From Door Knocking to Phone Banking: Census Outreach in the Era of COVID-19

Artwork by Micah Bazant.

Image description: A circle of images, including faces, buildings, a bottle, an apple, a bus, bananas, a bridge, a pencil and notebook, surround the words “Imagine a World Where We All Count.” A tree grows through the words. All of this on a lemon yellow background.

Data collected through the U.S. Census determines how many seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as how federal funding gets portioned out. An accurate and complete count means communities will receive the funding for education, transportation, food assistance programs and other services they need and deserve. Historically, Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, children and youth, undocumented immigrants, disabled people, renters and houseless people have all been undercounted. In 2020, more resources than ever are going toward counting these hard-to-count communities, but COVID-19 has made counting these communities even more challenging.

We at Northwest Health Foundation are beyond impressed by the shifts community-led organizations have made to continue Census outreach while as many of us stay safe at home as possible. 

Many of these organizations are part of the We Count Oregon campaign led by Dancing Hearts Consulting.

Unite Oregon originally had extensive plans for field outreach. Face-to-face interactions are best for reaching hard-to-count communities, and they intended to knock on doors and attend events in Rogue Valley, Multnomah County and Washington County. In Rogue Valley, they had subcontracted with groups that engage forest workers, many of whom are immigrants, but this work has been put on pause. Instead, they’re phone-banking and boosting the Census on social media. In order to make this happen, they had to distribute computers and phones and set up Internet access for their Census field workers, as well as teach them how to use Zoom. They trained the field workers virtually to conduct outreach in six different languages. So far, they’ve experienced positive reactions. Community members are excited to receive phone calls.

Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) has also shifted from door-knocking in the Jade District and Washington County to phone and text-banking. As APANO’s Census Equity Manager Marchel Hirschfield said, targeted phone lists are effective, and Oregon needs more of them. APANO has also set up a virtual Census Assistance Center through Zoom and is collaborating with other API organizations to expand hours and language capacity. The Census Bureau hotline has been inundated, so it’s important for Oregonians to have assistance in their own language for any questions or concerns they have about completing the Census. Though Zoom is a great platform, it still doesn’t bridge the accessibility gap, because not everyone has Internet access or knows how to navigate Zoom.

Forward Together’s Census workers connecting through Zoom.

Image Description: A grid of fourteen video feeds, each one capturing a person smiling. Five flash peace signs, One a Thumbs-up.

Forward Together is also phone-banking, relying on Zoom and Google Drive to coordinate their field workers. In addition, they’re joining virtual events to talk to community about the Census, meeting community where they already are. For the most part, people are responding positively, appreciating the opportunity to connect with someone during hard times. Forward Together is also sharing beautiful artwork created by their Artist-in-Residence Micah Bazant, encouraging groups and individuals to post it on social media or print a physical poster. Download Micah’s artwork here.

In Southwest Washington, The Noble Foundation (TNF) is conducting Census outreach as part of the Washington Census Alliance. TNF has also formed a Southwest Washington-based Complete Count Coalition made up of six organizations led by BIPOC. They’ve trained 30 Trusted Messengers, adults and youth from Clark and Cowlitz County, to provide Census support and education to historically-undercounted community members, especially BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Chuukese, Latina/o/x, and people experiencing houselessness. Much of this is taking place over the phone, but one of their Trusted Messengers is also connecting with people experiencing houselessness in-person. Their social media campaign has included a raffle, live Census Chats on Facebook, and highlighting Trusted Messengers on #TrustedMessengerMonday. (Join the conversation using the hashtags #GetCounted, #GetOutTheCount, #2020Census, and #CensusChats.) The Noble Foundation is also supporting organizational partner Our Place Multicultural Center to include Census outreach in COVID-19 Rapid Response efforts. When community members come in to receive services, staff provide information about the Census and will even sit down with them at a computer to guide them through the process. Disinfectant, masks and gloves all at hand, of course!

BIPOC communities have met this challenge like they’ve met every challenge before, with resourcefulness and resilience. The percentage of Oregonians and Washingtonians counted goes up every day!

Familias en Acción: Improving Health from Every Angle

A story from Health & Education Fund Impact Partner Familias en Acción.

Familias en Acción works to improve health through a variety of strategies, from teaching nutrition classes to advocating for policy change. 

For the past 20 years, Familias en Acción has educated Latino Oregonians about health and employed community health workers to support community members. They’ve addressed health issues such as domestic violence and breast cancer. Currently, they’re focused on preventing and managing chronic diseases.

Their programs emphasize the importance of health during the first 1000 days of life. They also recognize the intergenerational aspects of health. An ancestors’ poor or good health can trickle through generations. For example, if someone eats well and exercises, their future grandchild’s health will be better for it. This recognition led Familias en Acción to create their Abuela, Mamá y Yo! program.

In 2018, Familias en Acción developed a curriculum for their Abuela, Mamá y Yo! program. This curriculum is taught over four 2.5 hour sessions and covers topics ranging from gardening, traditional foods and breastfeeding to epigenetics and public policy. Familias en Acción made a goal of training 50 trainers to facilitate this curriculum across Oregon. By the end of September 2019, they’d trained 120 trainers. It’s clear there is a huge appetite for this information.

With funding from a Health & Education Fund capacity building grant, Familias en Acción also formed a community council made up of organization representatives, parents and future parents. They’ve accomplished an unbelievable amount in the last couple years.

Together, the community council has been learning about policy and advocacy. Through partnerships with Oregon Food Bank and Partners for a Hunger-free Oregon, they’ve learned about SNAP, WIC, school meals and food pantries. They partnered with Adelante Mujeres to hold a community forum, with lawyers present, about public charge. They participated in the 2019 May Day rally and march in Salem to support the Driver’s Licenses for All campaign, and they met with legislators to talk about food pantries and housing. They also participated in a CAPACES Leadership Institute training, spent time making and eating healthy, traditional meals together with local foods, and solicited people to sign postcards in support of multiple ballot measures. And they worked with Oregon’s Department of Human Services to visit their offices as “secret shoppers” and evaluate their performance.

