soul River’s youths, Cantue-Cliette had no experience outdoors when she joined in 2016. Since then, she has been to the Owyhee Canyonlands, the Olympic Peninsula and the Arctic Circle, developing into a confident leader and teacher among her Soul River peers. On the Willamette deployment, she interviewed the river’s conservation leaders during taped news segments designed to spread outdoor knowledge and appreciation to a broader audience.

She spends her free time converting classmates into conservationists. And this fall, she is headed to the University of Oregon to pursue an environmental studies degree — something she never would have considered before joining Soul River.  

When she goes away to school, Cantue-Cliette plans to bring a fishing pole.

“It’s part of me now,” she said. “It’s in my blood.”

— Kelly

Meyer’s Healthy Environment Portfolio supports efforts to change the status quo so that the benefits of a healthy environment reach all our communities, particularly those that experience disparities. To advance this vision, there must be greater alignment among the interests, campaigns and priorities of advocates and organizations. We also believe that the voices of marginalized and most negatively impacted communities must play a leadership role in defining solutions because we all benefit when those most impacted benefit. Together, alignment and community voice will allow us to be successful with larger social and environmental change in the future.

Using that lens, we recently caught up with four 2016 grantee partners who were active in the recent legislative session.

Here’s what they said when we asked: In what ways, if any, did Oregon’s environmental movement become more aligned to advance change for a just, sustainable future and/or safeguard core environmental protections?

Huy Ong, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon

OPAL is dedicated to bringing meaningful engagement of the most impacted communities to processes that weren’t designed with our participation in mind. Throughout numerous campaigns at the local, regional and state level, we have learned that without our involvement in the crafting, implementation and evaluation of programs and policies, our communities become an afterthought or at times even a bargaining chip. This legislative session gave us opportunities to call out wedge issues (rejecting the antiquated jobs vs. environment frame with the climate jobs bill), build across movements (housing and land use advocates testifying in support of transit investments) and address historic harms with the mainstream environmental movement.

One area where we experienced strong collaboration was with the Youth Transit Bill, which would have allowed for local school districts to utilize existing public transit service in their school catchment area to provide transportation to educational and other education-enhancing services through a bus pass valid throughout the school year. While we had signs of progress throughout the session of both grassroots and legislative support, the bill ultimately did not succeed this session. We will continue to engage within our movement to bring about this change at the state, local and regional level.

Andrea Durbin, Oregon Environmental Council:

Some environmental groups — namely Oregon Environmental Council, Oregon League of Conservation Voters and Climate Solutions — supported the Coalition of Communities of Color lobby day this session, providing volunteers and staff support for the day and to lobby. OEC also joined NAACP’s lobby day to support passage of the racial profile bill.

OPAL was a key member of the Transportation for Oregon’s Future Coalition. We worked with OPAL to develop the low-income provisions of the electric vehicle rebates. The coalition of groups worked together well and stayed focused on the collective priorities of the coalition.

Lisa Arkin, Beyond Toxics

I see new energy and commitment from environmental organizations to link environment and social justice issues. Beyond Toxics has long been advocating for using a justice lens for all environmental work, so it’s exciting to witness a growing understanding about connections between environmental harm and unequitable impacts on vulnerable Oregonians. It was really heartening for me to be in the state capitol working on issues as varied as clean energy, pollinator protection, correcting inequities in our judicial system, clean drinking water and herbicide pollution in rural communities.

For example, we’re not only talking about clean energy itself and how much fossil fuel we're going to use, but we were simultaneously talking about making sure that clean energy economy provides good jobs for those who have traditionally not benefited from energy policy. So we stood hand in hand with the NAACP and helped them deliver their clean energy and jobs report which we are a co-sponsor of. And we worked hard to promote the clean energy and clean energy jobs bill. These coalitions are bringing new life, I think, to the environmental movement and helping us be better partners with social justice movements.

Gerik Kransky, The Street Trust:

While working to reduce carbon emissions from transportation, the environmental movement is increasingly embracing a social justice framework for policy decisions. In the campaign to increase funding for transit, many environmental and community leaders worked together to ensure that the transportation funding package requires potential recipients of transit funding to identify how they will address concerns of low income communities in their plans to spend the money. This additional policy requirement is one small example of the growing partnerships among community-based groups to align environmental goals with the goals of people experiencing negative disparities.

