HB+HC Community Leaders: Where Are They Now?

As 2020 wraps up, so does our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities (HB+HC) initiative. We at NWHF are so excited to have witnessed the incredible growth of community leaders over the last five years. We know HB+HC played only the tiniest role, if any, in that growth. And we know that leaders don’t belong to any one Collaborative or organization; they shift and change how they show up in movements over time. In the five short years of HB+HC, many Collaborative members transitioned to new roles within and outside the HB+HC Cohort. Whether they’ve moved on to new jobs or grown within their organizations, we think all of these leaders deserve recognition. 

Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to contact all of the incredible participants in HB+HC, so we’re only highlighting a few. It’s important for us to note that a few leaders can never represent the full brilliance of BIPOC communities throughout Oregon and SW Washington! 

We asked each community leader: 

1. What were you doing five years ago, in 2015?

2. What are you doing now?

3. Any plans for 2021?

Diana Avalos-Leos (Healthy Communities, Healthy Futures)

1. I was serving as the Operations Manager for Healthy Living Collaborative of Southwest Washington.

2. I’m working in the Washington State Department of Health on a COVID-19 vaccination and care coordination project to support health jurisdictions who are working with community-based organizations to ensure people are supported during quarantine and isolation. 

3. Nine years ago I founded Clark County Youth Leadership organization, which provides advocacy, leadership, mentoring and after-school programming for BIPOC youth and their families. 2021 will be our 10-year anniversary, and we will continue to scale to provide leadership and networking opportunities for BIPOC youth and families. 

Karla Castaneda (Youth Equity Collaborative)

1. I co-developed a youth leadership cohort that focused on reproductive justice and developed another that focused on education. These cohorts were made up of young passionate humans, and I learned so much from their curiosity, directness and drive. I was able to take young people to advocate in Salem for reproductive health, education, transportation and housing. Young people were taking over the legislative session by testifying, rallying and showing up. All this, plus trying to finish my freshmen year of college.

2. I’m currently working at Verde as their Finance and Human Resources Coordinator. I’m learning a lot as I dive into numbers and policies. I question why things are and work with a team that is curious and open to new possibilities. 

3. Not sure yet. I’m not planning anymore, I’m just seeing where life takes me.

Andrea Gonzalez (La Voz de la Comunidad)

1. Five years ago today I was pursuing my bachelor’s in social work and struggling to navigate an educational system as a first generation college student. In 2017, I began my work at the Lower Columbia Hispanic Council, now Consejo Hispano, where I spent the following three years working with the community I grew up in. Through our work at HB+HC, not only did I get to work alongside local North Coast community leaders, but also leaders and organizers from all over Oregon and Washington!

2. Back at it y'all! I am currently pursuing my master’s in social work while working and interning at the Northwest Regional Education Service District. My role there is as a Family Engagement Specialist in the Migrant Education Program for Tillamook County. I'm very excited to be working with a new community, and although it can be difficult at times, and I have had to get very creative, relationship building with this community has been gratifying and vital during pandemic times. 

3. After 2020, I think my only real plan is to survive and thrive, graduate this spring and continue working with communities in the North Coast.  As we struggle to address the challenges and barriers that have been highlighted in this pandemic, I reflect on the work we have done and the work still to come in our communities. 

Jenny Lee (Racial Equity Agenda)

1. In 2015, I was working in Honolulu, Hawaii at my first job after graduation. During the legislative session, we built a coalition to pass driver licenses for all, which was such an honor to be a part of. But I was eager to come back to my home state of Oregon, so that fall I moved back and started a new position convening the Oregon Housing Alliance.

2. After working as the Advocacy Director at the Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) and then in the same role at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), I am back at CCC as the Deputy Director. As Deputy Director, I work to support CCC's programs, organizational development and coalition engagement to build power to take collective action for racial justice.

3. I am excited to build out CCC's affiliate 501(c)(4) and collaborate with our growing team as we work for systemic change. In 2021, we will be building a coalition to advocate for a more inclusive democracy in Portland and work with communities to develop policies that center BIPOC voices. From there, we will advocate at the Charter Review Commission to rethink our form of government and how we elect our lawmakers, and build a long-term campaign to win the changes we want to see at the ballot.

Amanda Manjarrez (Racial Equity Agenda)

1. Five years ago, I was starting my third year at Lewis & Clark Law School, which is what originally brought me to Portland, Oregon.  

2. Today, I am an active member of the NM State Bar and the Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at Foundations for a Better Oregon. At FBO, we work with partners in community and across sectors to reimagine how Oregon supports every child to learn, grow and thrive. 

3. We’ve been working closely with a coalition of community-based organizations to develop a shared 2021 legislative agenda focused on advancing racial equity in Oregon’s education system. Most of my time will be spent advocating for that policy agenda along with our community partners during the 2021 Legislative Session. I'd also really like to travel and to hug friends and family again.

Dolores Martinez (Eastern Oregon Latino Alliance for Children & Families)

1. Five years ago I was working as a housekeeper in a hotel and got my promotion as head housekeeper that year, without any knowledge in technology or the English language, but with a lot of passion and motivation to learn. In 2015, I was registered in a toys for tots program that EUVALCREE provides. I never thought that one day, two years later, I was going to be doing the same thing, but in a different way, registering people in the same program that helped me.

2.  In February, I will celebrate four years being part of EUVALCREE as a staff member. Now, I'm the Director of Community Engagement, as well as an application assistant for OHP (Oregon Health Plan). Honestly I never imagined learning what I have learned, meeting many people, learning computer skills, improving my English, working in different programs and being able to help and provide support to my community. I am really a different person than I was back in 2015 and am grateful for all the people that have supported me in my growth. I love being part of the changes in my community. I love what I do.

3. Fight my fears, be more confident, learn more, practice my English more, keep growing so that way I can support more, participate more, be the voice of my community, keep my motivation, and be the best model to my family! 

Minerva Moulin Alvarez (La Voz de la Comunidad)

1. I was running my cleaning business. 

2. I am working now for Consejo Hispano. I am a Civic Engagement Coordinator. 

3. My plans for 2021 are to keep serving our minority communities and be the voice for those who can’t speak and are oppressed by people in power.

Ophelia Noble (Healthy Communities, Healthy Futures)

1. As I reflect on 2015, I think about hurt, trials and tribulations of being “priced out” of my hometown (Vancouver, WA), moving my family to Kelso, WA and experiencing the worst forms of racism that I have experienced in my life. From receiving a three-page letter from an unknown source telling me my family needs to get out the town to a local SSD worker telling me they don’t want someone like me contracted to become a payee for folks receiving SSI/SSD payments (although the agency was in desperate need of payees), to my children experiencing micro and macro aggressions on a daily basis in the education system, community, and health care system. Seeing “CLAN” acronyms in the school (meaning Citizenship, Leadership, Advocacy, Nobility), but set in the context of the community; seeing MAGA hats on children and Confederate flags on trucks parked in the school lot, to Confederate insignia on hats, belts, etc. Inevitably being called a ni*** on many occasions. Unfortunately, this reflection is not seamless, as I don’t think I have found a way to process it any meaningful way other than trauma.

   As a member of the HB+HC initiative, I was able to literally and figuratively take an emotional break from the trauma, traveling to different areas in Oregon to see the ways in which communities of color were exercising activism, services and systems change work, seeing amazing BIPOC-led health care services, food banks, community centers, relationships with political leaders and thought bubblers. There seemed to be a constant theme that I circled back to: “It all started with activism in one way or another a need to lift up the voices of Black and Brown folks impacted by systemic racism in all its forms from, institutional to interpersonal and internalized, from microaggressions to macroaggressions.” I was also able to sit in deep supportive, patient and caring respect as I began to regain my own ability to trust again. I distinctly remember sitting in a session around what it may take to build 501(c)(3)/(c)(4) infrastructure in SWWA and having an emotional reaction almost to tears as I contemplated all the ways I could fail my community, the potential loss of friendship and connection to community. Among other thoughts, more importantly I felt again, I began thinking about the possibilities in life again. I began dreaming again a state of awareness that I had lost just two years prior. I was able to be surrounded by BIPOC strength, courage, patience, love, awareness and SUPPORT!   

