This website was created using Drupal 6. Normally Drupal sites get upgraded to each new major version. This can be complex, but manageable with an upgrade path one can follow. Upgrading is important because the Drupal community only supports the current release and the previous one. In other words the day Drupal 8 is released our Drupal 6 site will no longer be supported. My current best guess is that D8 will be released mid 2014.

With the end of support for D6 looming you might expect that we would already have upgraded to Drupal 7, or at least be in the process of doing so. Instead we plan to skip D7 and go straight from D6 to D8. Why? Because upgrading to D7 is difficult and we think D7 will give us too little gain at too high a cost.

When I polled my peers they all had horror stories of upgrades that were more complex, expensive and time-consuming than expected. The differences between D6 and D7 were too pronounced. The result was an increasing consensus that it's faster and cheaper to completely redevelop sites than to upgrade them. They would build the site from scratch in D7, then port over the design and migrate the D6 content to the new site.

In other words the only difference between this upgrade-by-redevelopment process and a brand new "do over" site is the creation and implementation of a brand new design, which in terms of costs is likely about 20 percent of the overall outlay. Further, there is now also only one difference between upgrading to D7 and upgrading to D8, namely the complexities that arise from being on an unsupported version of D6 for some period of time.

To clarify this, here's one possible optimistic scenario: D8 gets released in July 2014 and D6 is no longer supported, the D8 modules we need catch up around January of 2015 and we start the move to D8, we finish in July, at which point we have been on an unsupported version of Drupal for a year.

Being unsupported means most D6 module developers will stop maintaining their D6 modules (in fact many already have) and more critically it means no more official security patches on both core and most modules if critical issues arise. There is assuredly risk in that.

However, the level of concern I found is low. D6 will still work exactly the same as it does now. Being unsupported does not mean broken. D6 is extremely stable and highly unlikely to fail. In the improbable event that something does go wrong there will almost certainly be unofficial patches contributed by the community.

Meyer is far from alone in this conundrum.

During the Core developer discussion at DrupalCon Portland earlier this year someone asked whether it was worth upgrading to D7 or if we should wait for D8. A panelist answered that upgrading to D7 could be good. Several others on either side of him shook their heads vigorously in dissent and then chimed in that skipping D7 would probably be best for most folks.

The problem is so widespread that there is significant discussion about extending support for D6 beyond the usual timeframe. An online discussion spurred so much conversation that the issue was moved to the core queue. Edit: Dries, the Drupal lead, chimed in with a recommendation for at least a year of extended D6 support, followed by a revisiting of the issue based on whether the D6 to D8 migration path is viable at that time.

Added to this comes a commitment from Dries, the creator of Drupal, that his firm Acquia would help get Migrate module functionality into core, including support for D6 to D8 migrations. The project he's committing to support is IMP. Drupal-to-Drupal migration being moved into core is a big deal and indicates the seriousness with which the community views this functionality in general, but the D6 to D8 piece also speaks to top-level recognition in the community that skipping D7 is going to be very common. 

EDIT: There's an interesting section in a recent Acquia webcast by Angie "webchick" Byron where she discusses the community's new release proposal, which includes the concept of a long-term support release to handle D6 support, and later versions too.

We still considered switching to D7 because it would give us stability as it will likely remain supported for several more years. It's difficult not knowing when D8 will come out and just how long your D6 site will be unsupported. DrupalReleaseDate.com currently has no prediction and the Drupal 8 page has no estimated launch date.

Then you face an additional six months or so of waiting for the modules to catch up, even before you start planning for resources, time, etc to get the site rebuilt. This makes planning difficult. We can't set a date for the beginning of our new project and we could end up being on an unsupported version of Drupal for two years or more.

D7 also has better responsive themes (designs that work on all devices), better UI and UX, newer functionality, more current support and a few more niceties. In our case our need for these is very low, so this is no more than a bonus. With little functional gain with D7 to offset the staff learning curve and the time and resources needed to get a site that looks like the old one but has all the growing pains of a new one, and you get a net loss for us.

We still almost upgraded to D7 anyway, because our Communications Director is retiring and mmt.org site is part of communications. We didn't want her replacement to face such a complex and involved project so soon after taking the role. We hired an experienced vendor to give us an estimate of the work and the result was a huge number that made a D7 upgrade unjustifiable.

We still plan to stick with Drupal, despite these challenges. While we're not thrilled about all this, we do get it. The improvements to D7 that make upgrading so hard are the foundations on which the excellence of D8 is built. This sort of upgrade complexity is common in the software world whenever projects focus on the growth of the software in preference to the bloat and complexity that follows maintaining backward compatibility.

Unlike a D7 upgrade, when we have D8 I'm almost certain that the new Communications Director will be impressed by the differences. D8 is primed for devices, more customizable than ever, has improved UX including inline editing, web services built in, improved accessibility support and more. The useful and positive differences will be obvious.

So there you have it. Our poor new Communications Director who has not yet even been hired will have a big decision to make soon after joining, and it will probably involve a site redesign and a challenging early project. On the flip side it presents the new director with a big opportunity to take real ownership of the site.

Until then we're hoping that the Drupal community will be a big help to us with extended support for D6 and help with that inevitable migration to D8. Failing that we may have to hedge our bets and set up a support contract with an outside vendor as a kind of insurance policy.