The leaders also reflected on session highlights. The following are excerpts from their responses focusing on the highlights they shared that include environmental benefit as well as benefits to most impacted communities.

Gerik:

The transportation funding package includes a record investment, over $10 million per year, in new Safe Routes to School improvements in the 1-mile radius of schools for kids to get to and from school safely. The impact will be greater in low-income communities due to a reduced funding match requirement for school districts eligible for federal Title I assistance where over 50 percent of students are eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches.

Lisa:

We helped introduce Senate Bill 892, which would have served rural communities by requiring that they receive advance notice about any kind of aerial pesticide spray in their vicinity. At this point in time in Oregon, there are few legal protections for people who live next to agricultural or timber lands that are sprayed. Oregon state agencies don’t monitor pesticide drift; enforcement of drift incidences is pretty minimal and is very much slanted in favor of the industry. So Oregonians who live in rural areas are really at a disadvantage.

While this bill didn’t pass, all the media that was generated around Oregonians in rural areas being harmed by aerial herbicide spray drifts pushed the Department of Forestry to improve their electronic Spray Notification System. So even though it's not the advance warning we were looking for, at least now the department of forestry has created a system where you can learn about pending sprays coming up near your property three to six months out. It's an improvement, it's a step in the right direction. Rural voices are now being heard because we've brought this issue to the legislature two sessions in a row, which puts pressure on the department of forestry to address this issue.

In addition, we helped craft Senate Bill 995, the Toxics Right-to-Know bill.  Very much an environmental justice issue, SB 995 would require industry to provide very exact information about how many pounds of toxic chemicals are polluting the air in neighborhoods and communities. This bill also didn't pass, however, because of exposing this issue, the Department of Environmental Quality is now requiring the worst polluters to submit a toxics inventory to the state agency. Even though it doesn't make the detailed toxics release information public, for the first time ever in the history of our state, our air protection agency is collecting data on what actually goes up into the air from smokestacks.

Huy:

We advocated for explicit language regarding how transit districts will use the new funds generated by the transportation package. That includes submitting a plan in advance of receiving the funds explaining how transit providers will meet the needs of low income riders. Mechanisms include increasing the frequency of bus service in communities with a high percentage of low-income households, expanding bus routes and service, improving frequency and reliability of connections between transit providers (a key win for rural Oregonians), and fulfilling Bus Riders Unite’s local advocacy for a low-income fare (Low Income Fare Equity or LIFE) by suggesting implementation of reduced fare programs.

Another related win was the passage of Senate Bill 357 and House Bill 2777, advancing transit justice and racial justice to impacted people. SB 357 changes the level of penalties transit riders receive when utilizing their only mode of transportation. HB 2777 takes certain violations out of criminal court and lets transit agencies levy fines directly, preventing many instances of first contact with law enforcement. OPAL will continue to push for such policies to go further and not penalize individuals in our communities who depend on public transit for the crime of being poor.

Andrea:

The transportation package includes the largest statewide investment — $103 million per year — in public transit that Oregon has ever seen, including support for transit for rural Oregon and benefits for low-income commuters that included $12 million for rebates on fares for low-income TriMet riders. It means more choices to get around and makes it easier for seniors to get to medical appointments and maintain their independence. Plus expanding public transit service reduces pollution.

---

These are only a few examples where broader alliances worked collaboratively and successfully to advance environmental and social justice priorities during the session. There are numerous other examples, including many that represent incremental progress for legislative action in future sessions. Also there were many missed opportunities and disappointments and, overall, advocates who care deeply about a healthy environment felt like the session fell far short of what was possible.

The Meyer Healthy Environment team appreciates the vision, hard work and creativity of our grantee partners and the many other organizations that contributed to the policy successes that were accomplished this session and the groundwork laid for future wins and larger-scale change.

— Jill

 

Click here to read the full text of our interviews with Lisa, Huy, Gerik and Andrea

 

Salsa, tango, the running man, Highland jig: These were a few dance styles offered by the audience at the annual CONNECT conference in Pendleton in May. I began my keynote speech by asking the audience to shout out their favorite dance style in popcorn fashion.

The title of my talk was “Dancing with JEDI: Creating a Just, Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Environmental Movement.” Why dance? Because no one approach to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion fits all. Challenges around justice, equity, diversity and inclusion are unique to the situation and people involved and require different, creative approaches to succeed. When working with individuals, groups and communities, the diversity of ways of operating are just as diverse as the numerous ways of executing the multitude of dance styles.