This fall, the Health & Education Fund Partners approved Familias en Acción for an implementation grant. The increased amount of funding will allow them to continue ramping up their invaluable work. They plan to train more Abuela, Mamá y Yo! facilitators; teach Know Your Rights classes about eligibility, application processes, access and how to file a complaint around nutrition services such as SNAP, WIC, food pantries and school meals; and continue to engage in policy advocacy around issues that impact the health of the Latino community in Oregon. All this while simultaneously evaluating and improving their strategies.

You can thank Familias en Acción for improving health for all Oregonians. We certainly are!

Developing Micronesian Islander Parent Leadership for Health and Education

A story from Health & Education Fund Impact Partner Micronesian Islander Community.

The Micronesian Islander Community (MIC)’s mission is to organize social justice programs, preserve Micronesian Islander cultures, and enhance leadership through unifying their diverse communities.

Supported by the Health & Education Fund, MIC, in partnership with Washington State University, began a pilot program to develop Micronesian Islander parent leadership. MIC Chair Jaqueline Leung, MIC Community Health Worker Kapiolani Micky and Dr. Connie Nguyen-Truong from Washington State University have been working with Chuukese and Marshallese parents who have children between newborn and eight-years-old to build knowledge and skills on health and education advocacy.

Eventually, MIC would like Micronesian Islander parent leaders to develop the skills and confidence to participate in civic engagement activities. In preparation, the parent leaders completed public speaking activities, preparing written and oral testimony on two legislative bills that would impact the community. Parent leaders practiced telling their stories in a limited amount of time without losing the message or the authenticity of their story.

The parent leaders also led several workshops centered on health and education to hone in on their public speaking skills. The first group presented at the end of May. They prepared a workshop on the importance of access to early learning (specifically preschool and early head start) and the importance of immunizations. The parent leaders shared resources about how to apply for Salem-Keizer School District’s preschool and resources for obtaining vaccinations. They emphasized the importance of parent involvement in their children’s education.  

The next group of parents led a workshop in July centered on perinatal care, including the importance of accessing prenatal care early in pregnancy. Several topics included reasons why prenatal care is often accessed late. Other topics included postpartum depression and cultural stories centered on the meaning of the words “prenatal” and “postpartum.” The parent leaders emphasized the importance of prenatal care and why postpartum care is as important as prenatal care.

Due to the work MIC and WSU have been doing with parent leaders, the following activities were initiated or lead by MIC parent leaders since August:

1. One parent leader gave a presentation about the Chuukese community to nine staff and board members at a health clinic in Portland. 

2. One parent leader went as a health advocate with their mom and niece to apply for benefits. Initially, the niece was denied benefits with the explanation that they need five years residency for eligibility. The parent leader disagreed and advocated for the family by explaining the minor is a U.S. born citizen. The child was approved for coverage.  

 3. One parent leader called on their own to schedule their first medical appointment without relying on Kapi to call for them.

Graduation day!

MIC hopes to bring in a second cohort of parent leaders and engage the current cohort in teaching the second, while also strengthening the cohorts to participate in civic engagement opportunities.

The UnWind: Investing in the People and Relationships that Sustain the Work

None of us can improve the health of our region alone. We need an ecosystem of community-led organizations working together to change systems that pose barriers to health.

With this in mind, and to honor the charitable intent of a gift Kaiser Permanente Community Fund received from the estate of Ronald Culver, Northwest Health Foundation and Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) organized the UnWind.

Community-led organizations’ most valuable asset is people-power. The skills and talents people offer to their communities have the potential to create a vibrant, healthy and fulfilling future for everyone.

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“I truly believe this was a worthy investment in our communities’ most dedicated and awesome leaders and our communities will reap benefits form the change our leaders will strive for and implement. And prioritizing care is a step in the direction of changing systems and institutions to be more resilient, inclusive and culturally responsive.”

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This work is difficult and often frustrating. It’s not easy to change systems, especially when organizations have access to limited resources. Staff, board members and volunteers burn out and leave movement work. Tension develops between individuals and between organizations.

KPCF knows we’re all stronger when we work together.

The UnWind brought leaders of color from community-led organizations together to build relationships and learn self-care skills, to sustain their interest in and energy for this work for the long-term.  

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“Walked away feeling like our org has allies we can collaborate with, gave me a sense of strength in unity. We developed a network that will hopefully continue for the rest of our careers.”

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Two UnWind cohorts convened in a series of three retreats over 10 months. Each cohort was comprised of up to 20 people, representing 10 organizations selected through an invited application process. Each organization was invited to send two individuals, including community members, staff, board and/or individuals important to that group (e.g. donors, collaborative partners, “competitors,” allies).

A pair of incredible facilitators, Amy Carlson and Michelle Johnson, led these groups in conversation, guided meditation, and techniques for reflective practice. These activities were designed to pull people together across organizations, weaving a cloth of leaders and organizations supportive of one another, preparing them to strategize and change systems together in the future.

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“We don’t have enough time to stop and get to know each other more, so this experience was invaluable and will transform the way we show up as partners and friends.”

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There are some things that we ought not leave to chance. One of these is cultivating trusting and respectful relationships among community leaders as we confront tough social challenges together.

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Kaiser Permanente Community Fund knows a people-powered movement is critical to organizations, collaboration and systems change:

• We invest in the skills and talents people offer to their communities, amplifying their efforts to create a vibrant, healthy, and fulfilling future for everyone.

• We believe health is best created by collaborative efforts that are led by people in their own communities and meaningfully include people who face the greatest barriers.

• We accelerate change to create the conditions for health in our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.

• We have created a growing network of collaborators who unite their neighbors and nurture more active, connected lives.

• We invest in the long-term success of our partners, setting the stage for them to refine their approach and share their ideas.

Community Education Workers Teach Parents to "Hack" the Education System

A story from Health & Education Fund Impact Partner Oregon Community Health Workers Association.

We know a quality education leads to greater opportunities and improved health throughout life. We also know setting children up for success in their earliest years is the best way to prepare them for their whole academic career.

Too often, we don’t set children up for success in their earliest years, especially children from communities of color. Our education systems are designed to support children from dominant culture, primarily white children. This means African American, Native American, Latinx, immigrant and refugee children start school already behind.