— Grant

Matthew Desmond's book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City has made him a celebrity of sorts among affordable housing wonks and anti-poverty activists. Writing in an engaging, approachable way about the struggles of low-income folks in Milwaukee, Wisc., Desmond shows how easy it is for vulnerable renters to get trapped in a downward spiral of housing instability, desperation and misfortune.

Even advocates immersed in housing and poverty issues will come away from Desmond's book with deeper insight and inspiration, and Meyer is pleased to support his visit to Oregon as part of Everybody Reads by:

• Helping the Library Foundation to purchase additional copies of the book and with outreach to local groups, including high school classrooms;
• Purchasing tickets to Desmond's Literary Arts lecture for recent Meyer grantees active in housing advocacy; and
• Supporting an additional event for local policy makers to meet with Desmond, led by Community Alliance of Tenants, Welcome Home Coalition, Oregon Center for Public Policy and Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

If you haven't read Evicted, check it out! Jenny Lee of Neighborhood Partnerships shared an excellent review of the book last year. Tickets to the March 9 event in Portland are still available.

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. 

The cost of new affordable housing in Oregon has been a topic of intense scrutiny. The need for affordable housing continues to outpace the current system’s ability to deliver additional units. There is immense pressure to stretch the scarce public funds dedicated to affordable housing as far as possible.

Meyer’s Cost Efficiency strategy was developed in direct response to public, private and nonprofit community partners’ call for Meyer to spark and test innovations to address the high cost of affordable housing development and to influence policy and systems changes supporting different approaches.

As part of the the Affordable Housing Initiative, Meyer convened a group of experts to define problems and potential solutions. The final report of the Cost Efficiencies Work Group, The Cost of Affordable Housing Development in Oregon, was completed in October 2015 and has received wide attention from public funders, elected officials and the affordable housing industry.

As a continuation of that work, Meyer began funding five innovative pilot projects last year (with predevelopment grants under a Request for Proposals that elicited 17 proposals overall), focused on trying new approaches to reduce the cost of affordable housing development. The sponsors of those five projects were recently invited to request capital grants to support further development of their projects, depending on how well the projects were furthering the goals and criteria outlined in the 2016 RFP.

While each of the five predevelopment pilots ran into challenges (both expected and not), four of the five proposals appear to be moving ahead, and we are pleased to support these projects with significant capital grants approved in January.

Northwest Housing Alternatives ($400,000) — Building a replicable, efficient small project that is not reliant on 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits for funding

This project, underway in Oregon City, will draw on and develop lessons from several other NHA projects around the state at different stages of development (in Hermiston, Hillsboro and Florence). In addition to rigorously focusing on cost-efficiency in design, NHA (working closely with its contractor Walsh Construction) will compare the feasibility of using factory-built modular housing with the most cost-efficient approach to site-built housing.

REACH CDC ($400,000) — Adapting “Lean” manufacturing to affordable housing on a large project in Southeast Portland.

Lean planning and coordination, typically associated with manufacturing processes, depends on an intensely collaborative and iterative approach to design and execution. The Lean approach taps into the collective expertise of the project team, identifies waste and inefficiencies, and focuses on continuous learning to improve workflow. By working closely from the outset of the design process with the general contractor (Walsh Construction), subcontractors, architect and other project partners, REACH hopes to achieve significant cost savings over a more typical affordable housing development.

SquareOne Villages ($200,000) — Developing a new tiny-house village in Cottage Grove, with an emphasis on assisting other grass-roots efforts at low-cost housing.

SquareOne is building upon its recent successes in Lane County (with Opportunity Village Eugene and Emerald Village Eugene) in providing basic, extremely low-cost housing drawing on grass-roots support. As it begins work on its latest project in Cottage Grove, SquareOne will distill what it has learned to date into a Toolbox and training kit meant to help other small Oregon communities with fewer local housing resources replicate the approach.

Transition Projects Inc. ($500,000) — Piloting efficient and flexible modular housing designs.

At the core of TPI’s proposal is an innovative modular approach to design and construction that can be combined and configured in a variety of ways, including some single-room occupancy units with shared bath and kitchen facilities. Like the NHA project, TPI will work closely with its partner on this project (Housing Development Center) to compare and evaluate whether factory-built modules can be cost competitive with site-built versions of the units. This “kit of parts” approach will be piloted on an unusually shaped property in North Portland that would be difficult to develop with a conventional apartment building. HDC hopes to then partner with Northwest Oregon Housing Authority (NOHA) to replicate this approach to pilot low-cost workforce housing on the north coast.

The fifth predevelopment project (creation of a new rental housing community using manufactured homes in East Portland, led by Innovative Housing Inc.) is not proceeding as originally proposed but has surfaced important lessons for when and where manufactured housing might be a good choice for affordable developers.

This slate of grants represents different strategies and housing types with real potential to push the envelope in the affordable housing space in Oregon. Even though three of the four projects are located in the Portland region, the four approaches cover a mix of common housing challenges. Their hard-earned experience will benefit developers creating affordable housing across the state.

As part of our emphasis on shared learning and informing the field, we will collect and disseminate detailed lessons learned from all five projects (including the one not going forward), and we are actively engaging partners around the state (including developers, funders and regulators) about the best venue and format for continuing the cost efficiency/innovation discussion. We have a commitment from the project teams to document the lessons they learn and to actively share these lessons broadly with the affordable housing industry. We expect a high level of interest from a variety of public, private and nonprofit partners.

