Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette provides, promotes and protects access to sexual and reproductive health care. The Portland-based family planning and reproductive rights organization serves communities across Oregon and Southwest Washington that have few options for health care due to cost, immigration status or need for confidentiality.
Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, recognizes that health care accessibility and delivery have historically been politicized or manipulated to benefit specific populations over others. Planned Parenthood aims to reduce health disparities experienced within its service population. The 54-year-old organization has been exploring how to define, understand and increase equity within its ranks so that it better supports Reproductive Justice and that the health care it provides is more equitable.
Its work dovetails with Meyer’s goal to increase commitment to equity among organizations and improve understanding of how best to advance equity. A Building Community grant of $169,799 over three years helps support the organization as it moves deeper into goals outlined in its existing equity plan. Those include embedding equity principles into its policies and practices, building relationships and accountability mechanisms with community partners, and assessing and strengthening cultural competence within the organization.
The health organization has already committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in a number of specific ways. A cross-functional group of staff and board members began working on the organization’s equity plan in 2016 by conducting an organizational assessment using the Coalition of Communities of Color’s “Protocol for Culturally Responsive Organizations,” which revealed priority areas for growth. In addition to having staff across the organization engaged in different ways, Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette has invested in two staff positions dedicated to leading and supporting this equity work. (The organization employs about 200 people.) PPCW’s director of equity and inclusion, in particular, has positional authority as a member of its executive team and as a direct-report to the CEO. And Planned Parenthood’s board of directors has been supportive of and engaged in the organization’s equity work from the start.
As part of their grant activities over the next three years, the group will further its work in data gathering and institutionalizing practices, measuring its progress on cultural competence by administering an assessment to all staff members, using those results to create differentiated learning opportunities, and administering a follow-up assessment. And it has set a goal of allocating all its health care resources through its equity lens (i.e., in alignment with principles of diversity, equity and inclusion) and plans to create policies over time to support this.
We are thrilled to partner with them to support their efforts to delve deeper into equity.
Relief Nursery was founded 41 years ago to address child abuse and neglect in Lane County. Their mission: to prevent the cycle of neglect and abuse by providing early intervention that focuses on building successful and resilient children, strengthening parents, and preserving families. The agency offers comprehensive family support services to Lane County families living on low incomes who have a child younger than 6 years old and a family profile that places their children at high risk for child abuse or neglect.
In 2005, Relief Nursery embarked on an effort to better serve the growing number of Latinx families in its region through their "La Familia y los Hijos" program. Recognizing the need to better engage and serve this population, Relief Nursery went beyond providing interpreters and translating materials to establishing a process to engage community to help inform new culturally specific programming, embedding bilingual and bicultural services throughout the organization, and creating opportunities to diversify its workforce. As a result of the work, the number of Latinx families served has increased sixfold over the last decade.
Lane County has one of the fastest growing American Indian populations in the country, yet Relief Nursery has seen a decline in service utilization by Native families. To address increased need, Relief Nursery draws on the approach used in its successful La Familia y los Hijos program to increase the number of Native families engaging in services such as immediate crisis intervention, home visits, respite care, home safety assessments and parent support.
Meyer is providing a grant of $175,000 over three years to advance our goal of dismantling inequities and creating opportunities to advance equity. Grant funds will be used for staff to conduct outreach and develop and deliver a culturally appropriate program for Native communities.
How their work advances equity
The Building Community team identified some key strategies in Relief Nursery’s proposal that are considered “best practices” to advance equity and increase the likelihood of reducing disparities for Tribal families and for all the communities Relief Nursery serves.
Relief Nursery began by collecting and analyzing disaggregated race and ethnicity service data that revealed service inequities for Native families. The effort helped the Eugene-based organization to hone its focus on the biggest gaps in service. This strategy led to an “equity” approach to developing new services, rather than a “one-size-fits-all” approach that may not be relevant to the specific community Relief Nursery wanted to serve.
In addition, Relief Nursery devoted time and attention to building authentic relationships with Native community members and leaders. Building trust with and accountability to communities that have been historically marginalized is vital to ensuring that barriers are identified and addressed and that services are utilized.
Relief Nursery also convenes a Native-led project steering committee to help maintain accountability and support continuous improvement strategies through program review. As a result, services are more likely to be culturally appropriate and accountable to the community they serve, which in turn increases engagement and cultural relevancy.