The Community Education Worker (CEW) program, a collaborative program convened by Oregon Community Health Workers Association (ORCHWA) with CEWs hired by Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), Latino Network, Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) and the Urban League of Portland endeavors to address this problem. The Community Education Workers support African American, Native American, Latinx, Somali and Zomi families with young children to prepare them for school in culturally-specific ways. They teach parents how to “hack” the education system, and they strive to change systems, with the end goal of equity in education.

CEWs are parents and members of the communities they work in. They’re also Community Health Workers (CHWs). They’re chosen by ORCHWA and their culturally-specific nonprofit partners to become CEWs, because they’re already respected leaders in their communities. ORCHWA and partners ensure they’re certified and pay them for work they were frequently already doing informally for free.

ORCHWA established their CEW program five years ago. Within the last year, they added another piece to this program: a parent leader steering team. Parent leaders come from all the families ORCHWA’s CEWs support. Previously, these parents only took part in culturally-specific gatherings and trainings. Through the parent leader steering team, they’re part of a multicultural experience. They can see how issues affecting their own community also affect other communities.

The parent leader steering team acts as a channel for parents to provide feedback to ORCHWA on their CEW program. More importantly, it is also an avenue for parents to receive more in-depth training and build power together. For example, ORCHWA offered a 60-hour change-makers training for parents interested in working for early learning systems, including trauma-informed, de-colonial and culturally-competent methodologies.

One of the most effective ways to improve education for children of color is by increasing educators of color. ORCHWA creates professional development opportunities for parents and other community members with this in mind.

As the parent leader steering committee spends more time together, building their capacity and their power, they’ll also consider policies they want to change or institute. They’ll join the CEWs in changing systems, so hopefully they won’t have to “hack” them anymore.

Student Community Health Workers Address Racism at Kelso High School

A story from Health & Education Fund Impact Partner The Noble Foundation.

When Kelso High School passed out the 2018-19 yearbook, students discovered it contained a quote by Adolf Hitler. Unfortunately, incidents like this aren’t unusual. Kelso High School students of color often hear inappropriate comments about topics like the Ku Klux Klan or slavery that their classmates claim are jokes. This doesn’t make for a comfortable learning environment. Racism at school harms students’ educational attainment and health. 

Ophelia Noble speaks to a library full of Kelso High School students.

Responding to this reality, The Noble Foundation and several other community-led organizations met with 170 students (80 students of color and 90 white students) at Kelso High School in 2018 and held two caucused community conversations with students around their experiences with racism in both the education system and surrounding community. These conversations led to the establishment of the first credit-offering elective “Diversity Class” at Kelso High School in Spring 2018, which continued into the 2019 school year.

After visiting this class in Spring 2018 as a guest speaker, The Noble Foundation Executive Director Ophelia Noble heard students of color voice multiple requests for support. Around this same time, the Health & Education Fund Partners opened applications for Impact Partnerships. The Noble Foundation and some partner organizations rose to the occasion, submitting a successful application for funding to support a high-school-based, culturally-specific community health worker program.

Students submitted 79 applications and resumes for the original five community health worker slots. Responding to the high demand, the program organizers increased the number of slots to ten.

A group of Kelso High School students gather around a table in the library during one of the caucused community conversations.

Every week for six months, the group of ten met in what is now recognized by staff and students as the school’s “Safe Space” to complete 90 hours of community-based, self-led community health worker training together. Although Ophelia and other adult community leaders attended to facilitate, for the most part the students led the work themselves. The students also committed to 20 minutes weekly of self-guided research on topics like communication, advocacy, leadership, team building, social justice, restorative justice and self-care, which is being used to develop the first culturally-specific, by-and-for community health workers curriculum in Southwest Washington.

Not only is the community health worker program a space for autonomy and leadership development, it’s also a space for students of color to spend time together and support one another. Three out of four Kelso High School students are white. Of the ten Kelso High School community health workers, two identify as African-American, three as Latinx, one as LGBQTIA, one as Korean and only three as white. The community health workers report feeling accepted and respected in this space.

During the school year, the community health workers planned and hosted outreach events, which they invited all students to attend. At a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, community health workers taught classmates about MLK Jr. and Black History Month. On Earth Day, they celebrated and informed their peers about social justice. Each event drew more than 200 students.

The community health workers also identified trusted school staff, built long-term relationships within the group, and began building relationships with Kelso School District administrators, including Superintendent Mary Beth Tack and Kelso High Principal Christine McDaniels.

The community health workers pose around one of the trifold posters they created for their MLK Day outreach event.

When students received the yearbook with the Adolf Hitler quote, the community health workers quickly called a special meeting for students to discuss their concerns. The meeting included facilitators and the newly formed Southwest Washington Communities United for Change (SWCUC). In this meeting, students determined they would reach out to the principal.

On the last Thursday of the school year, the principal met with the community health workers to answer questions, give feedback about yearbook policy updates, and apologize for the incident. The students stated they “wanted to continue to be the voice for their communities and were appreciative of the principal’s visit. But, also that this is just one event of the many they experience on almost a daily basis.” They plan to continue conversations with the principal next year.

Afterward, the community health workers gathered in the library to celebrate their successes. They deserved it. These students are contributing to a safer, healthier environment for themselves and future generations.

Oregon Active Schools Engages Students & Families in Physical Activity in New Ways

Over the last five years, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Nike and Northwest Health Foundation gave over $1 million total to 139 Oregon elementary schools to support physical education programs and inspire a lifelong love of physical activity. Now Oregon Active Schools is winding down, and we’re sharing highlights and learnings.

Read on to find out how two elementary schools used Oregon Active Schools grants to engage students and families in physical activity in new ways.

Whitcomb Elementary fifth graders goof around in the school gym. They earned a dodgeball game by working together as a class to improve their attendance! Photo courtesy of Lot Whitcomb Elementary Facebook page.

Whitcomb Elementary

Staff at Whitcomb Elementary School in North Clackamas School District recognized an opportunity to not only get kids moving, but also help students self-regulate and problem-solve through physical activity.

"We continue to work with our partners and community to make our recess area more engaging and add places that students can use to regulate themselves through physical activity. This was done through our sensory walk stations.

We used the money granted to us to repaint basketball lines, our problem-solving wheel, and add two sensory walks. This was also done in cooperation with our community and Playworks coach while cleaning up our playground. Students are now able to take sensory walks when they need, and the highlighting of the problem-solving wheels has increased its use which has decreased the number of problems at recess."