Lessons Learned So Far

Although these projects are still in early stages of development, the core conclusions of the 2015 report seem largely validated.

• There are meaningful opportunities to shave down both soft costs and hard costs. The best way to identify and exploit these opportunities is to challenge development teams (in a thoughtful and nuanced way) to deliver at a lower cost.

• All partners in affordable housing — funders, lenders, investors and local jurisdictions to name a few — have a part to play in lowering costs.

• Some approaches — including new rental communities with manufactured homes and building with factory-built modular units — have turned out to be more complex or costly than originally expected, at least for the pilot projects.

• Radically lower costs probably come with unacceptable tradeoffs in terms of quality, durability, neighborhood acceptance and other important factors that developers must wrestle with.

This is an inherently complex set of issues, and there is still a lot of work to be done (see sidebar). We hope these projects will inspire and inform affordable housing developers who are genuinely interested in lower cost development, as well as funders who are exploring ways to support and encourage lower costs without compromising other crucial aspects of housing development.
 

Other Meyer Efforts Around Cost Efficiency

The 2015 report listed a number of recommended next steps to advance work around lowering development costs. Along with our partners in the field, we’ve made some headway on many of these.

• We continue to meet with a wide array of stakeholders — including public funders, decision-makers and influential private sector groups —regarding the lessons of the Cost Efficiency report.

• Following up on the identified need for more flexible funding, Meyer has convened some fruitful early conversations around identifying potential sources of new private funding for affordable housing.

• Good work is under way (led by Earth Advantage and supported by HDC) to adapt a framework for lifecycle cost analysis that can help evaluate the long-term cost savings of specific energy-efficiency related strategies in housing development.

• We continue to engage public funders and decision-makers, as well as the industry at large around how to achieve lower costs without compromising on other goals and on messaging and communications around these issues.

Transitions Projects: Low-Income Single Adult Housing (LISAH) concept

Foundations have long devoted resources to address society's problems, but the fact is, of course, that despite our best efforts, those problems persist.

Every day our nonprofit partners doing on-the-ground work across the state change individual lives and transform communities. But they will tell you that they are fighting an uphill battle.

The answer is to change the system. But the human and financial resources that can be harnessed from the philanthropic sector is dwarfed by the potential in the public sector, especially on the state and federal levels. As if it needs to be said, policy makes a huge difference in all our lives.

That’s why Meyer — one among so many other foundations — has moved toward advocacy as a strategic tool and a core focus for social change. We recognize its crucial function as a leverage point in policy and systems change.

Still, there are strict laws that govern what private foundations can do, and many foundations have historically been hesitant to leverage their power and money by advocating. The laws are clear and well-defined: We cannot engage in lobbying or award grants that are earmarked for lobbying, including for specific candidates or pending legislation. That’s the line we must not cross.

We believe that these times provide an imperative for all funders to effectively use allowable advocacy strategies that push right up against that line. There is so much we can do.

 

We can use our voice

We speak out against specific policy issues we think are counter to our mission and in support of policies that are important to our mission. We have a role to play in educating our community about these issues through speeches, op-eds and articles (on this blog and elsewhere), email newsletters, social media and beyond.

Our staff and trustees speak about issues whenever possible. As examples: Trustee Charles Wilhoite used the occasion of being awarded the Portland Business Alliance’s William S. Naito Outstanding Service Award this year to talk about his experience on Meyer’s learning tour of communities in the Mid-Columbia region and about the plight of Native Americans to whom the federal government has not made good on promised housing. Former trustee George Puentes and trustee Toya Fick see the power in and advocate for an equitable public education system. Meyer trustee Judge Darleen Ortega often speaks truth to equity, racism and other barriers to access to justice.

In the summer of 2016, we co-wrote an op-ed in Street Roots with the Northwest Health Foundation and the Collins Foundation in support of protections for undocumented immigrants in our state.

Meyer has also created an internal Advocacy Committee that allows us to be nimble in responding to the rapidly changing world around us by issuing clear statements and making grant awards. Recently, Meyer joined with more than 170 philanthropic organizations across the country in signing the Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees’ joint statement on immigration policy.

In using our voices, our goal is not simply to speak loudly, but to better amplify the voices of those in our community when their voices are muted by inequitable systems.

 

We can sponsor research

We believe that good ideas backed by facts will take root and grow. If we want to influence the conversation around particular issues in our four portfolios, we can sponsor research that provides solid evidence about how education gets more equitable, how we create more housing opportunities, how we make our environment healthier, and how we build and bolster communities.

The Pew Charitable Trust has been the master of this methodology. Their strong work on the effects of redistricting, for example, has helped change the way people think about the topic. And the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has done important and influential work on health care.

Our work is focused in Oregon. Although we are seen as a progressive state that can be a policy laboratory for the country, we have a long way to go to level the playing field for all our residents.

Meyer funds research that can inform policies that align with our mission.