The crowd was mainly people from land trusts, soil and water conservation districts, watershed councils, and government agencies across rural Oregon. The questions that brought us together: What does equity look like for organizations working in rural communities and how is equity applied to the work?

Meyer’s definition of equity is “the existence of conditions where all people can reach their full potential.” In our grantmaking, this means supporting organizations and efforts that provide positive outcomes for communities facing disparities. Some of those communities the Healthy Environmental portfolio has explicitly identified are, but not limited to, low-income communities, tribes and indigenous communities, communities of color, refugees, and immigrants. The two populations most commonly discussed in my interactions with rural environmental organizations are communities of color and low-income communities, so I focused on these communities as I shared equity concepts that day in Pendleton.

Racial and ethnic equity

“Equity doesn’t apply here.”

“There are no people of color where we live.”

“We are not racially diverse.”

These are a few of the statements I’ve heard when discussing racial equity in rural Oregon. They’re often wrong.

The notion that there are not people of color in rural Oregon is simply false. On the contrary, plenty of people of color reside in communities across the state’s vast rural areas. According to the 2016 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, five of the six Oregon counties with the highest percentages of people of color are rural. Morrow, Jefferson, Malheur, Hood River and Umatilla counties range from 34 percent to 41 percent people of color. In the few regions where people of color make up less than 10 percent of the population, communities of color are extremely marginalized and need support now more than ever.

(Note: The U.S. Census Bureau often shares data for two similar sounding racial categories: “White alone” and “White alone, not Hispanic or Latino.” “White alone” includes Hispanics who identify as white. Those who identify as “Hispanic or Latino,” which is treated as an ethnic category in the U.S. census data, are asked to identify a race, which may be “White alone," “Black or African American alone," “American Indian and Alaska Native alone," “Asian alone," “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone," or “Two or More Races”. Meyer focuses on the “White Non-Hispanic or Latino” population, which is often a much lower percentage — by up to 30 percentage points  than the “White alone” category. For example, in Malheur County, 92.1 percent of the population identifies as “White alone” while just 61.6 percent identified as “White alone, not Hispanic or Latino.” If misinterpreted, this data can mislead even the well-intentioned.)

Socioeconomic equity

The Healthy Environment portfolio frequently receives applications from rural organizations that identify support for low-income communities without mentioning how low-income communities are included and benefiting from their work or how the perspective of low-income communities has shaped the project plan. Since equity outcomes are most effectively accomplished through intention and purpose, we seek a deliberate approach to serving and providing value for communities facing disparities. In other words, we seek a clear demonstration of how low-income communities benefit because of the organization’s work. For example, are those below the poverty line receiving jobs or other economic benefits because of the organization’s work? Are low-income communities directly receiving the environmental benefits of the organization’s work?

Working in partnership

Meyer’s mission is to “work with and invest in organizations, communities, ideas and efforts that contribute to a flourishing and equitable Oregon.” Simply put, we are here to partner with and support organizations in both grantmaking and non-grantmaking capacities. This past spring, Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio hosted two webinars featuring rural organizations, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, and Rogue Climate, that included equitable approaches to their work. We also presented at a conference focused on water resources planning efforts in regions around Oregon where the idea of identifying and addressing “voice gaps” in community engagement and collaborative efforts was an approach to include equity. These non-grantmaking activities provided us with crucial opportunities to have in-depth conversations about equity with rural organizations.

Furthermore, we encourage organizations to meet with us to discuss how equity fits or might fit into their work. I recently met with an executive director of an organization based in eastern Oregon. Initially, he did not believe that equity applied to his work. As he shared the activities of his organization, we realized that he may be addressing socioeconomic equity, such as creating jobs and reducing the poverty rate in his county. The executive director left to explore these connections as he prepares an application for Meyer’s 2018 annual grant cycle.

As I closed my keynote speech in Pendleton, I shared an Emma Goldman quote, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution,” which can be interpreted “to be a part of your crucial work, you need to let me dance the way I like to dance.” Meyer’s Healthy Environment team is committed to partnering with rural organizations so that all of our communities prosper, dancing and moving in our own dance style, creating, together, an Oregon that is flourishing and equitable for all.