Whitcomb Elementary’s problem-solving wheel painted on the playground blacktop. It includes options like “Wait and Cool Off” and “Make a Deal” illustrated with frogs.

Aiken Elementary 

Aiken Elementary in Ontario School District used their Oregon Active Schools funds to organize, promote and expand a walking club. At first, they used it just to get students walking. Then they started using it to engage families in physical activity, too.

Aiken encouraged students to walk more by tracking how far they’d walked and challenging them to beat their own record. They also held class competitions. Originally, staff tallied each lap a student walked by hand. Now they use iPads and student ID cards. The total number of miles walked has increased every year since the walking club started.

Aiken also offered opportunities at family events for students to walk with their families during the event, providing special incentives exclusive to the students who participated in these events. In this way, they’ve increased awareness of healthy living throughout the whole community.

“We were able to use walking as a draw to get parents/families involved in other activities, and we were able to get parents/families walking when they were drawn by another activity.

Our current population is over 50% Hispanic. As a general rule, it was not the Hispanic population you would see out walking. Students, through their walking activity, have influenced parents to get out and move for health and entertainment.”

Look out for our final Oregon Active Schools blog next month, which will include the results of our OAS evaluation.

A KPCF Success Story: Hacienda CDC

Learn more about Kaiser Permanente Community Fund.

A KPCF Success Story: Children's Institute

Learn more about Kaiser Permanente Community Fund.

The Next Door Organizes Latino Parents in The Dalles

A story from Health & Education Fund Impact Partner The Next Door.

Every month since November 2018, Latino parents of children zero to eight-years-old gather in The Dalles to discuss health and education issues and develop their leadership skills. They’re brought together by Liliana Bello, a Community Health Worker at The Next Door. Liliana wants to hear about the barriers these parents face, meet their needs and help them become advocates for their children and families. 

Having been active in her community for the last fifteen years, Liliana knows how to meet Latino parents where they already are. She visited schools to recruit parents for this coalition. Twelve parents attended the first session. Through word of mouth, the coalition has grown to 17 participants. The Next Door gives parents $15 per meeting and provides child care with constructive activities, including art, games and walks around the building. These supports allow parents to attend consistently.

Community Health Worker Liliana Bello

At the first coalition meeting, Liliana asked parents to voice their concerns about education and healthcare. A few of the concerns they listed: lack of communication between schools and parents, lack of bilingual staff at schools, discrimination against Hispanic children, unfair punishments, unhealthy cafeteria food, dangerous parking lots, bullying, uncertainty about how to help their children with mental illness, teachers’ ignorance of students with disabilities’ needs, healthcare providers’ discrimination against patients on the Oregon Health Plan and poor translation during healthcare visits.

Parents’ concerns guide the agenda for each coalition meeting. Liliana invites guests to speak on topics of interest. So far, guests have spoken about food and nutrition, child care provider requirements and parents’ rights, child development and Head Start, and how to spot and respond to child abuse. In June, parents will learn how to support children with depression.

One of the coalitions’ most fruitful visits was from North Wasco County School District’s superintendent and the director of their migrant education program. They listened to parents’ concerns about their children’s education and told parents who they can contact in specific situations. They also encouraged the parents to consider running for an open school board seat. Currently, no Latino or bilingual representatives serve on North Wasco County School District’s board, which means Latino students needs are not heard or represented. The director of the migrant education program later followed up with an invitation to a day-and-a-half long symposium and information about applying for a school board position. Fifteen people attended the symposium; nine of them were from The Next Door’s coalition!

One parent from the coalition already sits on a local board – the One Community Health board of directors. Thanks to the coalition’s encouragement, more parents have expressed interest in leadership positions, including on the school board, Head Start’s board of directors and policy council. The coalition participants feel supported by one another, often calling each other between meetings. They wish each meeting lasted longer, because they have so much to talk about.

Northwest Health Foundation looks forward to finding out what these parents do next!

Learn more about The Next Door.

Oregon Active Schools Increases Childrens' Access to Physical Activity

An Independence Elementary School student stands on a balance board.

Over the last five years, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Nike and Northwest Health Foundation gave over $1 million total to 139 Oregon elementary schools to support physical education programs and inspire a lifelong love of physical activity. Now Oregon Active Schools is winding down, and we’re sharing highlights and learnings.

Read on to find out how three elementary schools used Oregon Active Schools grants to increase children and families’ access to play and exercise.

Parkdale Elementary

Before moving to Oregon a few years ago, PE teacher Brack Hassel had never received any money to support his students’ physical education. Then, his first year at Parkdale, he received a $3000 grant from Oregon Active Schools. The grant changed his whole curriculum and increased students’ interest in and access to physical activity.

Parkdale used Oregon Active Schools funding to purchase new PE equipment, revamp their recess space with new play structures, and partner with Playworks. 

Six Parkdale Elementary students play indoor soccer. According to PE teacher Brack Hassel, soccer is one of Parkdale’s most popular activities.

Brack’s goal this year was to engage every student in play at recess. The past couple years, teachers and students have lost instruction time due to behavior problems stemming off recess. Kids often floated around the play area with nothing to do and returned to class restless. Over the last year, Playworks instituted junior coaches (upper-elementary students who help everyone feel welcome at recess) and more options for games. Parkdale teachers report a huge decrease in lost instruction time, and recess monitors report more kids happy and moving.

Three Washington Elementary School students scale a climbing wall with pool noodles sticking out of it. Several students wait in line for their turn.

Washington Elementary

Washington Elementary used their Oregon Active Schools grants to purchase new equipment, with a focus on safer equipment for kindergarten and first grade students. They also used the funding to support their track club.

Washington Elementary introduced a running and walking station at recess, offering incentives based on distance. More and more students began to participate, until Washington Elementary decided to expand track club to morning and afternoon times as well, increasing access for students and their families. Now PE teacher Wil Poton notices more parents getting involved too, with parents volunteering to run and walk with the students and motivate them. 

Independence Elementary

Independence Elementary students run through clouds of colored powder, tossed by adults standing on the sidelines.