2. Five years later, and I am now supporting community building out the necessary tools to receive the same care I received as I navigated one of the most difficult times in my life. I am helping to build out an equitable community-based, culturally specific CHW Program, uplifting the spirit of organizers and activists, and supporting infrastructure development of the first 501(c)(3)/(c)(4) sister organization led by community, in community, while also supporting the development of a multicultural center. I am working alongside commUNITY to ensure social, economic, environmental and political justice (equity). This is no longer a quiet conversation behind closed doors. I am personally building up the courage to make a political run in my hometown to work within the system to make change! 

Denise Piza (Let’s Talk Diversity Coalition)

1. Five years ago, in 2015, I was really delving into the work with the Let's Talk Diversity Coalition as an Outreach Coordinator.  We were working hard at facilitating equity, diversity and inclusion trainings in Central Oregon, along with supporting work with Juntos and facilitating the workshops for families in Culver. At that time I was also sitting on the board of our school district's ESD and Kids Club. We had a lot going on at the Coalition, but also in my family. I was pregnant at the time with my now four-year-old daughter, so there were a lot of important things happening. I was able to connect with some amazing leaders in our community and had the opportunity to collaborate on many projects that positively impacted our communities. I actually connected with many folks that I currently have the opportunity to work with in various capacities through the HB+HC Collaboratives.  

2. Currently, I am transitioning to a new position with Oregon Health Authority and took a little break before getting started there. I am really excited to join the team and get started. Also as many of us are, I am working from home and supporting my children and my nieces and nephews with online learning through this pandemic. This year has definitely presented us with new and different challenges.  

3. For 2021, I am looking forward to supporting my eldest in his last year of high school and getting him to graduation. My son was the reason I became so active in advocacy work and being there for him in this important milestone is going to be a priority. I also hope to continue to build with other community leaders on a lot of the work we have done together since I moved to the Willamette Valley.  

Jaylyn Suppah (Let’s Talk Diversity Coalition)

1. I was working at LTDC going into year two, feeling more comfortable in my job as the Native American Outreach Coordinator. Before I started working for LTDC, I was a volunteer for the organization. I was learning a lot and working in partnership with my tribe and community. I started learning more in depth about advocacy, grassroots organizing, leadership and community work. I also began my work as a cultural awareness facilitator and trainer. The focus of my work was the Papalaxsimisha program, which I along with the full support of OSU Open Campus in Madras, created and was hosting our first cohort of the program. It was one of my toughest years as I became a single mother raising two children ages two and four. I also got my new home on the reservation late in the year, and I was so grateful. This is the year I really started on my healing journey as a woman, a mother and community leader. 

2. I am raising two beautiful children who are homeschooling this year due to COVID. I am a student at The Evergreen State College in the Masters of Public Administration Tribal Governance program. I work for my tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, as the Community Planner in Health & Human Services. Our tribe is one of the Regional Health Equity Coalitions throughout the state of Oregon advocating for equity, decolonizing practices and policies and how to uplift our traditional knowledge and ways of being. I also oversee the Papalaxsimisha program and Family Resilience program. I serve on several boards and committees such as the Governor’s Health Equity Committee, National Indian Education Association and MRG Foundation. 

3. The biggest plan for 2021 is running for school board for the Jefferson County 509-J School District in May. 

Kathy Wai (APANO VOTE Network)

1. I was the Policy and Civic Engagement Manager at APANO from 2014-2017. I then eventually became the Field Director from 2017-2018. During my time at APANO, I managed year-round civic engagement training, outreach and political education activities to increase voter participation in underrepresented communities (specifically API immigrants, new citizens, elders, and college-age students). I also led the HEART Campaign (Health Equity and Reform Team) to pass health equity legislation statewide specifically for COFA/Pacific Islanders, newly arrived immigrants, and helped support the passage of the Reproductive Health Equity Act through organizing town halls and training community members on legislative lobbying.

   Through my involvement with HB+HC, I also had the opportunity to organize the VOTE Network with 12 Asian and Pacific Islander organizations to help build their capacity to conduct culturally specific voter education, registration, phone banking and policy advocacy for year-round 501(c)(3) electoral efforts.

2. I ran for an open seat on the North Clackamas School Board in 2017 and became the youngest woman of color to serve on the Board. Since then, I've been involved with the creation of the Oregon School Board Members of Color Caucus, serving on the executive leadership team and representing the Clackamas Region. I've also been appointed by Governor Kate Brown to serve on TriMet's Board of Directors and am currently serving on NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon's PAC Board. Aside from my public service roles, I've worked most recently as the Census Justice Director for Oregon Futures Lab and worked with our BIPOC leaders to get our communities accurately counted in the 2020 Census. 

3. I want to travel in 2021, since I wasn’t able to in 2020.

How the Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative Evolved from 2015 through 2020

With a multi-year initiative, change is inevitable. New leaders are elected to office, policies are passed and repealed, and nonprofit staff members transition to different roles. Organizations merge and dissolve. Some opportunities arise, and others disappear.

Over the course of our six-year Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities initiative, we experienced all of this and more. The initiative and our grantees pivoted time and again, responding to crises and shifts in public interest.

This is how HB+HC evolved from 2015 through 2020:

Where We Began

When we first called for applications for HB+HC’s Organizing Grant Year, we created a dashboard of metrics to measure positive improvements in health. We called this dashboard the Health Compass. It included milestones for health at birth, kindergarten and high school. It also recognized four dimensions of health: social, mental, spiritual and physical.

At our Organizing Grant Year gatherings in 2015, participants filled in blank Health Compasses with their own milestones. They wrote in milestones like “culturally specific services to prepare parents,” “all children have access to healthcare,” and “access to safe places to congregate and play.” They also participated in workshops about NEAR (Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs, Resilience) science, health system transformation, and coalition building.

At the end of the Organizing Grant Year, ten Community Collaboratives continued on to participate in the full initiative:

• APANO VOTE Network, led by Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon

• Successful Transitions, led by Southern Oregon Education Service District (later transitioned into Criminal Justice Coalition, led by Unite Oregon Rogue Valley) 

• Eastern Oregon Latino Alliance for Children and Families, led by EUVALCREE

• Healthy CAPACES, led by Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste

• Healthy Communities, Healthy Futures, led by Healthy Living Collaborative of Southwest Washington (left the HB+HC initiative after folding into SWACH)

• Immigrant and Refugee Engage Project led by Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization

• La Voz de la Comunidad, led by Consejo Hispano (formerly Lower Columbia Hispanic Council)

• Let’s Talk Diversity Coalition, led by Let’s Talk Diversity Coalition (disbanded)

• Racial Equity Agenda, led by Coalition of Communities of Color

• Youth Equity Collaborative, led by Momentum Alliance

Building Power for Kids & Families

During our first official year of Communities Collaborate, we dug deep to understand what it means to build power as communities. HB+HC’s emphasis shifted toward BIPOC communities taking seats at decision-making tables.

In fall 2016, Collaboratives designed and participated in a “Building Power Assessment.” This included questions about organizing models, frameworks, movements, policy agendas and public policy influence, coalitions and networks, campaigns, communications, leadership development, fundraising, legal tools and electoral politics.