Last year, Meyer awarded a $250,000 grant to a partnership between Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, Neighbors for Clean Air and Lewis & Clark Law School’s Northwest Environmental Defense Center. The partnership, BREATHE Oregon, will provide clear scientific data, legal analysis and community outreach so residents and policymakers have the information they need to make decisions that improve air quality in Portland and throughout Oregon. Awards to the Coalition for a Livable Future supported the research and publication of the Regional Equity Atlas, a mapping tool designed to ensure that regional growth and development decisions are more equitably distributed across the region. And Meyer’s funding to the Women’s Foundation of Oregon supported research and community listening sessions around the state that resulted in the Count Her In report on the state of women and girls in Oregon.

As part of our Affordable Housing Initiative, Meyer convened a group of experts to define problems and potential solutions around cost efficiencies in affordable housing design, finance and construction in Oregon. The findings of the study culminated in a 2015 report that has been shared with state and local policymakers and used in the funding of five pilot programs to put the research to practical work.

Our Affordable Housing Initiative also gave a housing advocacy award to the Oregon Center for Public Policy to support research and analyze options to reform the state mortgage deduction, which will help inform the Legislature on tax reform.

These are just a few examples of how we are supporting research that informs policy.

 

We can use our convening power

It is vital for nonprofit organizations to find common ground and a common voice as they advocate for systems change. We can put on public events (with the media invited, of course) that can act as community education. We can set up programming such as conferences and convenings that pull together disparate stakeholders to discuss particular issues.

We can both do the convening ourselves and provide funds to facilitate these meetings. Meyer has funded State Voices to provide leadership and advocacy training for Oregon Voice’s 29 member groups.

We can help with technical assistance grants for important public and media relations or to hire government affairs consultants. For example, we have awarded grants to OPAL and Beyond Toxics to work with state government to build relationships across several rural Oregon communities to identify their environmental justice priorities.

As we unify our efforts, we create a powerful network that yields an even greater impact.

 

We can collaborate

Just as we want nonprofits to work together to common purpose, Meyer and other foundations must do the same. We have a louder voice together.

With the Chalkboard Project, we joined forces with the Collins Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation, the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the Oregon Community Foundation, and the Wendt Family Foundation working toward elevating student achievement and eradicating achievement inequities. Although Oregon has a long way to go in these respects, the alliance has been a strong nonpartisan voice behind research and programs to improve the quality of  teacher and school leaders, in part, because we have all moved forward together.

Along with Oregon Community Foundation and several other funders, we helped launch and fund the Oral Health Funders Collaborative, which addresses the serious and widespread impact of lack of access to oral health care among low-income children. We also joined an innovative, multi-funder cross-section collaboration with the Northwest Health Foundation, the OCF, Kaiser, and Care Oregon to explore the intersection of health and education and how best to address systemic barriers to improved school-age outcomes.

 

We can award grants

As a private foundation, Meyer is not allowed to lobby for or against specific legislation, ballot matters or candidates, nor can we earmark grants for the purposes of lobbying, but we can support nonprofits that lobby. We can make two types of grants to those organizations:  general support and specific project grants. Done correctly, these grants are one of our most powerful mechanisms for advocacy.

We recently awarded a $40,000 grant to organizers for the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, a diverse alliance of community groups concerned about the social and environmental justice issues related to the federal effort to decontaminate the Portland Harbor Superfund Site in the Willamette River. We support their efforts to lobby for a strong, fair plan that entitles those most harmed by the river’s polluted history to an equally outsized benefit from the cleanup.

Over the past year alone, we have provided significant grant dollars to support the capacity and operations of advocacy organizations across all Meyer’s portfolios: Basic Rights, Partnership for Safety and Justice, Stand for Children, the Welcome Home Coalition, the Oregon Housing Alliance, and Children's Institute, to name just a few. Our Housing Opportunities portfolio’s Affordable Housing Initiative is currently calling for proposals specifically for housing advocacy work. Click here for more details.

We can also use funds to send a more direct message. In early February, we issued rapid response grants to the Oregon ACLU, Unite Oregon and other prominent organizations advocating on behalf of immigrants and refugees in this country. The timing was significant, and our message was clear.

We can support the demand for legal services, as many organizations and individuals come under legal challenges from the government. By providing operating support, nonprofits can offer legal research and services, just as ACLU lawyers stand ready to help provide a check on runaway executive and legislative powers. This month, we are awarding $50,000 to the Metropolitan Public Defender Services to protect the legal rights of immigrants and $15,000 to Crag Law Center to provide legal services to help maintain environmental protections.

 

We can do direct advocacy

We can also — within legal limits and our internal capacity constraints — take more direct action where we determine it will advance our mission and program portfolio priorities. For example, this month, I and staff of Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative were invited by the Legislature to come to Salem to testify in front of a committee about the need to prioritize the preservation and expansion of affordable housing.

In the past we have met with individual legislators to talk about those goals and to give them perspective on the work of Meyer grantees Network for Oregon Affordable Housing  and the Oregon Housing Alliance to advance these goals. We presented research about the presence, need for and importance of affordable housing in their individual districts. By showing up, we gave our allies’ voices a powerful boost.

 

We must embrace risk and strive to break down barriers

Of course, Meyer is and must remain nonpartisan. When we take on an advocacy role about a policy, program or issue, we strive to unite parties and include varying perspectives and interests. Ideally, these issues or policies would demonstrate strong public support or offer a “mission critical” opportunity for Meyer to assume a leadership role.