— Marcelo

I’m often asked what I’m seeing from my seat at Meyer since I have somewhat of a bird’s-eye view of the ecosystem of nonprofits working for a healthy environment across the state. So, I thought I would share a few recent observations with an aspiration of helping support further development of the diverse and inclusive movement we need to ensure the long-term health of our communities and the environment.

Top of mind is the current political climate and how it’s affecting organizations working for a healthy environment. I’m also mindful of Meyer’s equity lens, which we apply to all our work, and our responsibility to be transparent about what we are learning and seeing. Together these provide the backdrop for my observations.

1. Many organizations are feeling strained, but they are also resilient and building strength

With basic environmental protections, action on climate change and public lands protection in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and a polluter-friendly U.S. Congress in place, many organizations working for a healthy environment are stepping up their defensive efforts or joining forces with others to protect key environmental protections and recent gains. In some cases, groups have had to shift priorities to do more rapid response work, which has increased stress and also affected funding needs and direction.

Organizations of color and other organizations whose core constituents are “frontline communities” — those that experience oppression and disparities based on one or more identities — and who also work on environmental issues are doubly strained. However, they are also doubling down on resistance. In the face of attacks by the Trump administration and rising hate crimes, they are drawing upon their resiliency and organizing experience to support their communities and advance larger goals for change.

At the same time, many organizations have experienced a post-election surge in individual contributions, which is providing some of the unrestricted resources they need to help navigate the new political environment and shift priorities. In addition, some funders have deployed new flexible resources to help address these needs. We recognize the need for more sustained and flexible support.

Because of Oregon’s current political leadership, we’re hearing from national environmental partners who see the opportunity to bring new capacity to Oregon for positive work, particularly focused on climate and clean energy. This means that Oregon may get a boost in capacity to support current policy efforts and help develop strategies for success that could be replicated elsewhere.

2. Partnerships between mainstream environmental organizations and organizations led by frontline communities are increasing, but most appear to be focused on transactional vs. transformational change.

When I reflect on specific on-the-ground projects that we are learning about through our annual funding opportunity, I’m seeing more mutually beneficial transactional work and some seeds of transformational change. I distinguish “mutually beneficial transactional work” from “transactional work” in that the former is actually positive and beneficial to both partners, versus the latter, which is extractive and has negative impact on the underserved communities and the organization serving them. One-off mutually beneficial transactional work can produce wins for both parties, but these partnerships do not alter the fundamental form or function of the existing power structure, institutions or systems that define how things work. These systems are fundamentally flawed in that they are built on a power structure that consistently privileges certain groups over others.

Mutually beneficial transactional work can be a useful first step in advancing change but must evolve into change efforts that aim for transformation. Transformational change requires a greater investment and will on the part of all partners. It requires a willingness and commitment to altering the fundamental power structures and relationships in society and creating new systems built upon principles of organizational sustainability and equity.  

3. Organizations are beginning to look for ways to deepen and expand their collaborative work.

In response to the tense and rapidly changing political environment, I’ve heard about and participated in a number of convenings of organizational leaders that share the common theme of building relationships to lay groundwork for new and deeper collaboration. Environmental justice and social justice organizations, tribal organizations, other groups serving frontline communities and funders have been most active in these conversations.

A modest number of Oregon’s mainstream environmental organizations have been engaged in these discussions as well. However, many environmental groups have not yet been invited to participate at these tables because their relationships with organizations serving frontline communities are only emerging. I would like to help support the appropriate next steps to broaden the tables that have emerged and foster deeper relationships to move beyond tactical and transactional work toward transformational, movement-scale efforts.

I believe that more strategic convening can help unify and align efforts, strengthen channels of communication between organizations and build alliances for larger social and environmental change in the future.

4. Environmentalists are joining protests against racism and working to develop more inclusive, equitable and diverse organizations.

Although we’ve seen some recent missteps and there is still far to go to build an anti-racist environmental movement in Oregon, we are seeing a growing number of examples of mainstream environmental organizations taking action to protest racism and act as allies to people of color, immigrants and refugees and others being threatened in the current climate. Some environmental groups have joined forces with social justice groups and others to defend Oregon against anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim policies and ballot measures. They have engaged their members at rallies for immigrant rights, spoken up against attempts to link anti-immigrant actions to an environmental protection agenda and collaborated in other advocacy efforts. This is important progress, and we hope to support more action like this.