The assessment illuminated something we already suspected: different Collaboratives possessed different strengths, and all Collaboratives were more confident in some areas than others. This led us to recognize an opportunity for Collaboratives to share skills with one another. Collaboratives held trainings for one another on fundraising, youth leadership, communications and more. Some Collaboratives even visited each other, community-to-community, to share knowledge.

Changing Political Landscape

The results of the November 2016 election, both locally and nationally, put many of the Collaboratives into defense mode, especially those who counted immigrants and refugees among their staff, board and community members. Organizations hosted Know Your Rights trainings and advocated for cities and school districts to pass statements of sanctuary and inclusion. Throughout their time together, the Collaboratives defended immigrants’ rights through defeating anti-immigrant ballot measures. They also campaigned for progressive policies like Ethnic Studies in Oregon schools, affordable housing measures and healthcare for all children.

How We Worked Together

Gatherings

Every year of HB+HC, except 2020, we held one to three Cohort gatherings. At the three-day gatherings, representatives from each Collaborative spent time building relationships with each other, leading and attending workshops to learn relevant concepts and skills, and being inspired by keynote speakers from across the country. Each Collaborative was responsible for hosting one gathering, and time was also spent visiting people and places in the community and learning about each other’s work. 

We held gatherings in Warm Springs, Woodburn, Salem, Medford, Portland, Astoria and Ontario, Oregon, as well as Vancouver and Kelso/Longview, Washington. We did everything from door-to-door canvassing for issue campaigns to riding public buses for a city-wide scavenger hunt. Participants enjoyed delicious food from BIPOC-owned restaurants and catering companies. We covered a myriad of topics in keynotes, workshops and conversations, including the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act in Oregon, disability justice, Oregon’s Black history, combating anti-Blackness, how to use the Voter Activation Network, communications skills, parent leadership and so much more.

Leadership Team

In 2017, we formed the Cohort Leadership Team. This group was made up of key representatives from each Collaborative. Together, they suggested content for gatherings, made decisions for shared Cohort action and held each other accountable.

The Leadership Team met about once a quarter to discuss strategies. They also convened annually in a longer retreat format to build stronger bonds and develop the following year’s Cohort action priorities. The leadership team was responsible for bringing the Cohort Action Plan back to their communities and deciding what to lead on and what to support.

Cohort Action Plan

The Cohort Action Plan included four focus areas:

Narrative - The Cohort chose to contribute to a new narrative about communities of color in Oregon to unite communications efforts around advocacy and political campaigns.

Leadership Development - Collaboratives wanted to assess existing leadership development programs and determine gaps they could help fill in. 

Policy Advocacy - Collaboratives worked together to support policy campaigns each year. For example, the Cohort successfully campaigned for the Equal Access to Roads Act and the Oregon Voting Rights Act during the 2019 Legislative Session. 

Electoral Organizing - Collaboratives supported candidates and ballot measures for general and special elections, including state and school board races.

Collaboratives participated in Cohort Action in various ways. Some contributed staff time to work on campaigns. Others brought community members from across the state to lobby in Salem. The Cohort Action Plan allowed Collaboratives to participate in Cohort-level actions in any number of ways, depending on what aligned with their Collaborative-level interest, capacity and goals. While we saw some success in the Cohort Action Plan, we realized it was very challenging to juggle four sometimes separate, sometimes overlapping priorities. Additionally, because of the limitations of 501(c)(3) organizations and political work, some Collaboratives were not able to contribute directly. Other times, people working on Cohort Action were not able to coordinate their efforts to accomplish their intended goals.

501(c)(4) Funding

Unique among other foundations, NWHF has the ability to grant 501(c)(4) dollars, as well as 501(c)(3) dollars. Throughout the initiative, HB+HC Collaboratives had the option to request 501(c)(4) funding alongside 501(c)(3) funding. In 2016, just one Collaborative, Healthy CAPACES, received 501(c)(4) funding. In 2020, five Collaboratives requested and received 501(c)(4) funding: Healthy CAPACES, APANO VOTE Network, Racial Equity Agenda, Criminal Justice Coalition and Eastern Oregon Latino Alliance for Children and Families. 501(c)(4) funds have allowed these Collaboratives to ramp up their lobbying and electoral organizing. 

2020 Crises and Opportunities

The COVID-19 pandemic, renewed social uprising against police killings of Black people, and wildfires all introduced unexpected hurdles and windows to opportunity. For instance, the Collaboratives involved in the #WeCountOregon 2020 Census campaign were forced to adjust their outreach plans after COVID-19 broke out in the U.S. Previously, outreach plans prioritized door knocking and in-person events. In March and April, the campaign quickly pivoted to online and phone-based outreach. Another example: The national social uprising catalyzed by a police officer murdering George Floyd renewed political attention and interest in Black Lives Matter movement policy demands. This presented an opportunity for Portland organizations and activists to bring a community oversight measure to the November ballot, which passed with more than 80% of voters in support.

Conclusion

We’re far from where we started with HB+HC. For one, we’re not ending the initiative asking Collaboratives to tell us if they met the measures set in the Health Compass. It’s not that we no longer believe these metrics to be important; we do. Rather, we’ve come to recognize that the same set of measures aren’t meaningful in every community. Communities define health in different ways. We’ve also realized that building power through narrative change, leadership development, policy advocacy, and electoral organizing is a long-term strategy with much farther reaching benefits than are easy to measure. Only time will show how these efforts improve health.

Celebrating Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Collaborative Accomplishments From 2015 Through 2020

Northwest Health Foundation’s Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities initiative is wrapping up after six years of grantmaking. Over the course of this initiative, the HB+HC Collaboratives built power individually as well as collectively. For example, one Collaborative, the Eastern Oregon Latino Alliance for Children and Families, was instrumental in persuading the City of Ontario in eastern Oregon to form a diversity advisory committee and ensuring the committee includes Latino representation. Other advocacy wins, like No on Measure 105, involved every Collaborative in the HB+HC Cohort, with different Collaboratives contributing to door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, writing editorials, creating campaign ads and more.  

In the last few years, the Collaboratives accomplished more than we could ever capture. We recognize HB+HC played only a small part in supporting these accomplishments, and other organizations and community leaders who were not funded through HB+HC contributed to them as well. That said, we still want to celebrate these incredible wins! Here are a handful of the HB+HC Collaboratives’ accomplishments over the last six years. (We’ve included some links to examples.)

• Registered thousands of new voters.

• Held lobby and legislative action days.

• Established new 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations.

• Endorsed candidates.

• Published voter guides.

• Knocked on thousands of doors, made tens of thousands of phone calls, and sent tens of thousands of texts in support of issue campaigns, candidates and get-out-the-vote efforts.

• Led leadership and advocacy trainings.

• Led and won issue campaigns.

- Oregon Voting Rights Act

- No on Measure 105

- No on Measure 106

- Driver’s Licenses for All

- Cover All Kids

- Reproductive Health Equity

- Ethnic Studies

- Student Success Act

- Portland Clean Energy Fund

- Stable Homes

- Prescription Drug Labeling

- Paid Family Leave

- Fair and Honest Elections

- Tobacco and E-cigarette Tax Increase

- Decriminalizing Drugs and Funding Treatment

- Preschool for All

- Portland Police Accountability

• Led and won candidate campaigns across Oregon.

• Held candidate forums, listening sessions and town halls.

• Expanded their geographic reach and opened new offices.

• Held community events.

• Created and served on advisory committees.

• Brought critical lived experience to coalitions.

• Forged new partnerships.

• Researched and released reports.  

• Wrote letters to the editor and editorials, and made campaign videos.

• Developed a cross-cultural racial equity narrative.