As a result of this “pre-work,” Relief Nursery decided to utilize a culturally appropriate peer support strategy. Peer support services involve trusted community members who bring lived experience and community-level wisdom to their work. This evidence-based practice has been shown to effectively break down barriers to services and improve results for communities that haven’t been well-served by mainstream approaches.
Relief Nursery has demonstrated a commitment to advancing equity through its work, and we are thrilled to partner with them to support Native families.
I began my Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellowship with Meyer Memorial Trust in September 2015 when the Healthy Environment portfolio was newly formed. Two years later, I am at the end of my fellowship. In work experience terms, this was a short time. In grant period terms, this was a long time. As I transition, I have been asked to provide my outgoing thoughts. In homage to my work at a foundation, I am providing my reflections in a very philanthropic final report format.
Marcelo Bonta
11/1/2017
Final Fellowship Report
File #HE 914152111617
Were your goals achieved?
When I started my fellowship, I was really excited about achieving the following personal goals:
Contributing to the creation of an effective environmental giving program with equity at its core, and
Gaining a deeper understanding and awareness of the obstacles that are preventing environmental programs/foundations from effectively advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and to discover solutions.
Yes, my goals were achieved.
To the first goal, I believe Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio is advancing DEI effectively and, in fact, has emerged as a leading foundation program at the nexus of equity and environmental protection. The program still has much room to grow, but it has many elements that other private foundation programs across the country should replicate. For example, Meyer’s program supports environmental justice, DEI capacity building, general operating support, multi-year grants and diverse collaborations. It pays organizations for their advice and time and requires a commitment to DEI, equity outcome(s) and growth over time. It also has non-grantmaking activities to support in partnership with the movement of Healthy Environment grantees, such as a DEI capacity building workshop.
Regarding the second goal, I discovered that white privilege, trustees that “don’t get it,” and foundations (and philanthropy as a whole) steeped (and stuck) in dominant culture norms and systems are the top issues preventing environmental philanthropic institutions from advancing on DEI. Some solutions to address these challenges that I experienced at Meyer are to add diverse staff and trustees who have equity skills and experience. Also, including ongoing equity training to support personal growth and transformation helps enormously. At Meyer, we started with racial and LGBTQ equity training. Meyer has also been committed to improving and changing internal and programmatic systems.
Describe the most important way you contributed toward Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio’s vision of “nurturing a resilient natural environment, while supporting the well-being of Oregon’s diverse cultures and communities.”
Helping develop the Healthy Environment portfolio and its broader programmatic work has been one of the most fun and stimulating parts of the fellowship. With a small team, I co-created Meyer’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Spectrum Tool to help organizations assess the state of their DEI efforts. I also helped to influence creation of the Willamette River Initiative’s DEI goal to guide the program and its grantees toward DEI efficacy. Drawing from my experience at the Center for Diversity and the Environment, I supported and recommended the allocation of funds toward DEI capacity building, especially staff and board training and organizational strategy development. Meyer sees these investments as ways to deliver “more bang” for its bucks.
Although I really enjoyed the co-creation of and contribution to these achievements, the most invigorating experience has been as one of three team members discussing, analyzing and making important decisions and funding recommendations, while grounding our process in equity. I felt our small team had a healthy, inclusive approach to listening to understand, learning from each other, truly seeing each other, and making decisions on consensus. This is the work, the essence of DEI — often beautifully messy and especially uncomfortable. We created an inclusive environment where I could bring my full self.
Did you encounter any opportunities or challenges with your experience that impacted your ability to achieve your goals? If yes, briefly describe the opportunities or challenges you experienced and how you responded to them.
As the first cohort (aka the guinea pigs!) of a new fellowship coinciding with implementing a new strategy at Meyer, inconsistencies and missteps were expected. More important is the response and commitment to ironing out the kinks, listening to understand and improving, which Philanthropy Northwest and Meyer have been doing.
It’s been my experience that these organizations are committed to listening to groups and communities they serve and to do their best to respond accordingly. This approach is a key skill in DEI work. The first step is the commitment to respond (i.e., authentic intent). The next step and ongoing work is how you respond effectively so that the community you serve continues to benefit and receive higher value over time (i.e., tending to impact). Equity work is never a perfect process, but your commitment can be perfected.