We are also seeing a growing number of organizations seeking support for efforts to deepen their understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as make strategic changes in how their organizations operate. We are committed to nurturing this external and internal work for the long-term and aim to look for ways to stimulate efforts that can lead to deeper progress.

The four reflections I offer here are among the observations that have continued to surface over the past months. The Healthy Environment team is proud and honored to help support and be a part of the creative, persistent and powerful ways that organizations are working to protect the environment so that all of Oregon’s diverse communities benefit equitably. This work is not easy and it will continue to evolve from where we are today to where we hope to be in the future. Please continue to share with us the challenges you face, the opportunities you see and ideas you have for how we can work together for an equitable and flourishing Oregon.

— Jill

The Willamette River restoration community recently hosted six visiting representatives from the Río Laja River Basin, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, for an exchange of knowledge and practice in watershed restoration.

The five-day visit in early June was the latest highlight of an international partnership the two basins launched in 2015 as part of the Willamette community’s receipt of the 2012 Thiess International Riverprize. The award, which recognizes exemplary efforts in river protection and restoration, includes an opportunity to collaborate with a watershed outside the prize winner's home country in an exchange known as a Twinning project. The Meyer Memorial Trust's Willamette River Initiative stewards the project on behalf of the basin's restoration community.

Many of the Willamette’s biggest watershed health challenges are also present in the Laja. Restoration practitioners in both basins are working to improve water quality, increase migratory bird habitat, foster community engagement and restore floodplain function following gravel mining operations, among other shared priorities.

Tara Davis, who coordinates the Twinning project on behalf of Meyer Memorial Trust, said the partnership has enabled participants from both basins to share expertise, engage in cultural exchange and develop professional relationships through multiple visits to one another’s home turf.

“It’s so valuable to be able to talk, to connect, and to learn from our international peers about how they approach similar watershed conservation challenges in a different social and environmental context,” Davis said.

Representatives from the Willamette visited the Laja for a week in March and August 2016, while a Laja visitor came to the Willamette Valley in December 2016. This time, Laja visitors included scientists and advocates from the government, nonprofit and university sectors.

During their time in the Willamette, Laja partners toured restoration projects spearheaded by the Calapooia Watershed Council, Luckiamute Watershed Council, McKenzie River Trust, Greenbelt Land Trust, Clean Water Services and others. They also spent time with Willamette-based groups working in the Latino community, including Oregon State University Extension’s 4-H program and the Eugene-based Huerto de la Familia, and met with numerous other partners to trade ideas and explore partnership opportunities.

“It’s been a very positive experience,” said Mario Hernández Peña, director of El Charco del Ingenio, an important botanical garden and nature preserve in Guanajuato. “The information we’re taking back to Mexico will help us think of new ways to make positive change in our home environment.”

The week culminated in a planning session intended to identify opportunities for further collaboration and brainstorm ways to apply learnings from this visit to Laja partners’ efforts in their home basin.

Learn more about the about the Twinning exchange here.

For additional information about restoration efforts happening in the Willamette Basin, visit willametteinitiative.org.

—Kelly

Fernando Rivera Valdés (foreground), an agricultural engineer from the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, discussing watershed conservation during a tour of restoration sites along Price Creek in the Willamette watershed.

Grantee StoriesMay 16, 2017

Organizers raised the voices and issues of those most impacted by environmental hazards — people of color, low income Oregonians, rural communities and tribal people — at the People’s Climate March on April 29.

Following a blessing from Native Elder Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Pierce, Yakima) at Dawson Park in Northeast Portland, a crowd of nearly 3,000 set off for Buckman Field in Southeast Portland. Marchers repeated a familiar chant, first in English, then in Spanish, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!”

Intersectionality reigned at the event organized by Oregon Just Transition Alliance. Zen monks demonstrated alongside marchers protesting immigration sweeps and no-cause evictions. Vegans waved “no more meat” signs and youths wearing “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts chanted alongside youths supporting farmworker rights and children holding “Kiddos for Climate Justice” signs and marchers for social justice.

Multnomah County commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson addressed the diverse crowd at Dawson Park: “Listen ​to front-line communities. Show up​ for racial justice, economic justice, worker justice and climate justice. Our fates are tied. Everyone has a role to play.”