• Created COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.

• Participated in a statewide Census campaign emphasizing outreach to hard-to-count communities.

• Pivoted time after time as new crises arose, including the election of President Trump in 2016, increased presence of ICE in our communities, social uprisings against police brutality, the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires and more.

A Snapshot of the HB+HC Initiative

We're Hiring a Center for Philanthropy Building Manager

Posted: 10/14/2020

Application Deadline: Open until filled or 5pm, 11/13/2020

Hours: 40 hours per week 

FLSA Status: Exempt

Salary Range: $50,000 - $60,000

Location: Portland, Oregon

Northwest Health Foundation is seeking a full-time building manager to join our team of spirited and dedicated professionals to support the Center for Philanthropy’s operations.

Northwest Health Foundation owns and operates the Center for Philanthropy in Portland’s historic Old Town/Chinatown neighborhood to provide a shared office environment for the Foundation, other foundations and nonprofit organizations. The Center for Philanthropy (C4P) provides shared phone, Internet access and printers along with meeting spaces for tenants and community organizations.

The C4P Building Manager will be responsible for oversight and management of the building. This position is integral to both providing a warm, welcoming and inclusive place for NWHF staff, tenants and visitors and to ensuring the physical building stays safe, clean, and well maintained. This includes working with vendors that provide managed IT services, cleaning, HVAC and other routine maintenance and services; coordinating office and community meeting space; managing tenant relations and leasing; and overseeing building operations and maintenance.

How We're Incorporating Feedback from Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities into our New Initiative, Civic Health

Seven members of the Healthy Beginnings + Healthy Communities Collaborative Immigrant and Refugee Engage Project pose in front of a community garden at a HB+HC gathering in 2018.

Last year we hired an outside contractor, Dawn Richardson who is an Associate Professor in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, to conduct interviews with the Collaboratives from our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities initiative (HB+HC). We wanted to know what worked and what didn’t so we can improve as a funder and partner to community-based organizations throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. We’re using this feedback as we prepare for our next multi-year initiative, Civic Health.

Some themes that emerged from these interviews:

• The multi-year funding framework, and funding for advocacy, lobbying, and movement building work, were critical to this work. Many Collaboratives increased their capacity for and understanding of 501(c)(4) work.

• Collaboratives were energized by the cohort model, which connected organizations across our region and across movements, allowing Collaboratives to learn from one another and build relationships.

• As HB+HC moved further into 501(c)(4) political work, some Collaboratives who were not prepared for this were left behind. They felt disconnected from the HB+HC Cohort.

• Collaboratives appreciated responsiveness and flexibility in the trajectory of HB+HC.

• Turnover among staff at grantee organizations posed difficult. New staff experienced some difficulty and confusion in joining HB+HC and were hard pressed to catch up with everything that had happened before they joined.

• Some Collaboratives expressed concern about the lack of attention given to racial and ethnic inequity, anti-blackness, colorism, microaggressions and oppression broadly and within the Cohort. NWHF did not follow through on requests for open dialogue.  

• Collaboratives far from Portland felt disconnected sometimes and struggled to bring their learnings from Cohort gatherings back to rural communities.

• Some Collectives appreciated the opportunity to take ownership over the Cohort’s focus and direction, while others felt a lack of clarity and experienced anxiety not knowing where the Cohort was headed.

• Biannual reports felt onerous.

• Collaboratives enjoyed retreats and gatherings and were pleased with Northwest Health Foundation’s choice to hire an external facilitator. They felt that hiring someone from outside NWHF and the Cohort allowed for the transparency and openness necessary for building trust and community.

Northwest Health Foundation has taken this feedback to heart, and we are actively responding to it as we create a plan for Civic Health. 

The Civic Health Cohort Program will fund organizations for four years with 501(c)(4) dollars and emphasize electoral organizing and movement building. We convened Civic Health Assessment & Planning, a sort-of pre-initiative learning opportunity, to ensure groups had an opportunity to give input while we were planning the initiative and to ensure they understand and are prepared for the work supported by Civic Health. While we’ll still fund groups with a range of experiences, we’re increasing funding and coaching to emerging, less-experienced organizations so that they don’t get left behind. 

We asked HB+HC Collaboratives to reapply to renew funding every year. With Civic Health, groups will only be asked to reapply to renew funding halfway through the initiative (after two years). This is to make sure groups are still well-aligned with Civic Health. 

We are continuing with a cohort model similar to the HB+HC Cohort. We will bring all of the Civic Health organizations together for convenings. We will also visit peer organizations throughout the country to learn how groups in other places are implementing Integrated Voter Engagement. Groups in Civic Health are not a state-wide coalition. Rather, they are a cohort of organizations that want to build their capacity for electoral work and are committed to shared values and supporting each other’s work. To act together on state-wide or regional elections or policy change, the groups will need to engage and coordinate with groups outside of Civic Health and voters outside their base.

NWHF enters Civic Health with a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) lens. This means we’re prioritizing Black and Indigenous communities in light of the fact that Black and Indigenous communities experienced the brunt of violence in the founding of our country, and continue to experience violence as a result of history as well as present-day policies, anti-black racism, and Native erasure. All groups funded by Civic Health must be committed to developing a common understanding and approaches to building power. This will include learning about and implementing movement frameworks like disability justice and reproductive justice.

While we’re still leaving room for flexibility and responsiveness, we also hear the folks who want more direction. We hope that providing clear goals and strategies and the framework of Integrated Voter Engagement will help create that structure. 

Through the research and planning period, we’ve worked with Dancing Hearts Consulting, a Black woman-led firm based in Southern Oregon. We’ll continue to contract with Dancing Hearts Consulting to guide and facilitate Civic Health. The founder and director of Dancing Hearts Consulting, Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, facilitated pieces of HB+HC, and Collaboratives appreciated what she brought to the experience. We also hope that working with a consulting firm from a rural community will enhance our understanding and inclusion of rural communities.

We know we’ll make mistakes with Civic Health, but we promise to learn from the mistakes we made with Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities. We’re excited to embark on this journey in 2021.

Introducing our New Public Affairs Manager

Today we are overjoyed to announce our new Northwest Health Foundation staff member: Felicita Monteblanco.

Felicita will start at Northwest Health Foundation on August 24. As public affairs manager, Felicita will support advocacy campaigns to change public policy, often in partnership and at the direction of community-based organizations. She will also manage government relations and lead NWHF’s communications, among other responsibilities.

Most recently, Felicita was the policy and advocacy officer for Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, which serves Washington and Yamhill Counties and is the largest federally qualified health center in the state. Prior to Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, she worked at Vision Action Network, building a network of connected nonprofits and philanthropic leaders throughout Washington County.

Felicita was elected to the board of directors for the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District in 2017.
(Read this blog we wrote a couple years ago about Felicita and her friend and fellow elected official Erika Lopez.)

Felicita hosts quarterly gatherings for Latinx leaders in Washington County to connect around social justice issues. She was recognized for her service to the community with the American Association of University Women “Breaking Barriers” award in 2019.

In her free time, Felicita loves to dance, travel and canvass for candidates she believes in. 

Please join us in welcoming Felicita to our team!

Advancing Disability Justice Grant Recipients

We’re excited to announce five grants to groups led by disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and other people of color) for community building, civic engagement, community organizing, cultural work, leadership development, movement building or policy advocacy.

These grants go to:

• Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Lincoln County

• Disability Refugee Community, Multnomah County

• Freedom to Thrive, national engagement led by Portland-based leaders

• Micronesian Islander Community, Marion County

• Portland Disability Justice Collective, Portland-Vancouver Metro Area

These groups are all striving to advance disability justice in our region. We’re greatly appreciative of them and are happy to support their work. We highlight two of the projects funded by Advancing Disability Justice Grants below. 