Additionally, two aspects of my experience made all the difference: (1) working at a foundation that is walking its talk on equity and (2) having a cohort of fellows to lean on for support. To be honest, I don’t believe I would have stayed the full two years if I was not placed at Meyer and not part of the Momentum Fellowship. I am in a time and place in my career where I yearn to bring my authentic self to everything I do. A core piece of who I am and what I bring to the table is my equity lens. I need to work at a place that is not only open to my lens and deep passion for equity but can respond accordingly. Meyer has provided that space for me, for which I am extremely grateful. In addition, we are at a time and place in society where communities facing disparities suffer the consequences from every delay or excuse we give ourselves to not do DEI work. There are deep, impactful negative consequences when we do not act. These communities do not have the luxury of time. Over the past two decades, I have been fortunate to gain an incredible amount of experience and wisdom in the equity realm. I need an atmosphere where I can push myself and make a difference on a daily basis. Meyer has been the right organization at the right time for me.
As for the fellowship, participating with a cohort of people who have similar life experiences and entering the foundation world as newbies together has been life-giving for me in so many ways. The relationships have provided me the support and courage to stand on my two feet when there were times that I just wanted to curl up in the corner in the fetal position. I have made friendships that will last throughout my career.
Have there been any significant changes in your organization that impacted you during your fellowship?
I joined Meyer as the foundation was experiencing significant changes. Meyer was transparent with me regarding the unpredictability and growing pains that are inherent with change work. This is the type of atmosphere I prefer and in which I thrive. In the past two years, Meyer has hired more than a dozen new staff and added four of six trustees. Currently, we are experiencing a CEO transition, and three new fellows have joined.
The impact of these changes has all been positive and is part of the transformation process for groups that are truly committed to DEI. These changes were expected and have impacted me in a good way.
How will this experience affect you and your work moving forward? What are your next steps?
This experience has helped me hone my equity lens in relation to foundations. Experiencing first-hand the challenges and opportunities of change work has been invaluable as I transition to consulting with and coaching other foundations in this process.
As for my next steps, I will be joining The Raben Group as a principal, building out their DEI consulting arm. I will continue to focus on the environmental movement, including supporting environmental foundations in their overall DEI capacity building and as a program officer consultant. Also, I am starting a blog in the new year to support groups and change agents that seek guidance on the “how to”of DEI work.
My career mission remains the same: to create a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive environmental movement. Meyer Memorial Trust’s Healthy Environment portfolio and Philanthropy Northwest’s Momentum Fellowship are two such programs that our advancing that mission, and I feel honored to participate in the launch and growth of both. I especially feel privileged to work at a foundation at the beginning stages of creating an environmental program with equity at its foundation, which I foresee as becoming more commonplace as our society and the environmental movement shifts, adapts and evolves to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse society, which will ultimately lead to the successful protection of our planet.
The Housing Opportunities portfolio recently hosted a panel presentation and discussion among three nonprofit partners of Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI) work on manufactured housing and our trustees to provide awareness and context for why Meyer works in this space.
The hour-long presentation was a compilation of people’s stories, pictures and data focused on the manufactured housing repair and replacement work these organizations do to help preserve some of Oregon’s most “naturally occurring” affordable housing, housing that doesn’t require government subsidies to retain its affordability.
The presentation, informative as well as emotional, caused me to reflect on what is being done beyond Meyer's effort to support manufactured housing replacement both locally and nationally.
There’s no dispute that manufactured housing has an important role in the affordable housing market in Oregon, accounting for nearly 8.2 percent of the overall housing stock. In some counties — especially rural counties — it is a much larger percentage of the housing stock. Manufactured housing offers more low-income rural individuals the opportunity to buy an affordable home.
However, many more could be served with access to manufactured homeownership, yet are unable due to specific barriers. The lack of access to fair and competitive financing (conventional mortgages) and lending policies that don’t lend themselves to manufactured housing present clear barriers, as do state manufactured housing titling policies.