Independence Elementary used Oregon Active Schools funds to start and improve their running and walking program with incentives, tracking cards and toe tokens. In addition, PE teacher Meg Greiner purchased lights for dance parties and circus arts equipment, including stilts, pogo sticks, flower sticks, diabolos and juggling balls and scarves.

Students at Independence love running club, circus arts and dance parties, all of which are included before school, during recess and lunch, and after school. With new equipment and a greater variety of activities, more students can access physical activity than ever before.

Independence also used Oregon Active Schools funds to bring We Care Sports to lead an assembly and family fun night. About 80 students and family participated.

Southern Oregon Parents Support Driver's Licenses for ALL and the Oregon Voting Rights Act

A story with Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Collaborative Successful Transitions.

Spanish-speakers attend a Driver’s Licenses for ALL community forum in southern Oregon.

Kids do better in school and life when their parents are involved in their education and able to advocate for them. Due to language barriers, fear, and unfamiliarity with systems, immigrant parents often struggle to advocate for their children and families. That’s why Unite Oregon has been working closely with Southern Oregon Education Service District (SOESD) to engage and inform parents in SOESD’s migrant parent leadership program.

SOESD staff member Bianey Jiminez invited parents from the leadership program to attend Unite Oregon’s Driver’s Licenses for ALL Community Forum in Spanish on March 28. Almost 100 people turned out for the event. That’s where Unite Oregon staff began building relationships with these parents. 

Since the forum, Unite Oregon has helped the parents advocate for HB2015 (the Equal Access to Roads Act) and HB3310 (the Oregon Voting Rights Act). HB2015 would allow all Oregon residents, regardless of citizenship status, to obtain driver’s licenses after passing the required written and practical tests. This would allow undocumented immigrant parents to purchase car insurance and drive their children to school, the doctor or the park without fear of getting deported for driving without a license. HB3310 would allow Oregonians to challenge and offer solutions to discriminatory electoral methods. This could lead to more candidates of color winning school board, city and county elections.

Unite Oregon’s Bilingual Organizer Alessandra de la Torre coached parents on how to call their representatives and voice support for these two bills. She reassured undocumented parents that calling would not put them at risk.

Unite Oregon continues to welcome these parents to events like tenant rights trainings and citizenship classes. By talking to these parents over the phone or in person, they’ve gathered parents’ community concerns and visions, which contribute to an intercultural movement for justice.

The parents in the leadership program want to encourage other community members to take advantage of the resources and connections available to them. Although it might be uncomfortable, they emphasize that people need to empower themselves if they want change.

Learn more about the Equal Access to Roads Act and the Oregon Voting Rights Act, then call your legislators to voice your support!

Q&A with Raquel Garay, 2019 National Migrant Parent of the Year

Raquel Garay is a member of Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Collaborative Successful Transitions, which is based in Medford, Oregon.

Raquel Garay smiles, holding a plaque.

Q. How long have you been involved in the migrant parent program in southern Oregon?

A. As a parent, I think maybe five years. But I wasn’t as involved to begin with. I got more involved about three years ago.

Q. What motivated you to get more involved?

A. At first I would always just attend the meetings. Then I was selected by the parent advisory council to represent them, because they needed someone who could travel to conferences and trainings. Once I started getting more involved, I realized there was a high need for migrant parent leadership, and especially bilingual migrant parent leadership. I realized we do have rights and a stake in our kids’ education. Parents need to know this and get educated. I had something to say, and, being bilingual, I could give that extra service.

Q. How have you changed through your involvement with this program?

A. Before I had a blurry vision of what we were being served and what we deserved. Through meetings, trainings and conferences, I gained tools for advocating, not only for my kids, but for other kids and parents as well. I learned there is no right or wrong answer, and it doesn’t hurt to speak up or ask. I’ve learned to be less shy and to model for other parents and accompany them when they feel uncomfortable. There’s no one in front of me who has done it, so I have to be a leader in a way of trying. Our community is so unequal, so it is hard to expose yourself. But I’ve made connections, and I’ve learned who and how to ask for help.

Q. What leadership positions do you currently hold?

A. I’m the vice president for the Eagle Point School District Parent Advisory Council (PAC). I’m also on the budget committee for the school district, and I represent southern Oregon, Lane County and Klamath Falls on Oregon’s state parent advisory council (SPAC). We meet four times a year in Salem. And I’m on the Southern Oregon University parent committee for the Latinx community.

Q. Have you seen southern Oregon or Eagle Point School District change because of the migrant parent programs’ efforts?

A. A little bit. Eagle Point is tough to change. I urged people to vote for a person who will acknowledge our community, because our community doesn’t function the same way as other parents. And she won! The woman I urged people to vote for won. Finally, there’s someone elected advocating for us. She encourages parents to come to meetings and tells people about the work I’m doing. She’s always asking for my input. She understands all the kids in our classrooms aren’t the same.

Q. What do you hope to happen in the future through this work?

A. I want the district to follow through on concerns voiced by the parents. They listen, but then they don’t do anything with those concerns. We’re losing parent representation in the program because no changes are happening. If one thing changed, that would be a big deal.

Q. What’s something you love to do in your free time?

A. My kids play soccer. My passion is traveling with them and watching them play. Actually I’m part of that committee too. I like to sit and watch them play and yell. If I’m tired, that moment is relaxing.

FACT Oregon: Empowering Families Experiencing Disability to Pursue Whole Lives

A story from Health & Education Fund Impact Partner FACT Oregon.

“When we received Lizzie’s diagnosis of Down syndrome just after her birth, I had no context for what it meant for her or us. I feared she might not walk, talk, or count to three. I did not know if she would make friends, play sports, or do homework. As her parent, my preconceived thinking about disability — my ignorance — could be the biggest limiting factor to her living a full, whole life. What do you DO with that?”

— Elliott Dale

From diagnosis, disability is often presented as a deficit and a reason to segregate. This leads to lives of limited growth, social isolation, loneliness, poor health outcomes, and underemployment for too many Oregonians. FACT Oregon empowers families experiencing disability to pursue whole lives and change the trajectory for their kids to one of unlimited potential.