When we act on behalf of a particular issue that might be controversial, we are guided only by our core mission and values. We know that some might have different perspectives about what we collectively have to say about a topic, and we look forward to engaging folks in the conversation. The challenges Oregon faces require bold action, and so we must act together to amplify our impact on behalf of all Oregonians. We encourage other foundations and individual donors to join by effectively channelling more contributions and their voices into the vital work of advocacy.

— Doug

A couple of years ago, Meyer set out to make some changes that would ensure that our staff represented our commitment to equity. Although we have made progress, we’re careful to frequently assess how our processes can offer a value-added experience for the job applicant as well as for Meyer.

As I pause to reflect on the internal face of Meyer, I see diversity that extends from the north to the south ends of our office. We are often asked: How have we made positive strides? Or, what’s our secret sauce?

Our Secret Sauce

There’s no special recipe. Instead, we’ve applied practices that have worked for Meyer, and I’ll share four strategies.

1. All team members are encouraged to share new job opportunities with their networks. Their referrals offer tremendous value, especially when they share firsthand the meaningful work that they do as well as what’s appealing about Meyer.

2. We reach out to community partners and ask that they circulate our job opportunities within their circles, and we reciprocate that support.

3. We post our employment opportunities on a number of job boards that provide us access to a diverse pool of candidates. Here are a few sites that you may consider:

Free:

• http://www.partnersindiversity.org/jobs/jobs-board.html

• http://nayapdx.org/about/jobs/

• http://www.hmccoregon.com/business.html

Fee based (either per posting or an annual membership cost):

• http://www.asianreporter.com/paperadv.htm

• http://www.idealist.org/add-org

• https://ulpdx.org/posting-welcome/

• http://www.hmccoregon.com/business.html

• https://www.macslist.org/post/

• https://jobs.philanthropynw.org/add-listing/?listing_type_id=Job

4. We have also partnered with a professional search firm to assist us with attracting a broader pool of talent based upon internal resources and the role to be filled.

Toward the True Goal of an Inclusive Workplace

Dr. john a. powell, director of the Haas Institute at U.C. Berkeley, recently made a statement that resonated for me: You may have diversity in your organization, but if you’re not working toward a common goal, you won’t achieve the desired results.

I agree. If the goal of your diversity recruiting efforts is to beam proudly and say, “Look at all of the different looking faces in our organization,” then that’s the only goal you’ll achieve. You may have diverse demographics, but the question will remain: How will you leverage your organization's diversity through a true change that creates an inclusive work culture?

As an example, you might hire a talented candidate who reflects some form of diversity, but if your work culture doesn’t genuinely demonstrate a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere, then both the organization and the new hire will be unhappy. Although the steps toward securing a great hire may look good on paper, the investment of time and effort aren’t sustainable without the larger goal in sight.

If you would like to explore this topic further, please stay tuned for a webinar I’ll be hosting in March. Details to follow soon.

In the meantime, I wish you sustainable success!

Crystal

All Meyer staff and trustees were invited to participate in Meyer’s 2016 Columbia Gorge Region Learning Tour. The invitation described the tour as an opportunity for us to collectively question and understand what a “flourishing and equitable Oregon” means for the Columbia River Gorge region.

These tours have taken place on a roughly biennial schedule, with a visit in 2012 to Umatilla County and in 2014 to Coos and Curry counties. Each provided an opportunity to get a flavor of a community's unique history and culture and to understand better how both have shaped and defined the region. As a Momentum Fellow, my personal interest in participating this past year was also to understand Meyer’s role in supporting gorge communities in their efforts to ensure a place where all citizens can thrive.

Life is about perspective. I see the world through a lens that is different from how a majority of folks would describe it. My eyeglasses are watermarked: One lens is institutional racism;  the other lens is oppression.

Going on this tour reinforced my beliefs and broadened my perspective. I was so touched by what I heard and saw that I felt a need to share how I came to appreciate even more the work done by Meyer. Every stop offered me a glimpse into why Meyer’s mission around equity is crucial to the vision of a “flourishing and equitable Oregon.”

Although I focus primarily on what I learned about farmworker and Native American tribal housing issues, the other stories I heard were equally impactful.
 

Looking Anew

Looking through the viewfinder of my Nikon, I captured the majestic beauty of the Columbia River Gorge. I also saw something disturbing and complex in each image. Beyond the windsurfing, wineries and tourist attractions lives the gorge’s checkered past. If you dare look closely, you can see it.

I saw it, and heard it too, from those whose history tells a story not often heard. I listened to stories of Native American tribes, Japanese settlers, and the Mexican bracero program.

I listened to Randy Kiyokawa, owner of Kiyokawa Orchards and of Japanese descent, and to Paul Lumley, tribal member of the Yakama Nation and past executive director for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fishing Commission (CRITFC). Their stories, and what I saw, made me look anew on the institutional racism and oppression that many of the people who call the gorge home have faced, how it has impacted their life in the past and today, and where we're headed.
 

Day One: Kiyokawa Orchards and the Challenges of Farming in the Gorge

On the first day, Randy Kiyokawa greeted us, and as we moved through his store I could see that Kiyokawa Orchards had done well over the years and contributed to the local economy. Randy shared his family’s story about how his father and mother were sent to Japanese internment camps during World War II, depicting a clear portrayal of the institutional racism experienced by Japanese Americans. Next, he invited us to pick apples off the trees. But my mind wasn’t on apples. I was thinking about the plight of farmworkers walking  past our group, and I wondered if anything about housing would come up. I didn’t have to wait long.