Titling of manufactured homes is based on state law and thus varies from state to state. Some manufactured homes are titled as real property by default and offer a definite advantage for owners, while others are titled as chattel or personal property. Oregon uses both titling descriptions, and depending on where a home is located or placed, the property description (fee owned property), and the date a home was manufactured, they can be titled as either conventional or chattel. There are notable disadvantages of chattel titling and associated financing:
Shorter loan terms – on average 20 years;
Higher interest rates;
Fewer rights when in default;
Limited pool of lenders/reduced opportunities to shop for competitive loans; and
Chattel mortgage lenders do not provide ample opportunities for manufactured homebuyers to comparison shop for best loans prior to purchasing the home, whereas conventional lenders do
Manufactured homes titled as chattel offer an owner little if any benefits associated with homeownership, specifically the ability to earn equity, even though anecdotal evidence proves many manufactured homes are in essence real property and just as permanent as traditional homes once they are placed on private land and the axles are removed. Today the practice of titling manufactured homes as chattel is being challenged, and financial institutions are shifting toward encouraging financing of manufactured homes with conventional mortgages.
Another “roundabout” way to increase conventional financing for manufactured housing lies in the finance industry’s willingness to increase the pool of lenders who originate chattel mortgages. The increase of chattel mortgages increases the number of folks who can buy a manufactured home. With new lending policies supporting conversions of chattel loans to conventional mortgages, the number of manufactured homes financed with conventional mortgages increases.
As more lenders originate chattel loans, more individuals have access to these products. A demonstrative change in finance practices provides occasions for chattel mortgages to convert to conventional mortgages for manufactured homes set on foundations or slabs. The Oregon Housing and Community Services Department has committed to making its single-family financing program available to manufactured homes affixed on “acceptable foundations.” The push for more commitment to serve rural communities in this space is evident on a national level as well.
The agency that oversees the nation’s large federal mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has urged both to meet their obligations or their “duty to serve” three underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing. The new law, aptly titled Duty to Serve, has been in place since January 2017 and requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to create plans that develop a secondary market for mortgages that serve very low-, low- and moderate-income families. Each has proposed Underserved Markets Plans, plans that describe activities they will undertake from 2018 to 2020 to meet their obligations in each market. This is a huge win for rural manufactured housing and could not have been accomplished without the support of many key players.
Yet, there’s more work to do.
Duty to Serve only serves manufactured homeowners with homes titled as real property, and therefore Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will invest only in states that title manufactured homes as such. There’s an effort through the Uniform Manufactured Housing Act to standardize titling of manufactured homes to real property nationally. Oregon is well on its way to reforming its titling laws, which will increase investments in manufactured homes for the many Oregonians who need an affordable and safe place to call home.
In addition to financing/titling barriers, high poverty rates and lower incomes endemic to rural Oregon exacerbate issues surrounding manufactured homeownership. In 2015, Oregon’s rural median incomes were around 20 percent lower than the national average and its urban counterparts while poverty rates in rural Oregon were higher than those in Oregon metropolitan areas. Both poverty and income issues alone are enough to impact an individual’s ability to access affordable homeownership. Antiquated financing and titling policies makes the quest nearly unimaginable for many rural Oregonians.
An article published in The Atlantic magazine in 2015 caught my attention. It was titled “Rural America's Silent Housing Crisis.” But what kept me reading wasn’t the title, it was the last six resounding words of the subtitle: ”Accounting for only 20 percent of the population, residents of more isolated areas struggle to find a safe, affordable place to live — and to make anyone else care.”
Abraham Franco frequently finds himself walking under the shade of forests that exist today because of his handiwork decades ago.
A veteran worker in Oregon’s reforestation industry, the 60-year-old Salem resident has planted millions of trees in Oregon’s woods and wetlands.
“I remember the units I worked on more than 20 years ago,” he says. “The forest, I remember when it was a twig.”
As a crewmember for his nephew’s company, R. Franco Restoration, Franco spends many of his workdays along the Willamette River and its tributaries, planting trees and shrubs on the streambanks in an effort to restore the basin’s natural ecosystem and improve the river’s health.
Dozens of people do this work, but Franco’s deep experience gives him an outsized reputation among his colleagues. They refer to him as an elder statesman of the industry, praising both his work ethic and his conservation ethos.
Franco demurs. He insists he’s just doing his job.
Franco got his start in the Cascade timberlands, replanting stands of Douglas fir after logging companies harvested the lumber. When his nephew, Rosario Franco, grew old enough to work, Abraham became his mentor.
Years later, Rosario would open one of the Willamette Basin’s most prominent restoration companies, and Abraham would become one of his first employees.