The Portland Disability Justice Collective is a disability justice and mutual aid grassroots group by and for queer/trans, Black, Indigenous, multiracial folks and people of color, sick, disabled, Mad/mentally ill, D/deaf/HoH, low vision/blind, neuroatypical, or otherwise chronically ill people who are in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Their project, led by a member of the Disability Justice Leaders Collaborative Rebel Black, is a Disability Justice and Community Care conference scheduled for September 2020.

There will be eight presenters over two days: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha presenting “Disability Justice 101,” Galadriel Mozee presenting “Black Lives Matter Memorial Garden,” Kibler Hidalgo presenting “Community Healing,” Vo presenting “Trauma Informed Care in Communities,” Dorian Taylor presenting “Anti-Black Roots of Mental Health Systems,” Shilo George presenting “Body Sovereignty,” Nico Serra presenting “Safer Protest Strategies,” and Koko Thomas presenting “DeafBlind Cultures.”

The conference is free, accepting suggested donations on a sliding scale up to $175 per registrant.

Learn more about the conference and the Portland Disability Justice Collective.

Freedom to Thrive, a national nonprofit headquartered in Portland, works to end carceral systems using a Black and gender justice lens. They ask communities the question, what does real safety look like to you? Their programs include Black youth leadership organizing, convening spaces for women and femmes, technical assistance and coaching for partner organizations and more. 

Freedom to Thrive has just begun to think about disability justice and incorporate the principles into their work. Their funded project, which incorporates a cross-movement approach, is a monthly webinar series covering a variety of topics from Juneteenth to the surveillance state to disability justice to solidarity economies. With their Advancing Disability Justice grant, they are able to have ASL and Spanish interpretation, as well as closed captioning, on all of their webinars. They’re also able to engage disabled BIPOC and disability justice leaders to speak and share their wisdom.

Find out more about Freedom to Thrive and their webinar series.

What was Civic Health Assessment & Planning?

Civic Health Assessment & Planning (CHAP) took place during the first three months of 2020. Northwest Health Foundation convened CHAP for two reasons: (1) helping interested organizations assess whether they are a good fit for our upcoming four-year Civic Health initiative and (2) gathering information to help us create a funding structure for Civic Health.

NWHF granted 21 BIPOC-led organizations $8,500 to $10,000 depending on how far they had to travel to participate in CHAP. The 21 organizations included culturally-specific and cross-racial organizations; organizations led by Black, Native, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, immigrant and refugee, and disabled leaders; organizations from across Oregon and Southwest Washington; and organizations with various types of experience and strategic approaches. All of the organizations expressed interest in building capacity for civic engagement and electoral organizing.

NWHF hired Black-led, Southern Oregon-based political consulting firm Dancing Hearts Consulting to facilitate CHAP. They met with the CHAP organizations four times as a group and met with each organization separately. They also assigned homework between meetings, which included readings, videos, and conversations among organizations’ board, staff and community members.

During the meetings, participants built relationships with each other, learned about and discussed electoral organizing and other types of civic engagement, and engaged around movement building. They also talked about anti-Blackness, Native erasure, and ableism in social justice spaces.

Thanks to CHAP and the participating organizations’ reflections and input, NWHF and Dancing Hearts Consulting have come up with a tiered funding structure. Emerging organizations with less experience in civic engagement and electoral organizing will receive larger general operating support grants than more experienced organizations. We’ll also provide support in the form of additional infrastructure development and field supplement grants, coaching, technical assistance, access to voter data file development, convenings and peer-to-peer exchanges. In addition, we will only accept organizations committed to developing a common understanding and approaches to building power, with a focus on addressing anti-Blackness, Indigenous erasure, and ableism.

We’re prioritizing organizations led by Black and Indigenous communities. Public policies have harmed these communities the most. So when they lead political and policy change, all of us come out ahead. 

While we expect most Civic Health organizations to have participated in CHAP, we know there may be organizations who missed the CHAP call for applications or who have emerged since. We are particularly interested in meeting organizations led by and serving Black and Native communities. Culturally-specific or cross-racial organizations led by and serving Black and Native communities are a funding priority for the Civic Health Cohort. We encourage them to contact our Senior Programs & Operations Associate Stephenie Smith for a conversation before applying. Please contact her at stephenie@northwesthealth.org.

Readings and Videos

NOTE: We also have Spanish translations of these readings. Please email stephenie@northwesthealth.org if you would like us to send them to you.

“10 Key Elements of Movement Building” - Manuel Pastor

Video: https://youtu.be/-YYkfbiTQSo

Reading: https://bioneers.org/manuel-pastors-10-key-elements-movement-building-ztvz1802/

“10 Key Elements of Movement Building” Accessible PDF

“Why We Need to Stop Saying ‘People of Color’ When We Mean ‘Black People’” - Joshua Adams

https://level.medium.com/we-should-stop-saying-people-of-color-when-we-mean-black-people-29c2b18e6267

“Why We Need to Stop Saying ‘People of Color’ When We Mean ‘Black People’” Accessible PDF

“Invisibility is the Modern Form of Racism Against Native Americans” - Rebecca Nagle

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/racism-against-native-americans

“Invisibility is the Modern Form of Racism Against Native Americans” Accessible PDF

“7 Ways Non-Black People of Color Perpetuate Anti-Blackness” - Palmira Muniz

https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/7-ways-non-black-poc-perpetuate-anti-blackness-in-their-communities/

“7 Ways Non-Black People of Color Perpetuate Anti-Blackness” Accessible PDF

“The Social Justice Sector Has An Internal Racism Problem” - Itzbeth Menjivar

https://sojo.net/articles/social-justice-sector-has-internal-racism-problem?fbclid=IwAR3epUAcBkO2qdPDi94zQi4o0ejPKqiI1POh3t3XIhQdCRMD4HeKP2Ds_zY

“The Social Justice Sector Has An Internal Racism Problem” Accessible PDF

“Valuing Whiteness: Colorism in the Latino Community” - Sabrina Rivera

https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/valuing-whiteness-colorism-in-the-hispanic-community/

“Valuing Whiteness: Colorism in the Latino Community” Accessible PDF

“What Disability Justice Has To Offer Social Justice” - Resource Generation

https://resourcegeneration.org/what-disability-justice-has-to-offer-social-justice/

“What Disability Justice Has To Offer Social Justice” Accessible PDF

“4 Ways White Privilege Shows Up in Social Justice Movements” - Will Dominie

https://collectiveliberation.org/4-ways-white-privilege-shows-up-in-social-justice-movements/

“4 Ways White Privilege Shows Up in Social Justice Movements” Accessible PDF

“Are Asian Americans White? Or People of Color?” - Naseeb Bhangal & Oiyan Poon

https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2020/01/15/asian-americans-people-of-color/

“Are Asian Americans White? Or People of Color?” Accessible PDF

“It’s Time to Reembrace a Politics of Radical, Queer, Outsider Activism” - Urvashi Vaid

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/stonewall-radical-queer-activism/

“It’s Time to Reembrace a Politics of Radical, Queer, Outsider Activism” Accessible PDF

We’re Weathering the Same Storm, We’re Not All in the Same Boat

A message from our President & CEO Jesse Beason

These are trying and uncertain times. This virus has laid bare that our health, economy and democracy are inextricably linked. And it’s made clear that whether we’re Black or white, Latino or Asian, Native or newcomer, we’re all in this together.

But COVID-19 is also highlighting what was already true—while we’re weathering the same storm, we’re not all in the same boat.