Today, conversations on housing issues are ubiquitous and unavoidable. The challenge for farmers like Randy is figuring out how to provide affordable housing for their workers (predominantly Mexican migrants) that won’t break the farmer’s bank, nor leave workers paying exorbitant rent that breaks their banks. As Randy can attest, lack of affordable housing is one of the region's biggest barriers to retaining employees. This is exacerbated by rapid growth and land use laws that protect farm and forest lands, while creating myriad challenges for those who want to develop housing in the region. Many Hood River orchards build housing on their farms and offer it free to their workers, but building  it is prohibitively costly. Still, a farmer who can’t afford to build housing might not be in business for long. The alternative for farmworkers is to find housing in Hood River or a surrounding city, which comes with its own set of challenges.

Housing in Hood River is EXPENSIVE! The median home price in Hood River is around $400,000, compared with the statewide median of $319,000. For those who aren’t interested in homeownership, finding a home or apartment to rent is also problematic. Lack of affordable housing in the gorge has escalated to a wicked problem that requires a collective approach toward a solution. Randy is looking forward to community leaders collaborating with each other and with funders like Meyer to address and seek solutions.

Day Two: Skamania County and Tribal Housing

The next day, we crossed the Columbia River into Skamania County. As a child I spent significant time on Native American reservations in Montana, Wyoming and Canada. Thus, I was eager to visit the tribal fishing villages mentioned on the tour agenda. Looking through the big bus windows, I saw Underwood. Instead of a tribal village with permanent homes and community structures, it looked liked a haphazard, dilapidated trailer park. Debris littered the site, including weathered indoor furniture and a menagerie of fishing nets, boats, rusty tire rims and boat trailers. The image contradicted everything I had experienced as a child.

Paul, a Yakama Nation tribal member who was our tour guide, explained that CRITFC’s mission was “to ensure a unified voice in the overall management of the fishery resources and, as managers, to protect reserved treaty rights through the exercise of the inherent sovereign powers of the tribes.” The fishing villages fell under their purview.

As we pulled off the road at the base of the Bonneville Dam, I stared into the distance, thinking about what I had just heard and saw. I thought about how oppression and privilege played out in this scenario. Paul informed us that the entire town of North Bonneville (with a white resident population of nearly 500 people) was completely relocated through congressional intervention so that Bonneville Dam could be expanded in the late 1970’s. On the other hand, I could see that the Native American residents, a fraction of the white residents, were left to their own devices to recreate and cobble together a community. I looked eastward at the spectacular view of the dam, pausing to absorb its awesomeness. The irony wasn’t lost. Minutes away from the engineering masterpiece that has generated incredible wealth for the region is an encampment, land given to tribes as a replacement for the homes and villages wiped out in order to build the dam. This land embodies a history of oppression and is a reminder of an irredeemable loss for many tribal members of the Yakama Nation, Warm Springs, Nez Perce and Umatilla tribes.

Paul addressed this matter from a place of honesty and personal insight and with a keen perspective of the past and present, particularly around treaty rights and housing. He said families living on the sites didn’t live in homes and are not allowed to build permanent housing on the sites. In addition, sites had no access to city services such as garbage or electricity, creating myriad problems for these families. The last stop was what he described as CRITFC's biggest challenge: Lone Pine. What initially disturbed me about Lone Pine was the street signs at the intersection of Bret Clodfelter Way and Indian Road. It was the use of a pejorative term in naming a street leading to the Native American encampment that was unsettling. It gave me perspective on how institutional racism can be subtle, and in this case cloaked as a street sign. Then I saw Lone Pine.

Lone Pine, is one of the sites that have been approved for families to live on and have no electricity or running water, except to the public restroom. Paul shared that the restroom facility had four shower and four toilet stalls without doors. Because there is no other source of running water on the site, residents also wash their dishes and laundry in the unsanitary restroom, which raises CRITFC’s concern around public health issues. “This is a health hazard for the residents” states Paul as we stop directly in front of the restroom. There’s also no permanent housing. The entire experience left me bewildered and sad and thinking about how oppression played into this scenario. I left wondering about tribal members living in each of the 31 fishing villages and their housing crisis. Today, only 15 permanent homes have been built as part of the Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to make good on their promise to replace the homes and infrastructure. A recent concerted effort of tribes, CRITFC, Congress and the Army Corps is looking to address the still ever present tribal housing needs.

Day Three: Talking About the Future

On the last day, a panel of local housing providers shared their insights on the housing issues gorge communities face. Each panel member expressed the difficulty of providing affordable housing. Joel Madsen, executive director of both Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation and Mid-Columbia Housing Authority, and Paul Blackburn, mayor of Hood River, discussed the challenge community leaders have in sustaining a commitment to the long vision. For over a decade, Hood River city councilors and county commissioners have been stalwarts in working to make affordable housing a reality. Starting with a strategy and fighting battles beyond what they envisioned and longer than they wished, they have stayed on task.