Parents are hungry for support, resources, and ways to engage in community. FACT Oregon provides trainings, peer-to-peer support, and community building programs for families of youth experiencing disability to help change life trajectories. We support families across all 36 Oregon counties and are parent-led. Our board maintains a majority membership of parents, and all leadership and program staff are parents of youth or young adults experiencing disability. Our person-centered, collaborative support services and trainings cover special education, assistive technology, behavior as communication, inclusive recreation, disability awareness, becoming a welcoming community, family networking, navigating disability service systems, person-centered planning, transition to adulthood, and more.

We are experiencing record-breaking call volume, with a 32% growth in calls from families seeking support over the last year. One question we often ask families when they call or attend a training is: "What is your vision for your child's future?" That one question reminds families that they have the power to change trajectory, to hold high expectations, and to give their kids the opportunities they need to live whole lives of self-determination and inclusion.

One of our newest programs, the All Ability Tri4Youth, helps improve the health and well-being of young people experiencing disability by encouraging physical activity in community. A major factor in the high obesity rate for people with disabilities is limited access to sports and recreation. FACT Oregon's All Ability Tri4Youth, the only barrier-free triathlon on the West Coast, actively demonstrates how to design programming that welcomes people with disabilities more fully into sports and recreation. Participants get a chance to explore swimming, biking, and running, and families connect with local sports and recreation resources that their youth with disabilities can access.

Elliott’s story didn’t end in fear and ignorance. He got involved in FACT Oregon, currently chairs our board, and is on a journey, living a whole life:

“Our family was fortunate to connect early with people who helped us challenge our norms. People who held high expectations, showed us that disability is natural, and modeled how to navigate the next step for Lizzie and the step after that. These are the people and families of FACT Oregon. Today, Lizzie counts, she runs, she has play dates, she has ballet practice and plays soccer, she does homework. And she is in first grade in a typical class in our neighborhood school— the first child with Down syndrome to attend for as long as anyone can remember. The people at FACT Oregon helped us make that happen.”

Find out more about FACT Oregon at www.factoregon.org, and register today for our All Ability Tri4Youth, which will take place August 10, 2019 at Tualatin Hills Athletic Center in Beaverton.

The Roots of Health: Latino Network

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was founded in 2004 with an initial $28 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to improve conditions for health. As we learned how to best partner with community organizations, we made pivotal decisions that changed how we operated. In this story, we tell how Latino Network taught us to focus on the roots of health, even when it pushes us out of our comfort zone.

Children participate in Latino Network’s Juntos Aprendemos program.

“We need programs — in the schools — for us to attend with our children when they are young, so we can learn what is expected of them in kindergarten and how to prepare them. There is no one in the school who speaks our language, and then they tell us our children are already behind when they start kindergarten. How is it possible that our babies be behind if we were never given the opportunity to teach them?” — First year participant in Juntos Aprendemos

In the late 1990s, Latina mothers in Portland had clearly articulated the racial opportunity gap in early learning and had a vision for how to eliminate it for their children. When Sadie Feibel, director of Children, Family and Community Services at the Latino Network, heard this frustration and determination voiced by many families in her community as they struggled with the transition into kindergarten, she and Christine Taylor, a community health nurse, responded.

They brought Latino parents, children, and educators together to build bridges between the community and its schools. And so, Juntos Aprendemos (Together We Learn) was born. The culturally specific, dual generation early learning program prepares young children to succeed in school and supports parents to be their children’s first teachers and strongest advocates.

When KPCF first started, we funded programs focused on equity in healthcare, such as delivering culturally competent care. We did not connect our vision for health to programs like Juntos Aprendemos. As we learned from our community, as well as from the growing public health conversation about social determinants, we realized how important childhood and education are for life-long health.

“We need to start creating the conditions for success as early as possible. When kids start kindergarten ready to learn, they do better in school and can graduate with the knowledge and resources they need to be healthy adults,” said Northwest Health Foundation Community Engagement Officer Michael Reyes Andrillon.

Health and hospital systems weren’t used to funding groups like Juntos Aprendemos, and doing so took us out of our comfort zone. We weren’t familiar with the nuances of early childhood and education, nor were we a part of existing networks and collaborations focused on these issues. We needed to adapt to become an effective funder in this area. “As we grew, we learned about the entire ecosystem that allows students to be successful in school. School districts are incredibly complex; funders and community partners need to support families as they navigate bureaucracy and advocate for their children,” said Michael Reyes Andrillon.

While not easy, these changes allowed us to be a better community partner, as illustrated by the collaboration between KPCF and Latino Network. Over the past three years, we have supported the growth and expansion of Juntos Aprendemos. What began as a pilot at one elementary school has now expanded to twelve schools, serving over 1,600 children and parents since the program began. These children and parents are now better able to succeed in school, advocate for themselves, and create healthy patterns of development.

“Our work has an emphasis on whole families and whole communities,” said Michael Gibson, development manager for Latino Network. “It’s not just about getting the outcomes for X, Y, Z in terms of reading or math. It’s also the connections that families make together, which can then lead to system change, advocacy, and greater community strength.”

The successes of Juntos Aprendemos show what is possible when funders step out of their comfort zones. Through funding this program, we learned new approaches to creating health in our communities and invested in developing partnerships and networks. We worked to identify great programs led by community members, and instead of asking them to navigate our funding, we changed our funding to best support them.

“Often, funding priorities are rigid and narrow, and not focused on racial justice or holding up community-driven solutions as a priority,” said Sadie Feibel. “But KPCF has invested in what’s already working in our community. They’ve provided support for existing sites while helping to expand Juntos Aprendemos to new schools. Through their support, we are able to grow this program in more communities that need it.”

Through thoughtful listening to learn what works, KPCF was able to develop new approaches to amplify the change that is happening in communities, making investments for more effective and long-lasting change.

Grow Organizations, Not Just Programs: Verde

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was founded in 2004 with an initial $28 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to improve conditions for health. As we learned how to best partner with community organizations, we made pivotal decisions that changed how we operated. In this story, we tell how Verde taught us to commit to growing organizations, not just funding programs.

Cully residents at a Winter celebration at the start of construction of Cully Park.

For years, Wendy Yah-Canul dreamed of a neighborhood park for her children to play in. As a resident of the Cully neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, Wendy worked with her neighbors to transform a former landfill into the park she dreamed of. At the beginning, she helped test the soil to make sure the land was safe for a park. Seven years later, Wendy joined with thousands of people to celebrate the grand opening of Cully Park, which has slides, a climbing wall, and plenty of green space for families to exercise in. The park even has ADA-accessible play equipment, making play more equitable for all of the neighborhood’s children.