While I type this in my makeshift office, my partner is at our dining room table fighting to make sure it’s not just the squeaky wheel getting the grease. He works in public education. Every day, it’s the kids that have laptops, wi-fi and parents with time and money that are successfully navigating this new learning space. But what about the kids whose housing and a chance at three meals a day has been taken by this virus? The kids who don’t have access to a computer or reliable internet? We’re failing them. And given our country's past, it's not surprising these kids are less likely to be white.

The same goes for adults. Black, Native and other people of color—across urban and rural communities—are more likely to be laid off or confined to dangerous jobs that cannot be done from home, denied proper protective equipment, and faced with barriers to adequate treatment and care.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can pull through by pulling together as we’ve done in the past. All of us. Together. We define what possible means.

Over the coming months, the choices we make as individuals can reflect the best of what we know this region and country can be, where we look out for one another no matter our differences. The choices our governments make at this moment can do the same, setting a better course for the future of our communities. That course can’t just be a return to business as usual. We know that business as usual left too many of our neighbors behind.

There are proven solutions to the problems we face both in this crisis and those that existed before it. Philanthropy is uniquely positioned to help our leaders and our communities seek those solutions out. I hope you’ll join us in that effort. Because the future—our future—is what we do together.

May you, your families and communities be well. And may all of us rise to meet what this moment requires of us.

We're Hiring a Public Affairs Manager

POSTED: April 8, 2020
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 5pm, May 8, 2020
HOW TO APPLY: Submit a cover letter (2 pages max) and résumé (2 pages max) as a PDF via email to employment@northwesthealth.org with “Public Affairs Manager” in the subject line. 

The Public Affairs Manager is responsible for providing strategy, leadership and implementation in public affairs and communications. This is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the President & CEO. Salary depending on experience. Excellent benefits package with retirement, full medical and dental insurance and generous paid time off. 

Goodbye and Q&A with Michael Reyes, Community Engagement Officer

Michael and his son Fidel posing with Plank.

A few words from Northwest Health Foundation Director of Programs Jen Matheson:

In this precarious moment it is dedicated and reliable people that give us reassurance. Michael Reyes Andrillion has been just that at NWHF for the past six years. 

Michael has been the key driver of our disability equity work, stewarded the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, Healthy Beginnings + Healthy Communities and otherwise lent his expertise across our programs. He has had a tremendous positive impact across our organization and this region. 

How Michael shows up to support partners has changed who we are as an organization. Whether it was traveling to Eastern Oregon to meet with local leaders, finding a new meeting location to ensure accessibility, or staying late to clean up after an event, his willingness to show up and serve is a practice we strive to continue. 

We are thrilled for Michael’s new role at the Oregon Department of Education. Oregon’s students and families have an advocate who centers community voice and power. We are excited to see the impact he will make for educational and racial justice in our state. 

Saying goodbye to a beloved colleague is hard, but saying goodbye during a global pandemic is an unexpected challenge. As we work from home we are finding ways to celebrate Michael and look forward to a future date when we can raise a toast and offer a hug in person. 

Michael's last day with NWHF is March 27th. We will miss him so much. 

Read more about transitions at NWHF here.

Q&A with Michael:

Q. What are you most proud of having worked on during your time at NWHF?

I’m proud of seeing all the accomplishments our funded partners have made in the legislature and at the ballot. As the funder, we cannot and should not take credit for the hard work our communities went through to pass these policies. But I know we helped a bit and gave their organizations funding and capacity and resources to stay in the fight. When I think about important policies like restoring driver’s licenses and Cover All Kids, it feels really good to know we contributed to that.

Q. What’s something you’ve learned at NWHF that you’ll carry with you?

Relationships matter and we should all be in the business of relationships. None of the work we do at NWHF would be possible without the relationships we forged with our community partners. And those relationships don’t form simply because we’re a foundation and we have money to give them. I hope we earned their trust by spending time in their communities, sharing meals, having tough conversations, and really getting to know the people who do the work. 

Q. What’s something that you contributed to NWHF that you hope will continue after you’ve left?

I hope the foundation continues to prioritize meeting our communities where they are at. We spent so much time across our region of Oregon and SW Washington being in community and you could always tell they appreciated having the funding partner come to them and get to know them in their own backyards. One of my favorite comments from a community partner I visited in Burns, Oregon once was, “wow, no one ever comes out here to visit with us.” You could tell it meant so much to her.

Q. What will you miss most about NWHF?

My team. We really did become like a family because we spent so much time together not only in the work but opening up our personal lives to each other. Everyone there inspired me to do my best because I was surrounded by colleagues who are all doing their best too.

These are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever worked with and I’m honored to consider them my friends.

Q. What advice do you have for the philanthropic sector?

Philanthropy has been the community’s steward, and often the gatekeeper, for funds and resources for many, many years. It’s time communities have more of a say where those resources go. I challenge funders to go out there and build stronger relationships with community partners. Make them part of your decision-making and re-examine how your policies and practices keep communities out. Most importantly, if your staff and board don’t reflect the communities you serve, make an honest effort to fix that.

Q. What’s next?

I’m excited to share that I will be joining the Oregon Department of Education in a new role as part of the Student Success Act. This was such a monumental piece of legislation that will invest significant resources back into our schools. The state is working to ensure that community members have a say where those funds go. I’ll be working with schools, community partners and state leaders to improve educational outcomes across our state for Latinx students and families.

What’s very exciting is I get to bring so much of what I learned at NWHF and many of the relationships I’ve forged with me. I may be in a new role at a different organization, but I know I’ll be seeing many of you around!

Immediate Changes in Response to COVID-19

Edited April 10, 2020

We know you have many friends, family, neighbors and coworkers whose health, livelihoods and safety are top of mind. We’ll keep this as brief as possible.

NWHF’s board of directors met and directed us to take the following actions:

1. Convert all open NWHF project grants and sponsorships to general operating support, retroactively to the grant start date.

2. Defer all grant reports for 90 days automatically.

3. Accelerate all grant payments due before June 30 to ASAP. We hope to have checks out in the next week.

4. Contribute any non-committed grant resources to rapid response funds at partner foundations and/or increase open grant amounts. Because we make multi-year grant commitments to organizations, this represents about 10% of our grantmaking budget.

5. Our meeting rooms are now closed through June 5. We’ll reassess mid-May to decide whether to extend this closure.

6. Participate in ways that meaningfully coordinate philanthropic responses, including through Grantmakers of Oregon & SW Washington and pooled funds at MRG Foundation, Women’s Foundation of Oregon & Oregon Community Foundation.

7. Consider future actions promptly that are responsive to evolving conditions.If you have an open NWHF grant*, please consider this permission to reclassify and readjust. No need to check-in. We’ll send more formal notice in the coming days.

These are anxious, trying times. So much is at stake. So much feels unknown. We are inspired but not surprised by the many ways community members are rising to help one another. May our foundation similarly rise to meet what this occasion requires of us.

Thank you for all you do.

How did Oregon Active Schools affect students across the state?

A group of seven children running around beneath a tree, playing tag football.

Active children focus in class, perform better academically and are healthier their whole lives. Unfortunately, across Oregon, physical education teachers struggle to replace equipment, develop curriculum and fully engage students. This is due to low funding for physical activity in Oregon public schools. 

From 2014 through 2019, Northwest Health Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Northwest and Nike partnered with Active Schools to provide focused grants totaling over $1 million to 139 elementary schools in Oregon, serving 17,559 students. We strove to inspire a lifelong love of movement and bring the many benefits of physical activity to every child in Oregon. Our grants went to opportunity schools—schools where more than 70% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch and where less than 65% of students met the third-grade reading benchmark—and State Priority and Focus Schools.