“This is a demonstration of front-line activism,” said Huy Ong, executive director of OPAL, a recent Meyer grantee and a member of the Oregon Just Transition Alliance along with APANO, Beyond Toxics, Environmental Justice Oregon, PCUN, Unite Oregon and Rural Organizing Project. “The community is here demanding action to stop and reverse climate change and to grow our collective power.”

Carrying a sign that read “System Change, Not Climate Change,” People’s Climate March participant Charlie Graham said he was marching because the world is in crisis.

“The system is the problem,” said Graham, a retired elementary school teacher from Hillsboro. “It’s not just the environment over here or politics over there. Housing, climate change: we’re not on a sustainable path.”

All along the route, one of Tiffany Johnson’s hands gripped the palm of her 9-year-old daughter, Ona. The other hand held a sign that touched on many of the issues on demonstrators’ minds: “This is All Native Land: Love is Love, Immigrants Rights, Science is Real, Environmental Justice, Black Lives Matters, Women’s Rights and Feminism.”

“We go to all the social justice, police reform and environmental marches,” Johnson said. “But we don’t often see ourselves (Ona is Native American and black; her mom, Native American) reflected in the leadership or messages. Native people are commonly left out. It’s really important that Ona see the connections, that she claim her place and her voice.”

Rinzan Pechovnik, a priest from the No-Rank Zendo, a Zen Buddhist temple in Southeast Portland, scanned the crowd of thousands.

“This is the fundamental march,” he said. “We have to throw our bodies in to let the world know we care.”

Cary Watters (Tlingit), a Community Engagement Manager at NAYA, banged a hand drum leading marchers past the convention center.

“Ecological and social justice is really key,” she said. “You don’t have one without the other.”

Mary Phillips recently relocated to North Portland joined the march with her daughter-in-law, Erin, and son Mike, a program associate on Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio.

“We have to stay vigilant,” Phillips said. “Climate change affects everything — jobs, health care, housing — and this march shows how intersectional it gets. We’re all together in this.”

Collaboration can be a powerful force for change.

In the social sector, no single organization has all the ideas, skills and resources to tackle the big, complex challenges we face. This is particularly true given how quickly change happens today. All by ourselves, none of us can learn or adapt fast enough. But together, in collaboration, when two or more organizations work jointly toward shared goals, we can build trust and social capital that benefits our collective and individual work over the long haul. And we can learn to navigate conflict productively so that we don’t undermine each other’s work even when we disagree.

We have to work together if we’re going to effectively address Oregon’s issues.  

That’s why collaboration is one of Meyer’s core values and why we support collaboration in our grantmaking. Last November, we announced a number of collaborative grants. This year, we will again accept collaborative proposals, and we’ve put together some new information on what we mean by “collaborative grants” so you’ll know if the application you are planning fits into this category. Check out the cardstack above for examples of grants awarded in 2016 to support collaborative work.

Once again, an organization may submit one request to support its own organizational priority and also submit a second request to support a collaborative. We know it’s equally important to keep your own house healthy, which is why we continue to support the needs and priorities of organizations that line up with our portfolio goals and outcomes. In addition, we will fund collaboratives that have a clear purpose and an inclusive and equitable approach to sharing responsibilities and resources to advance their goals. You’ll find a few extra questions about these details in the inquiry application if you decide to apply for a collaborative grant.

Strong collaborative requests demonstrate clear alignment with a portfolio goal and one or two outcomes. We look for policy and systems change and/or movement building strategy that is grounded in the perspective of the communities and constituencies they represent and seek to empower. Like all other requests, we will assess collaborative requests based on our values and equity lens.

Although the cap for project grants is $175,000, we recognize that the costs of collaborative projects may run higher because they involve multiple organizations. Meyer will consider requests of up to $250,000 for up to three years to support collaborative projects. In most cases, the largest grants we will make to support a collaborative will be where multiple organizations receive portions of a Meyer grant. We can only fund a few large grants each year, so we recommend that you talk with portfolio staff about whether your collaborative project is a good fit for a large request and to receive guidance on the amount to request before submitting.

What’s not a collaborative request?

There are numerous ways that organizations work together that fall outside what qualifies as a “collaborative grant” through this annual funding opportunity. One example: when you are applying for funding to support only your organization’s work in a collaborative effort. We view this as your organization’s priority for a Meyer grant request. Another example is when your organization hires another nonprofit as a subcontractor to carry out a particular scope of work, such as hiring a nonprofit that provides technical assistance services or hiring a nonprofit to do outreach for your organization’s project. Our collaborative grants support a cooperative arrangement among organizations working jointly under a governance structure they jointly created to serve a common vision.