Cully Park is just one success story of the Living Cully collaboration. Living Cully uses sustainability as an anti-poverty strategy, advocating for environmental policies and opportunities that bring new resources to residents of the Cully neighborhood. Verde, one of the organizations involved in the collaboration, has also created a plan to bring renewable energy to the neighborhood and worked to ensure that 75% of the contracts to build Cully Park went to women- and minority-owned businesses and social enterprises.

The successes of Living Cully relied on policy changes that shaped priorities and practices of city agencies. Prior to this funding, Verde’s executive director was able to respond to new opportunities and further develop partnerships with other organizations led by communities of color. It came at a time when Portland had a new mayor committed to sustainability and when the federal government provided new economic stimulus resources dedicated to neighborhood development.

When Kaiser Permanente Community Fund learned of Verde’s successes and desire to expand their work, we decided to support their growth as an organization with a $50,000 capacity building grant. “We used capacity building grants to pay for the things organizations usually can’t find funding for, such as building relationships, networking, researching, and figuring out how to navigate systems,” said Jen Matheson, director of programs for Northwest Health Foundation. “These grants allow people to come together and strategize in new ways.”

With this funding, Verde’s executive director was able to respond to new opportunities and further develop partnerships with other organizations led by communities of color. It came at a time when Portland had a new mayor committed to sustainability and when the federal government provided new economic stimulus resources dedicated to neighborhood development.

“The funding provided freedom for us to explore new opportunities, to experiment, and to bring other organizations into collaboration for that work. For the first time, we were able to create partnerships with multiple organizations of color around environmental policymaking,” said Alan Hipólito, director of special projects for Verde. With the additional capacity, Verde was able to join Living Cully and work with the Coalition of Communities of Color to put environmental justice goals in their strategic plan and hire their first environmental justice staff position.

Kaiser Permanente Community Fund continued to fund Verde as it grew its advocacy work, providing $225,000 to implement new organizing and program efforts. Over the last few years, Verde has grown in their role as a collaborator and driver of systems change. In November 2018, Verde and their partners worked to successfully pass a Portland ballot measure that will generate $30 million a year to hire people of color and people with low-incomes to create clean energy and sustainable housing.

“The Portland Clean Energy Initiative was the result of greater collective environmental justice capacity among communities of color. This capacity was supported by funders who allowed us to grow as a community and as an organization. Some of our experiments were incredibly successful, and even the ones that didn’t work still made us all stronger,” said Alan Hipólito.

Verde taught us the power of investing in organizations and not just programs. By having resources to grow its collaborative advocacy work, Verde was able to shift public funds toward investments in both environmental sustainability and economic opportunities for low-income communities and communities of color. From new green energy projects to the ability of parents like Wendy to work in the community garden while her kids play nearby in the park, the benefits of supporting an organization through its growth can be felt throughout an entire community.

Set the Stage without Defining the Script: OPAL Environmental Justice

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was founded in 2004 with an initial $28 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to improve conditions for health. As we learned how to best partner with community organizations, we made pivotal decisions that changed how we operated. In this story, we tell how OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon taught us the benefits of setting the stage without defining the script.

Youth Environmental Justice Alliance onstage at the 2017 Climate March.

If Tommy Jay Larracas is able to catch one of the few buses that leave after-school activities, he settles in for a long crowded ride. It can take more than two and a half hours to get home, which leaves little time for chores and homework. The same is true for his morning commute; if he can’t catch the early school bus, he has to scramble to find money to pay for a ride on the public bus. When he doesn’t have the extra money or time, Tommy can’t find a way to get to school.

When Kaiser Permanente Community Fund first decided to focus on improving educational outcomes for Oregon youth, we weren’t thinking about how students get to and from school. Among other funders, we heard lots of discussion about creating new after-school programs, but we rarely heard discussions about what young people need to actually get to those programs.

Thankfully, one of the values that defined how we operated was community-driven solutions. Instead of defining the solution we wanted to fund, we instead articulated a vision and invited community-based organizations to identify possible solutions. “Northwest Health Foundation believes that communities understand the problems they face best, because they live them everyday,” said Community Engagement Officer Michael Reyes “So of course they would also know the best solutions to those problems.”

When we said we wanted to see greater racial equity in education, one community group, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, directed our attention to public transit and the ability of students to get to and from school and after-school programs. OPAL’s Executive Director Huy Ong told us, “Expanding transit access to underserved schools is a systemic change to win more equitable educational access for low-income youth and youth of color. Access to transportation is a critical factor in improving school attendance rates. OPAL’s organizing activates the potential of our youth to re-imagine how they get to school, and to lead the charge to make their vision a reality.”

Once we learned that public transit was a major barrier for students of color to participate in school and after-school programs, we decided to fund OPAL, even if it took us outside of our comfort zone of funding traditional educational programs. “We trust OPAL, because OPAL’s work is led by the communities OPAL serves. This campaign, for example, was led by youth of color from high schools throughout Multnomah County,” said Michael Reyes Andrillon.

OPAL was successful, not only in Oregon, but across the nation. Their community-led Campaign for a Fair Transfer led to a change in federal policy that requires transit agencies to conduct an equity analysis before changing transfer times. OPAL’s YouthPass to the Future campaign also convinced local policymakers to expand the YouthPass program to give public transit passes to students to two additional Portland-area school districts. Youth in the program, like Tommy, now have a consistent, reliable way to get to and from school and other opportunities across the city, although recent budget cuts mean that OPAL must once again campaign for the program. Again, youth are taking the lead.

OPAL, like many other organizations in constantly-changing environments, must continuously search for new sources of funding to pursue their vision. “Scarcity of resources keeps us from being able to build strong partnerships,” said OPAL Community Engagement Coordinator Shawn Fleek, because it means “we just have more projects and less general operating grants. Projects say ‘reach these numbers, get these outcomes, put your report at the end of the year.’ But when work is led by community, we might not know in advance exactly what we’re going to achieve, but we know we’re going to achieve it by the right process.” Instead, Shawn says, more funders need to say, “We trust your values and your methods. Take this money and use it to do whatever the community says it needs to do.” In short, Shawn says, “Let us do our work.”