 Schools spent their grant dollars on before and after-school programming, classroom physical activity, physical education curriculum and equipment, recess programming and equipment, professional development for teachers, technology to support physical education, incentives for physical activity, and family engagement.  

Schools reported an increased number of students engaging in physical activity, increased time spent on physical activity, more focused students in the classroom, increased pride, broadened cultural knowledge and increased staff satisfaction. Some schools leveraged their OAS grants to secure more funding. On average, attendance increased 2.6% for all students and 3.1% for students of color.

Of course, not all schools experienced the same benefits from their OAS grants. Through evaluation, we discovered some key factors—access, engagement and partnerships—increased the likelihood of improved attendance. Funded schools reported that having different types of equipment involved a more diverse set of students. Student engagement was best when school activities matched family and community traditions. Finally, physical education and health programs were sustained over time with systemic connections among staff, families and community.

For more information about Oregon Active Schools outcomes, including considerations for future funding, check out this two-page PDF.

Or read our Oregon Active Schools spotlight blogs:

Q&A with Michael Alexander, Our 2020 Board Chair

Q. What attracted you to join Northwest Health Foundation’s board of directors?

A. I had an opportunity to be introduced to the Northwest Health Foundation board when I was working at Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, and I thought, this is an impressive group of people. This is a foundation involved in transformative work. Thomas Aschenbrener was still the president, and Reverend Mark Knutson, Phil Wu and Nichole Maher were all on the board.

Three to four years later, while serving as CEO of the Urban League of Portland, after Nichole became president, she began carefully cultivating me. I realized NWHF might be thinking about asking me to join the board. 

Every time I visit the office and see my name and photo on the wall, I have a sense of being so honored to be part of this work.

Q. What have you been most excited to be a part of at NWHF?

A. The Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities initiative has been a wonderful way to gain a sense of emerging and compelling issues beyond the Portland corridor. The question of how we serve the needs of our greater service area has been a prime one for the board and for me. People throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington face the same challenges we do in Portland, but with fewer resources and often less focus from foundations. 

Learning is ongoing at Northwest Health Foundation. I admire the degree of self-reflection the staff engages in around who is missing and who needs to be brought to the table. We don’t try to find a comfortable place to ground ourselves, because it isn’t about our voice. It’s about providing a platform of self-determination for   marginalized communities.

Q. Is there anything in particular you hope to accomplish as board chair?

A. I want to continue the emphasis on addressing issues of equity related to geography and disability rights. It’s important to look at each of these through the lenses of communities of color. In addressing these foci, the overlay of race is a primary consideration for the Foundation. We’re missing an opportunity to optimize our impact if we don’t include the voices of isolated and disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color).

Q. What do you see as Oregon and Southwest Washington’s greatest opportunity? Our greatest challenge?

A. I think our greatest challenge and greatest opportunity are the same thing. Increasingly it’s become important to enable and empower communities not just to find their voice, but to lead solutions. This includes running candidates for office, as well as increasing the degree of representative democracy across the region in getting community members on policy panels, boards and committees. NWHF’s Civic Health initiative, with its commitment of both 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 resources, encourages and allows BIPOC communities to take advocacy to the next step, to create strategies that will best address issues.

Q. What do you do outside of chairing NWHF’s board?

A. I spend a lot of time looking at pictures of my seven grandchildren on Facebook, six of whom are  on the East Coast. They range from 13 months to six years old. 

I serve on the Port of Portland Commission, which deals with large and emerging issues around our local waterways and Portland International airport. I also contribute a significant amount of time to serving on the board of the Black United Fund of Oregon, which is a wonderful complement to my work at NWHF.

Twice a week I go to what I call my  humbling exercise: a yoga class. I’ve been going for two years, and I never get better. I also cycle to many of my meetings at the Foundation from Sellwood. 

Northwest Health Foundation and the Black United Fund are particularly close to my heart. I can’t think of a better way to spend my disposable time. 

Q. Is there anything else you want to share?

A.  Northwest Health Foundation is so fortunate to have a tremendous staff. We transitioned very thoughtfully from the skilled and enlightened leadership of Nichole June Maher to the timely and strategic leadership of Jesse Beason. He, and the rest of the staff, are the right people to guide us through the strategic pivot point of Civic Health.

Goodbye and Q&A with Jason Hilton, VP of Finance

A FEW WORDS FROM NORTHWEST HEALTH FOUNDATION PRESIDENT JESSE BEASON:

Jason brought his expertise to bear across the Foundation’s investments. He deftly moved us into a more responsive portfolio, guided mission-related investment work and helped elevate our role in both owning and managing the Center for Philanthropy. Throughout, Jason brought humor and stories forged from a childhood in southern Oregon and a continued love of the outdoors. We will miss him!

Q&A WITH JASON:

Q. What are you most proud of having worked on during your time at NWHF?

A. I am very proud of the fact that during the past six years we have increasingly been able to incorporate our values into our investment process. As a result, we have been able to drive significant impacts in Oregon, as well as around the globe, while still achieving investment returns sufficient to cover our spending needs and grow Northwest Health Foundation’s endowment.

Q. What's something you've learned at NWHF that you'll carry with you?

A. I have learned so much during my tenure here. Having had opportunity to spend time getting to know diverse communities around our state, learning about the history of racism in Oregon, and seeing the challenges different communities face has been both eye opening and life changing. I can’t think of many other jobs in the financial world where I would have had that opportunity.

Q. What will you miss most about NWHF?

A. Besides the innumerable opportunities to share feelings in meetings, I will miss my colleagues the most. It is rare to work alongside such talented and wonderful people.    

Q. What advice do you have for the philanthropic sector?    

A.  I have become increasingly convinced that lived experience matters as it relates to our work.  I would encourage philanthropy to consider lived experience in relation to mission statements as it selects leaders, employees and grantees.  I believe the work is more effective when we have leaders and employees who reflect and can identify with our priority communities.  

Q. What’s next?

A. I am looking forward to some much-needed rest and time with friends and family over the holidays. Then I will begin to thoughtfully contemplate my strengths and experience and hopefully identify a job opportunity where I can have a significant impact.

From Capacity Building to Implementation: Health & Education Fund Impact Partners

The Health & Education Fund—a partnership between CareOregon, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Meyer Memorial Trust, Northwest Health Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation—is excited to award an additional $835,000 in grant funds to 15 organizations serving Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Last year we invited applications for projects focused on family leadership and resilience to improve outcomes in early life for children zero to eight-years-old. Fifteen organizations received capacity building grants of $30,000 each, and six organizations received implementation grants of $100,000 to $125,000 each. These organizations are currently addressing barriers to health and education by building leadership and stronger relationships with parents and families, supporting parent and family organizing to change policy, and establishing partnerships with early learning, education and healthcare systems.

This year we invited the original capacity building grantees to either re-up their capacity building grants or apply for implementation grants to advance their work to the next level.

The following organizations received Impact Partnership grants this year:

CAPACITY BUILDING

• Adelante Mujeres; $40,000; serving Washington County

• Black Parent Initiative; $40,000; serving Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah and Washington counties

• Centro Latino Americano; $40,000; serving Lane County

• Coalition of Communities of Color; $40,000; serving all counties in Oregon

• Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; $40,000; serving Jefferson and Wasco counties

• FACT Oregon; $40,000; serving all counties in Oregon

• Native American Youth and Family Center; $40,000; serving Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah and Washington counties

• Oregon Child Development Coalition; $40,000; serving Morrow County

• Southern Oregon Child & Family Council, Inc.; $40,000; serving Jackson County

• The Next Door, Inc.; $40,000; serving Wasco County

• The Noble Foundation; $40,000; serving Clark and Cowlitz counties

• United Community Action Network; $40,000; serving Douglas County

IMPLEMENTATION

• Familias en Acción; $125,000; serving Clackamas, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, Umatilla and Washington counties

• Micronesian Islander Community; $125,000; serving Linn, Marion, Multnomah and Polk counties

• KairosPDX; $105,416; serving Multnomah County

Capacity building grants support organizations to develop parent-led efforts and community leadership, as well as to establish and build relationships with early learning, education and healthcare systems. Implementation grants support organizations to work toward a specific goal for systems change led by parent and community leaders.