“I taught him how to plant in the mountains,” Abraham says, “and he showed me how to plant down here.”
After spending the first part of his career planting trees that would eventually be felled for lumber, Franco savors the permanence of restoration planting. Nearly 30 years in the business have given him firsthand knowledge of why his work matters. These trees, he knows, will remain in place for generations to clean the water, shade it from the sun’s heat and provide habitat for fish and wildlife.
The work is rewarding but difficult. Wielding a shovel all day, sometimes in soil dense with clay or mottled with rocks, can wear on muscles and joints. Prime planting season also happens to align with the Northwest’s cold, rainy, windy winters.
Franco shrugs at those challenges. On a recent rainy day, he outpaced men in their twenties as the crew planted rows of willow on an Aumsville farm.
“You get used to whatever weather comes,” he said. “You’ve gotta go and do the job.”
As he worked, Franco reflected on what this place used to be. Where invasive blackberries and ivy used to thrive, the streambanks now host a nascent native woodland that will only grow healthier with time.
“I don’t know if I’ll be around when this one becomes a forest,” Franco said as he dug into his satchel for another sapling, “but that idea motivates me every day.”
After nearly 30 years in the restoration business, 60-year-old Abraham Franco frequently finds himself walking under the shade of thick forests he planted as twigs.
I am excited to join Meyer, an organization that I view as an influential leader in integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into Oregon’s environmental movement. My previous experience was working on the ground, “in the trenches,” so to speak. I’m looking forward to learning more about the nonprofits we support — and how to make an impact as a funder.
I hope to grapple with some of the complicated issues around environmentalism, privilege and systemic discrimination and talk about how to address them. I am especially sensitive to issues of rural communities, given my work organizing rural and Native communities most impacted by industrial agriculture. I’m also curious about how our diversity, equity and inclusion work can lift up groups we support and increase their impact in the diverse communities they serve.
As one of the 10 Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows, I am humbled and amazed at the depth and variety of experience of my fellow fellows. This second cohort of fellows all happen to be female, and all are women of color. Just looking at us, one wouldn’t necessarily know that. Questions like “Who looks white? Who is white? What kinds of privilege does that offer? How does this show up in philanthropy?” are part of the conversations we need to be having as we learn about our new work in this sector.
Since joining Meyer in September, I have hit the ground running. I appreciate the kind guidance of my Healthy Environment colleagues and the wealth of opportunities available through Meyer and Philanthropy Northwest, including a Skills for New Practitioners training in Anchorage in early November. I also appreciate the expertise and counsel of my predecessor, Marcelo Bonta, whose time at Meyer overlapped with mine for about two months.
I am already grateful for the opportunities and access of the fellowship. I attended a conference a few weeks ago that was of personal interest, Animal Grantmakers, where I met old colleagues and made new connections. I hope to continue the conversation throughout my tenure at Meyer about how the issues of climate change, food systems, pollution and environmental justice intersect and how I can be part of making a difference on these and other issues in my new role at Meyer.
That’s the question we keep asking ourselves as the first cohort of Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows completes their placement at Meyer. In their time with us, Sharon Wade Ellis, Katherine Porras and Marcelo Bonta have brought much to Meyer: great ideas, passion for the mission, sharp thinking, curiosity and a willingness to roll up their sleeves and do the work.
We each wanted to mention a few individual highlights ...
From Theresa
Sharon joined the Housing Opportunities team as we were busy with several Affordable Housing Initiative grant opportunities. She conducted due diligence on two housing grants in her first weeks, which was good learning for her and a tremendous relief to the team. Beyond that, she has contributed to discussion and planning around several of our new procedures and conducted research that helped shape our thinking and strategy around rural manufactured housing. Equally important is Sharon’s commitment to and enthusiasm for Meyer’s mission to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the organization and with our nonprofit partners. She has modeled our values there and raised equity concerns effectively in her work at Meyer. Her interest in social justice work clearly came through in some of her blog postings on Meyer’s website, including reflections about what she has experienced and learned about diversity, equity and inclusion — or the lack thereof. I am confident she will bring her developed equity lens to her next position and help inform the equity conversation there.