What if your collaborative is just forming?

For a collaborative grant, we expect you and your partners to work out many of the details about how your collaborative partnership works before you apply; things such as how decisions are made, how resources are shared, and what the role and responsibilities of differents partners are. We understand that the process of figuring out these things often takes a lot of conversation, time and energy. So we also support planning grants of between $10,000 and $35,000 for emerging collaboratives. Emerging collaboratives can use these resources for things such as hiring a consultant to facilitate partner discussions and helping develop shared goals and working agreements. They can also help fund some staff time to engage in this work.

Collaboration is an important driver of effective community change, particularly at a scale large enough to improve social and environmental conditions. That helps us deliver on our mission of a flourishing and equitable Oregon. And that’s why we are committed to supporting your efforts to work together, as well as the work organizations do on their own.

Please contact us at grants [at] mmt.org (grants[at]mmt[dot]org) or 503-228-5512 if you have any questions about collaborative grants and the current application process.

— Jill

For the people doing the muddy, demanding physical labor to restore the floodplain forests of the Willamette River Basin, a typical day goes like this:

You wake up hours before dawn and get dressed in waterproof clothing from head to toe because you’ll almost certainly be working in the rain.

You head to “the cooler,” a massive refrigeration facility near Salem, to load your truck with a few thousand cottonwoods, dogwoods, thimbleberries and other native Willamette Valley trees and shrubs.

Just after sunrise, you arrive at the riverside farm or public park where you’ll be planting. If winter rains have flooded the access road, you lug all those plants into the site on foot, unwrap the twine that secures each brown paper parcel of bare-root saplings, drop a few dozen into your knapsack, and start digging holes.

The best planters have a strong back and a distinct rhythm to their work. Dig-two-three … plant-two-three … stomp-two-three … dig-two-three …

Before sundown, you’ll have planted across hundreds of acres, preparing a future forest where native Oregon fish and wildlife will thrive.

An experienced worker can put more than 1,000 saplings into the ground in a day. By the end of the winter planting season, Willamette River Initiative grantees will have planted more than half-a-million native trees and shrubs this year along the river and its tributaries.

The planting is just one facet of a massive, basin-wide effort to achieve meaningful, measurable improvement in the health of Oregon’s largest and most heavily populated watershed with support from this Meyer initiative. Since its inception in 2008, the initiative has awarded $14 million in grants to fund restoration as well as science, advocacy and organizational capacity for groups working on the Willamette.

Learn more about the initiative, including profiles of some of the projects we’ve supported, here. And if you come across a planting crew during your next nature walk, be sure to thank them for making tomorrow’s Oregon a greener place for all.

— Kelly

I am pleased to announce our 2017 annual funding opportunity. Through this opportunity, Meyer will invest approximately $3.3 million to advance our vision of nurturing a resilient natural environment, while supporting the well-being of Oregon’s diverse cultures and communities.

On March 15, the Healthy Environment portfolio begins accepting Inquiry Applications — with a deadline of 5 p.m. April 19 — that advance one of the following portfolio goals:

1. Support efforts that mutually achieve community well-being, economic vitality and environmental stewardship.

2. Ensure that environmental impacts and benefits are equitably distributed among communities.

3. Support a movement for a healthy environment that is effective and relevant for all Oregon’s diverse communities.

4. Ensure that natural systems are healthy and able to adapt to changing conditions and long-term impacts.

This is the second round of annual funding for our portfolio in Meyer’s new program structure. In December, we announced the first 47 grant awards out of a robust pool of 160 inquiry applications. These grants support a broad range of forward-thinking efforts for a healthy environment in rural and urban communities across Oregon. Projects include testing and scaling new strategies for protecting and restoring ecosystems while also supporting thriving communities. They also include efforts to give voice to more communities in shaping local and state-level decisions for clean air and water. Our aim with these awards is to bring diverse organizations together for change.

 

What’s different from round one?

For the current funding opportunity, we have provided more guidance about what makes a strong proposal and improved the process.