The Familias en Acción Community Council at the 2019 May Day rally in Salem, Oregon to support Driver’s Licenses for All.

For example, through their capacity building grant Familias en Acción formed a community council of organization representatives, parents and future parents of young children. Together the council learned about and practiced policy advocacy. With their implementation grant, Familias en Acción will continue developing the community council’s advocacy skills, use their curriculum about intergenerational health to build the knowledge of Latino parents, and work toward changing systems to improve access to nutritious food.

The Health & Education Fund Partners have also recently hired Insight for Action to consult with some of the Impact Partners. Insight for Action will provide customized technical assistance for up to nine Impact Partners. Coaches will help groups define their systems change goals and develop the tools and practices to stay on track and monitor progress. The Health & Education Fund Partners chose an approach that works for organizations and family leaders, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to evaluation.

Together the Health & Education Partners seek to support whole families and opportunity communities, focus on the strengths and assets these communities already possess, and promote enduring change through multi-year investments from the Health & Education Fund. Learn more about the Fund here.

We're Hiring a Part-time Director of Finance

POSTED: October 30, 2019
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Open until filled OR 5pm, November 22, 2019
HOW TO APPLY: Submit cover letter and resume to employment@northwesthealth.org

This part-time (.25 FTE) position is responsible for oversight and management of the investment, accounting and financial functions of the Foundation and other administrative areas. It works closely with other senior leaders to drive growth and seek improvements in operational processes.

We're Hiring a Building & Office Manager

POSTED: October 3, 2019
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Open until filled OR 5pm, November 1, 2019
HOW TO APPLY: Submit cover letter and resume to employment@northwesthealth.org

The Center for Philanthropy Building & Office Manager is responsible for oversight and management of the Center for Philanthropy. This includes managing office and community meeting spaces, tenant relations and leasing, and building operations and maintenance.

Our Largest Grant Ever

Northwest Health Foundation, along with the other Health & Education Fund Partners (CareOregon, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Meyer Memorial Trust and Oregon Community Foundation), awarded $1 million to a campaign led by six organizations working to build an affordable childcare system in Oregon.

The six organizations leading the Oregon Child Care Project are Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), Oregon Futures Lab, Family Forward Action, PAALF Action Fund, Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and Unite Oregon.

The Oregon Child Care Project aims to redefine childcare as a public good, dramatically increase public investment in childcare, demonstrate broad support for a public childcare system, and motivate Oregon’s governor and legislature to act. They advocate for a public childcare system that is equitable, high-quality, affordable, culturally relevant, and community led.

The Health & Education Fund Partners know our current healthcare, education and early learning systems aren’t meeting the needs of all Oregon and Southwest Washington’s children and communities. And we believe health and education are intertwined, and both are critical for a thriving and prosperous Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Northwest Health Foundation is excited to make our largest single grant ever to the Oregon Child Care Project, the majority of which is 501(c)(4) funding. We know lifelong health starts with a good childhood and good childcare. Just like those who came before us to make public education a reality, we’re excited to come together to build affordable, quality childcare for every Oregon child.

Goodbye and Q&A with Eduardo Moreno, NWHF Community Engagement Officer

A photo of Eddie in the Oregonian, holding a sign at a Yes on Measure 88 rally.

Eddie has helped transform who we are as a foundation, how we work and how we engage with community. Eddie brings graciousness and presence to everything he does, making sure everyone feels welcome and connected to each other. Eddie also brings joviality and curiosity, is quick to laugh, is game for the mundane and the novel, and is dogged at getting resources to the communities that deserve it most! He naturally sees the ways our local funding community can work together differently to better serve community-based organizations and encourages us to work harder to build those connections.

Through The UnWind, in partnership with Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, Eddie gathered leaders from across our region to come together, build relationships and learn about sustainable practices for social change organizing.

Eddie helped build the Health & Education Fund, convening five regional funders (no small feat!) to find shared values and develop a strategy focusing on the resilience and strength of parents and families, challenging our assumptions and pushing us to learn and fund in different ways.

We hope we can carry on his approach—centering people, honoring the power of relationships and building trust through working together.

Eddie will be deeply missed. We wish him the best on his next adventures!

Q&A with Eddie

A. What are you most proud of having worked on during your time at NWHF?

Q. This a tough one to answer, because I love every aspect of my work. The Health & Education Fund, Oregon Active Schools and the Momentum Fellowship are all prime examples of how diverse and unique our work at NWHF is, but when I started working here in 2012, we used to host community dinners where I had the opportunity to engage with familiar faces and meet rising community leaders from around the state. Spending that unstructured time over a meal to learn about one another helped inspire what I think my answer is…. The UnWind. From inception to implementation, I worked with our friends/partners at Kaiser Permanente Northwest to design a people-focused investment. I am proud of the two fearless facilitators and the 19 incredible community-based organizations who understood our vision and brought this program to life. I hope they continue to support one another and teach others in our sector the importance of unwinding.

Q. What’s something you’ve learned at NWHF that you’ll carry with you?

A. Relationships matter. Go where community is. We all have conflicting personal lives that sometimes limit our ability to travel, but our team at NWHF (board and staff) often plan tirelessly to bring our foundation to people and places outside of the Portland metro area. This is something I will continue to advocate for, and if you don’t believe this is effective, check out how our grant giving and community partnerships have changed over the years.

Q. What’s something that you contributed to NWHF that you hope will continue after you’ve left?

A. Work hard and have fun. We live in a topsy-turvy world, so let’s not burn ourselves out or think we are in this alone. I hope that NWHF will continue to invite our close friends and family to visit community. Sometimes it takes a little more time and energy, but in the end we all have a shared fate, and we need to include our loved ones in sharing both the good and the tough moments in our NWHF lives.

Eddie, former NWHF President Nichole June Maher, and Eddie’s Nana and Tata at Native Professionals Night.

Q. What will you miss most about NWHF?

A. Hands down, the NWHF family. I look forward to working every day, because the NWHF family extends beyond those who work here. Every day I interact with many thoughtful and hardworking leaders from community groups, philanthropy and government dedicated to making our region a better place to live for every person who calls Oregon and Southwest Washington home.

NWHF staff, Health & Education Fund consultant Dani Ledezma, and Parent Voices Oakland Executive Director Clarissa Doutherd.

Q. What advice do you have for the philanthropic sector?

A. Nothing is set in stone, and it’s time to evolve. Don’t let made up (sometimes archaic) rules get in the way of advancing your mission. Our community partners seek strong and unapologetic leadership in the philanthropic sector. The sector needs to continue to partner with community and step up to take risks when there are opportunities to do so.

Q. What’s next?

A. Wouldn’t you like to know?

Eighteen years ago I left El Centro, California and moved to this beautiful city. That meant I had to leave behind a loving, supportive family network I miss every single day. Today, I’m still fortunate to have five generations of Moreno-Araiza’s (that’s right, my grandparents are also great-great-grandparents) excited to reconnect and spend some much-needed uninterrupted quality time together. That’s about as much as I will share for now, but if you are in the SoCal area these next few months feel free to reach out and who knows… I may have mastered my Nana’s empanada making skills by then.

What’s Waiting for me in SoCal! [Eddie taking a selfie with ten of his family members.]