From Jill
Marcelo’s two years with the Healthy Environment team could not have been timed better. During the first year, a big focus of our work was developing the portfolio framework, our goals and outcomes. He brought sharp analysis and solid experience from his previous nonprofit work in the environmental movement. He was a key thought-partner in creating the framework that now guides our work. Outside the Healthy Environment Team, he worked as part of a cross-department team to develop Meyer’s DEI Spectrum Tool and consider equity in organizational communications, and he contributed to the ongoing development of Meyer’s equity work. In addition, he helped the Healthy Environment Team learn how to hit pause on tackling the to-do list and to also consider how were were feeling about our work as well as our collaborative approach to doing it. No doubt he will continue to do great work in his new role with The Raben Group, where he will be a principal focusing on building out their DEI consulting arm, with an emphasis on the environment. This sounds like a perfect next step for him given his passion for this work and his deep expertise.
From Rukayiah
Kat joined Meyer’s investment team in time to help us audit and formulate a process for monitoring all our investment manager fees. She saved Meyer a lot of money! She became the go-to person for manager questions and worked closely with me to get the necessary answers. She also became an investment manager contract expert and reviewed all our current and new contracts to make sure the terms are favorable. She helped us plan and execute our 2016 Roundtable, which is a conference for all our investment managers, including international, to meet and discuss pertinent issues around our investments. She has also done a review of our main investment policy documents to ensure consistency of language and message. She dove into Meyer’s equity activities, including helping to plan equi-teas where we inform and discuss current issues. I am excited to see where her talents take her next and know she will be valuable to any team.
We are grateful for the many contributions Sharon, Kat and Marcelo made to Meyer in their two short years as Momentum Fellows. They all are incredibly talented and will no doubt continue to do great work. Although we are sad to see them leave, we are excited about their next steps.
This year, Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio commissioned a literature review highlighting 11 dimensions of educational equity. Each of the 11 “chapters” serves as a resource for deepening educators’ and community-based organizations’ grounding in what research tells us about educational equity. Chapter 2, entitled “Teachers of Color in Classrooms and the Impact on Students of Color,” highlights the lack of racial diversity within Oregon’s K-12 teacher workforce — and why it matters.
Attached here is a virtual copy of the second chapter, which draws correlations between that lack of racial diversity and Oregon’s achievement gap for students of color, and suggests that increasing the number of teachers of color in classrooms across the state is imperative to reducing the achievement gap.
Meyer supports this work: 2017 grantee Portland State University’s Graduate School of Education Leadership for Equity and Diversity (LEAD) program plans to recruit, prepare and support educators of color through relationships with community-based organizations. This chapter also suggests providing teachers with cultural competency training based on behaviors of teachers of color, ensuring a heightened awareness of their own biases, could elevate academic achievement for students of color. Another education portfolio grantee, KairosPDX, a culturally based education nonprofit founded and directed by three women of color, will soon be training teachers across the state in equity, inclusion and trauma-informed practices to eliminate the achievement gap for our most vulnerable students.
The issue has long been identified as an area for increased support.
In a report released in 2004, “Assessment of Diversity in America’s Teaching Force: A Call to Action,” the National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force stated: “Additional research is needed, but time is passing quickly and action is vital. We cannot continue to wait as more children of color fail to reach their potential and as fewer teachers of color join and remain in the education community.” Thirteen years later, the call reverberates as academic achievement gaps widen for students of color as compared with their white peers.
As a teacher of color working in a school with a predominantly non-white student population, I often heard exasperated white teachers refer to ”these kids” when referencing students of color. That statement always made me simultaneously cringe and ache, feeling inherently connected to the students given my own background. It expressed, seemingly without the speaker’s knowledge, that they felt the minority kids they were teaching were different from them — other, less civilized than the “good” kids. The statement “these kids” was often followed by “don’t have any respect,” “behave like animals” or “just aren’t getting it.” I would think to myself, “These teachers have B.A. and master’s degrees, right? They are ‘highly qualified’... right?” But having those credentials in no way guarantees that a white teacher will have the cultural competency skills needed to effectively reach students of color, skills often inherent for teachers of color.
When No Child Left Behind was instituted in 2001, it demanded that all children be educated by a “highly qualified” teacher, but it defined this without a racial or cultural competency lens. Although the intention of eliminating achievement disparities was good, policy-makers didn’t take into account the needs of students, especially students of color. A growing body of evidence makes clear that students of color or underrepresented students do better when they see themselves in those leading their educational experience.