A United Effort    

What I learned shook me to my core, and I’m thankful it did! I want to acknowledge that many of the people, organizations and communities we visited are thriving and doing unbelievable work. I saw tremendous strength and resilience in people I met and was inspired by the many working together to present a united effort in tackling problems each faced. I think I speak for Meyer when I say we continue to see value in the work each of you are doing.

It’s simple: The hostile rhetoric leading up to and including the president’s executive orders issued this past week has been hateful and inexcusable and runs counter to the principles of our republic.

Following two executive orders targeting immigrants and refugees, on Friday, Jan. 27, just a week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bars refugees and immigrants from a number of Muslim countries from entering the United States. It’s clear we are at the beginning of a long, hard fight.

It’s surreal to stand at this historical moment. This early action has already divided families and engendered fear, anxiety and hopelessness. Muslims, immigrants and refugees are the targets today, but so many are at risk if we head down this road. What comes next? We must stand for the rights of all people of color, people with disabilities and the LGBTQ community.

I have personally been heartened by the response from the citizenry. We have seen millions urgently take to the streets and airports in response. This past weekend, thousands showed up at Portland International Airport to support refugees and immigrants affected by the action.

In my last blog post, I made it clear that in the face of our new political realities, Meyer will “be nimble by remaining open to time-sensitive instances where our established program strategies are not positioned to respond." This is one of those moments.

In response, Meyer is providing grants to five community-based organizations on the front lines of ensuring the security, safety and civil rights of all people in our community. Although we currently fund these organizations, now more than ever their human and financial resources are being tested by the great work before them. And we need them to be strong in this fight. So in solidarity and support of their important work, we are making the following supplemental grants:
 

• American Civil Liberties Foundation of Oregon:  $20,000 general operating support
• Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization: $20,000 general operating support
• Unite Oregon: $20,000 general operating support
• Immigration Counseling Services: $20,000 general operating support
• Muslim Educational Trust: $20,000 general operating support

 

Our message is clear: To private citizens, we urge you to exercise your rights by using your own resources and voice to put pressure on power. Attend a rally. Call your representatives at every level of government. Show support to your neighbors. Use the rights you have. Go beyond what you think you can do. These are extreme times.

To other philanthropic organizations and corporations, we urge you to use your considerable resources and loud voices to stand up for what is right and to resist oppression and injustice to all members of our community. This is the time to speak up.

Meyer is determined to join others and help lead this fight by using our resources and our voice to respond to these inexcusable challenges to our most basic civil liberties. We pledge to continue to look for opportunities for rapid responses and swift impact. In addition, we will soon be announcing our 2017 spring funding opportunities, which will continue our work toward a flourishing and equitable Oregon.

— Doug

 

(Photo: John Rudoff/Polaris Images)

One way to gauge commitment to a community-driven restoration initiative: Host a conference in the middle of a snow and ice storm, and see how many people show up.

Despite Mother Nature’s curveball, the Willamette River Initiative’s 4th biennial Within Our Reach conference last week drew a sold-out crowd of nearly 220 people to Oregon State University. Together, the group of scientists, conservation nonprofit staff, government agency representatives, landowners and academics assessed the achievements they’ve made nearly eight years into Meyer’s 10-year commitment to fund efforts to improve the health of the Willamette River.

This community’s successes are many. Over four thousand streamside acres restored. Miles of floodplain reconnected to the river. New science to increase our collective understanding of river health and restoration opportunities. New partnerships to find solutions to regional and basin-wide concerns.

But a key question remains: How to continue and build on the momentum created after Meyer’s current 10-year funding commitment ends?

Although Team Willamette has made dramatic progress toward a healthier Willamette River watershed, there is much left to do. Ten years in the life of a river — especially one as large and complex as the Willamette — is not enough time to finish the job.

In a speech during the conference’s second morning, Allison Hensey, director of the Willamette River Initiative, shared that Meyer is committed to supporting a strong transition beyond its 10-year initiative to enable the community to continue and increase alignment and impact. One possible approach is co-creation of an organization to support the development of a shared vision and goals, fundraising, storytelling, data collection and monitoring.

At the conference, attendees discussed Willamette River challenges most in need of a collective approach and the kind of support needed to successfully address those challenges. They also began exploring the concept of a Willamette River Network to live well beyond the sunset of Meyer's decade-long initiative, and how such a network could add value to their work.

Tackling the challenges of the future will take a sustained commitment to an effort even bigger, more connected and more ambitious than the Willamette River Initiative. A strong, well-organized network could provide the support system for such an effort.

Meyer will convene a planning process early next year to support co-creation of a network concept with the Willamette River community. We’ll share more as plans continue to unfold. Meanwhile, we thank this incredible community of Willamette River advocates for their commitment to the watershed we call home.

 

If you are anything like me, you weren’t sleeping easily in the run-up to the presidential election — and haven’t been sleeping well since. You’re anxious about the present moment in our democracy, let alone the future. Maybe you feel unheard and threatened, short-tempered and stuck, targeted and helpless.

I feel both foreboding and a sense of deja vu. This political moment belies the myth of a post-racial America, an America driven to be its most equitable, inclusive and welcoming self. I am worried. I am angry. I am rattled.

Yet I have emerged from my funk of feeling overwhelmed to feeling a sense of power and purpose in my commitment to resist oppression and injustice alongside people who have had to resist both for too long.