Last year, we rolled out a lot of changes all at once: brand-new portfolios with specific goals and outcomes and new funding guidelines; a newly overhauled application and data management system for collecting proposals; new staff at Meyer navigating a brand-new system for reviewing proposals and much, much more. That was a lot of new, and last year’s funding process was a bit of a roller coaster ride: thrilling, suspenseful and exhilarating, both for the Meyer team and for all the nonprofits that climbed aboard with us.

For 2017, we have made improvements. In the survey we conducted after the 2016 grant process closed, you asked us to “provide more clarity about the type of proposals that fit best” and to “simplify the application as much possible.” Using these comments as our guiding principles, we made some crucial refinements. Here are the highlights:

1. Expecting measurable environmental impact. In the application we request that applicants identify the measurable environmental impact their proposal aims to deliver. Last year, many requests did not make this clear and thus were not successful in securing funding.

2. Identifying what doesn’t fit. We recognize that preparing an inquiry application for Meyer requires a considerable investment of time and resources by an organization. We looked at which requests were most competitive last year and which  ones weren’t. We found that some types of projects consistently did not line up well with the outcomes we are working toward. This year we are providing a list of what doesn’t fit specific to this funding opportunity to help guide you.

3. Clearer direction on what amount to request. This year, the request amounts for the different grant types are more consistent across all the portfolios. We’ve also provided more guidance on what amount to request by sharing the average size of 2016 grants. Last year, requests tended toward the high end of the funding ranges, but we can actually only fund a few of those.

4. Operating support candidates are very specific. Operating support grants will continue to be focused on a limited set of organizations. In addition to the 2016 parameters, which remain the same, we also expect that organizations seeking operating support will demonstrate diversity, equity and inclusion leadership in the context of their community and specific field (e.g. freshwater conservation, marine conservation, climate change, etc.). Please contact us to discuss whether your organization is a good fit for operating support.

5. Demographic data collection update. Of all the parts of the application that we tried to improve, this was probably the toughest. By its very nature, collecting demographic data is complex and fraught with challenges. To help you navigate some of these challenges, we have organized resources and tools into a new Applicant Resources  page to support your efforts. In the revised inquiry application, we request a modest number of summary demographic data points that are relevant to Meyer’s equity mission. We will not require applicants to submit the separate demographic data spreadsheet that we used last year.

6. More on what we mean by equity. During last year’s funding opportunity process, we fielded many questions from potential applicants about diversity, equity and inclusion in rural Oregon. This year we are hosting two webinars with leaders of three rural-based organizations — Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center and Rogue Climate — to share their experiences with advancing equity in their work in rural Oregon. They will answer your questions about how to get started and where to go next. In addition, our new Applicant Resources page includes tools and resources to help you understand how we think about and assess diversity, equity and inclusion in the context of organizations’ internal operations and their mission and programs.

You’ll probably find evidence of other tidying and small tweaks to move us forward. And we look forward to further refinements after round two as we gain experience with the new portfolio and work more closely with you — all the great organizations working hard for a healthy environment in our state.  

 

Getting more info

If you’d like to discuss the 2017 Healthy Environment Annual Funding Opportunity and your proposal plans, please participate in one of the upcoming Info Sessions or contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org). Make sure to also review Candy Solovjovs’ recent blog announcing the 2017 Funding Opportunity, which offers guidance and tips relevant to all the portfolios.

Our work together is now more important than ever. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss your ideas and questions.

— Jill

A Meyer-funded coalition of people and groups united in pursuit of a strong, equitable cleanup of the Willamette River Superfund site scored a key victory this winter.

Spurred by grassroots activism against a cleanup plan many criticized as too weak to protect all people against the health risks of Portland’s polluted river, federal officials on Jan. 6 nearly doubled the amount of carcinogen-tainted sediment they plan to remove from the river bottom.

Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said their shift toward a more robust cleanup was a direct result of widespread public outcry against the original plan. The agency received thousands of public comments demanding more, many of them gathered by Meyer-funded community organizers with the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, who strived to capture the voices of low-income, minority, immigrant and homeless Portlanders.

Read our profile of three of those organizers for insight into the life experiences that guide their activism.

Although the $1 billion plan represents a major milestone for groups demanding a thorough, fair Superfund cleanup, their work isn’t done. With continued grant support from Meyer, the coalition is pushing for economic and social justice in the Superfund process by insisting that cleanup contractors hire a diverse, local workforce and demanding opportunities for public input as the cleanup proceeds.