Almost 90 percent of Oregon’s K-12 public education teachers are white, while almost 40 percent are students of color. Consequently, this means in Oregon students of color often go their whole school experience without seeing someone educating them that matches their racial background. Tyler White, a high school student in Portland, recently wrote a guest column describing his experience as a black student with mostly white teachers and the struggles he’s encountered because of this disconnect. Tyler White is not the only student of color feeling the effects of nonreflective teachers. National Public Radio’s article “If Your Teacher Looks Like You, You May Do Better In School” spotlights recent research echoing White’s experiences.
Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio knows growing and retaining the pool of teachers of color in Oregon is essential to addressing inequitable outcomes experienced by our most vulnerable students — vulnerable to systemic racism, to teacher biases, to unjust disciplinary actions, to inequitable access to advanced educational experiences (e.g. TAG and Advance Placement courses) and surveillance. We aim to promote the success of all Oregon’s students by bringing awareness to issues affecting equitable access to educational attainment and advancement to college and career with the goal of realizing a flourishing and equitable Oregon.
Teacher Andreina Velasco instructs young students at Earl Boyles Elementary School's Early Works program, an initiative launched by the Children's Institute in partnership with Meyer and other funders.
After 12 years of working with homeless and low-income families in the Pacific Northwest, I am excited to join the Housing Opportunities portfolio team as the Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellow. The fellowship, developed by Philanthropy Northwest, is designed to prepare professionals from underrepresented communities for successful careers in the philanthropic sector. Over the next two years, I will be collaborating with and learning from my portfolio teammates through every aspect of the grantmaking process, and I look forward to meeting with many of the grantees and community partners along the way.
I am also excited to bring my experience and perspective as a direct service provider. I have managed a wide array of programs for low-income and homeless families and individuals. I began my career as a counselor at a shelter for homeless and refugee youths. Most recently, I managed several site-based and scattered-site transitional housing and rent assistance programs, established a resource center for the homeless community in Southwest Portland, and oversaw the conversion of a 20-year housing program from transitional to permanent supportive housing. I have also developed trainings on housing market navigation and landlord/tenant rights, collaborated with community agencies to provide Rent Well education, and advocated for low-income renters in both private market and governmental settings.
The challenges that low-income and homeless families face in Portland’s housing market have left an indelible mark on me, and I look forward to giving a voice to that experience as we work toward more equitable housing together.
When I’m not working, I volunteer with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and various community art projects in Portland. I also love to travel, read, watch hummingbirds in my backyard, hike, forage for mushrooms, explore the Oregon outdoors and bake when I can. So please share your favorite recipes or hiking spots when you see me!
In late 2016, Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio commissioned a literature review highlighting 11 dimensions of educational equity. The purpose was to provide up-to-date information on issues that emerged as important in the statewide equitable education survey conducted by Meyer in early 2016. Each of the 11 “chapters” is a resource to deepen educators’ and community-based organizations’ grounding in the research-based insights on educational equity. Although there is variation across the chapters based on the resources available in the field, each chapter is a response to the field as a whole and has unique sections. We believe this is an important resource for advocates, educators and potential and current Meyer grantees. Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio aims to promote the success of all Oregon’s students; we hope this series is a resource for the task.
Attached here is a virtual copy of the third chapter, which highlights the importance of ethnic studies implementation and offers a “deep dive” into the academic and “gray” literature, emphasizing how it engages students of color and increases their academic success as evidenced by research.
This topic is of particular importance in Oregon as Gov. Kate Brown recently signed House Bill 2845, which directs the Oregon Department of Education to convene advisory groups to develop ethnic-studies standards into existing statewide social-studies curriculum. A similar bill, Senate Bill 13, which will develop curriculum for Oregon K-12 schools on tribal history and sovereignty, written from the Native American perspective, was also signed by Brown. Through a grant from Meyer, Western States Center coordinated a coalition of tribal and education advocates to inform Oregonians on the importance and benefits of such a curriculum. On both accounts, this bipartisan legislation fills a much-needed, and often overlooked, gap in Oregon’s public education system.
Eurocentric curricula can lead students of color to disengage from academic learning, contributing to academic achievement gaps between African American, American Indian/Alaska Native and Latino students and their white and Asian American peers