In the current political climate, I’ve found myself doing a lot of soul-searching. I am most struck by the resurfacing of an old ugliness that has haunted our country since its origins. Racial and religious hatred and scapegoating are written into American history, and they have always been part of our present. So have systemic racism against African Americans and abuses of other minorities, including Latinos, people with disabilities, Muslims and the LGBTQ community. But to watch the shift from a simmer to a boil has shaken me, and people around me, to the core.

I am outraged by the incidents of bullying and outing and xenophobia and racism on university campuses and at K-12 schools.

I watch in real time the way demagoguery builds despair. I see journalism, a pillar of American democracy, hobbled by the rise of fake news.

I'm sickened to see the value of experience diminished, knowledge belittled and comity toward others called weakness.

Personally, and also as the CEO of the charitable trust created by Fred G. Meyer, what is happening at this moment affirms how crucial it is to be awake and dedicated to the fight for equity and inclusivity.

Don't just take my word for it, take Darren Walker’s, CEO of the Ford Foundation:

“In these times, it is easy to be discouraged. And disappointment, anger, and confusion are understandable — often reasonable — responses to the challenges we face. But we must do all we can to fight the slide into hopelessness.”

Last month, Dr. john a. powell, a widely recognized expert in the areas of civil liberties and civil rights, gave a talk at Portland Community College about equitable education as Meyer’s first Equity Series speaker. He reminded the room that philanthropy has a special role to play during uncertain political times. Politics, not partisanship, must guide our steps. And we must keep moving forward.

For me, Dr. powell’s remarks were a reminder that the work equitable philanthropy takes on can mitigate, repair and overcome the direction politics has taken. It's not about party affiliation; it is about impact. Philanthropy, the way Meyer is committed to doing it, is laser focused on making real change.

Here’s what we know: At no point in the past quarter century have our neighbors in this country been as ideologically polarized along partisan lines or as driven by political animosity, according to Pew Research Center studies in 2014 and 2016.

Hate crimes are up, way up. Hate crimes against Muslims in America soared nearly 70 percent last year, according to a new FBI report, and hate crimes overall — crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry, religious bias or bias against sexual orientation — are up by 7 percent nationwide. In New York City alone, police say 43 hate crimes have been reported since Election Day, more than double the number reported during the same time last year. And with 33 hate crime incidents reported since Nov. 8, Oregon ranks tenth in the nation for post-election intolerance, with hate-related crimes reported in Lake Oswego, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Oregon City, Silverton, North Bend and at the University of Oregon and Reed.

If this election had happened seven years ago, the conversations we’ve been having at Meyer would likely have been different. Nothing is under the surface now. We talk about how to personally engage without demanding more of each other, how to listen and support each other. We look to our partners, listen to leaders in communities that are disenfranchised and respectfully follow their lead.

I am fully aware that I have the privilege that comes with being born white, cisgendered and male in a relatively well-off family. I can and must use all of that privilege personally and at Meyer to be a useful accomplice to the deeply disenfranchised, people who feel especially targeted and endangered by threats to deport immigrants; by religious tests; by the growing reach of white supremacists; by attacks on women, including the potential loss of reproductive freedom; by cabinet picks who disbelieve in income equity, housing aid for the poor, tribal sovereignty, climate change science and public education free from religious interference; and by rollbacks of rights for LGBTQ, DACA Dreamers, the press and civil protesters.

I don’t think there is any more important time for Meyer, philanthropy and nonprofits more broadly to “lean into” our work — to be thoughtful and strategic with all of our assets and resources to work against the recent and anticipated threats to civil liberties. We recently funded a range of organizations on the front lines (including the Muslim Education Trust, Causa, Basic Rights Oregon, Family and Community Together, Rural Organizing Project, ACLU and Unite Oregon) but that is just a start.

Here are some explicit steps you’ll now see Meyer take.

• We will call out explicit bias: No dog-whistles allowed. We say white supremacy rather than alt-right, because you just can’t rebrand racism. And we won't shy away from condemning racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and discrimination against people with disabilities.

• We will affirm our unwavering support for equity and inclusion and for building communities where all feel welcome, included and heard.

• We will remain resolute in our defense of core values: equity, tolerance and racial and social justice.

• We will hold fast to our trustees’ commitment to a spending policy at a higher level now and next fiscal year.

• We will use our voice and relationships to call regional peers to action.

• We will engage grantees and partners to guide us and will participate in community listening and learning sessions to better understand needs and where Meyer can plug into support and tactical opportunities.

• We will identify where Oregon can lead. Local action is very important. There are many examples where local action either blunted regressive federal efforts or lifted up and protected civil liberties on a local or regional level, creating models for other regions or at the federal level. As noted by Huy Ong, executive director of OPAL (Organizing People/Activating Leaders) recently noted: "Now more than ever is a time for everyone to get involved in grassroots organizing."

• We will be nimble by remaining open to time-sensitive instances where our established program strategies are not positioned to respond.

• We will factor into future program strategies the implication of national policy and funding shifts for personal or civil liberties in Oregon.

• We will engage in advocacy and use the Meyer bully pulpit to give voice to the vulnerable.

Meyer is in this for the long haul. It isn't hyperbole to say there's never been a more important time to hold fast to our values in the face of demagoguery and hate. We will lead from the front as well as lead from behind in our support of others. Either way we will not waver.

I hope you'll stand beside us.

— Doug