From our experience with OPAL, KPCF learned about what is possible when we invite community-driven solutions. Instead of defining specific outcomes we want to fund, we articulate a vision and invite community-led organizations to define a path to get there. By doing so, we learn from the communities most impacted by barriers to health and begin to see new solutions for established problems.

Guiding Values: Partnership for Safety and Justice

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was founded in 2004 with an initial $28 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to improve conditions for health. As we learned how to best partner with community organizations, we made pivotal decisions that changed how we operated. In this story, we tell how Partnership for Safety and Justice taught us the benefits of formalizing and articulating our approach with guiding values.

Partnership for Safety and Justice advocates walk through the hall at Oregon’s State Capitol during PSJ’s lobby day.

Brittney’s life didn’t look like the lives of most other children. Her parents were incarcerated for addiction-related harms, and Brittney was passed around from family members to friends to strangers. She lived out of a suitcase, was depressed, and would sometimes lie in bed all day without eating or talking, just worrying about her parents.

Brittney’s experience is common for children of incarcerated parents, who experience lower health-related quality of life than their peers. Children whose parents are incarcerated face higher rates of heart disease, depressive disorders, and drug use than children who do not have parents behind bars. That is why we see Oregon’s growing prison population as a health problem. From 2000 to 2010, Oregon’s prison population increased by nearly 50%, putting the health of both inmates and their families at risk.

“Originally, KPCF received applications from, and funded, more traditional public health organizations and projects. But what we really wanted to get at was the social determinants of health — factors like economic opportunity or early life — that are shown to set the stage for lifelong health,” said NWHF Director of Programs Jen Matheson. In the mid 2000s, even though we knew in our hearts that incarceration was a health problem, we didn’t have a mechanism for the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund to invest in solutions. We weren’t reaching out to organizations that worked on this issue, and they were not applying for our grants. Instead, we saw applications from traditional healthcare delivery, community health, or academic health programs.

So, we embarked on a rigorous process with our advisors to evaluate the fund and its impact. Through the evaluation, we learned that the organizations we felt were a good fit for the fund embraced a set of specific approaches.

We decided to further explore these approaches, articulate them as values, and use those values as filters to decide who to fund. Those values were:

• Social and Racial Equity

• Collaborative Partnerships

• Community-Driven Solutions, and

• Systems Change.

With our newly articulated guiding values, we could appeal to organizations that may not have previously seen their work as a fit for the fund. One of those groups was Partnership for Safety and Justice, which promotes a more effective approach to public safety that focuses on prevention and keeping people out of prison. Andy Ko, the executive director of Partnership for Safety and Justice said, “The fund’s values were consistent with what we wanted to achieve...They also expressed through their own priorities that they understood the intersectionality and the systems element of what we were trying to do.”

We funded Partnership for Safety and Justice to improve health in communities disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system. The organization wanted to pursue justice reinvestment, which would steer state funds away from prisons and into community-based programs that help people succeed outside of prison. These programs include services such as crime prevention, mental health and addiction treatment, and crime survivor services.

We first supported Partnership for Safety and Justice with two capacity building grants to lay the groundwork for a legislative campaign. We then gave them a three-year grant to implement the campaign, which successfully secured passage of the Justice Reinvestment Act in 2013. Then we offered the organization another three-year grant to monitor how the law was implemented.

As a result of Partnership for Safety and Justice and their partners advocating for community-based alternatives to prison, eleven Oregon counties decreased their prison usage rates. These counties put fewer people in prison than before the advocacy campaigns, and more than 6,000 people were able to return to their families and communities.

One of those people was Elizabeth. By the time Elizabeth was 30, she had experienced abusive relationships, struggled with addiction, and felt like she was in basic survival mode. She was jailed multiple times over two and half years, each time separated from her family and community. After her last time in jail, Elizabeth qualified for the community programs now offered because of the work of Partnership for Safety and Justice and their partners. Instead of being behind bars, Elizabeth returned to her children and, with the help of organizations in her community, overcame her addiction. Last year, she celebrated with her family when her daughter got accepted to Stanford University.

Stories like Brittney’s and Elizabeth’s show us how we can make bolder decisions to create healthy communities. Articulating our guiding values was a pivotal movement in the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund that created the structure to make those decisions possible.

New Approaches to Community Partnership: SKCE

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was founded in 2004 with an initial $28 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to improve conditions for health. As we learned how to best partner with community organizations, we made pivotal decisions that changed how we operated. In this story, we tell how Salem/Keizer Coalition for Equality taught us to put new insights into action.

A mother and son practice reading together at SKCE’s Leyendo Avanzamos program.

Before Estela Flores joined the programs offered by the Salem/Keizer Coalition for Equality (SKCE), she did not understand the grading system at her children’s school. Estela did not graduate elementary school and moved to the United States with the hope of a better future for her children. However, she did not know how to navigate the bureaucracy of the school district, she couldn’t help her children with the homework they were assigned, and she was not familiar with the meaning of an “A,” “B,” or other grades the teacher gave.

“I remember back when I was young and see how far we have come, how far my mom has come,” said Estela’s daughter, Celia Flores. “I just feel so thankful that she has had the opportunity to attend workshops and events and become part of the group of Latino parents with the coalition. One of the most important ways I saw my mom change was when she learned not to be afraid. She didn’t know English, and she didn’t know much about the school system, but she learned how to make sure we were doing well in school.”

SKCE’s motto is backed by solid research: parents are the key to their child’s educational success. For years, SKCE has worked to inspire and equip Latino parents to get involved in their children’s education and schools and change the dynamics that influence academic success for students of color.

When SKCE first connected with KPCF, SKCE wanted to address Latino student education success through parent program support and increased advocacy. They worked to activate more Spanish-speaking parents to get involved in their children’s education, focusing on absenteeism and mental health. At the same time, SKCE also knew that direct intervention with parents was not enough; they needed to advocate more and work to change school district policies and practices by partnering with districts.

We saw an opportunity to invest in SKCE in a way that brought together many of the lessons we learned throughout the life of our fund. Instead of funding a specific program, we provided SKCE with flexible funding, coaching, and technical assistance that allowed the organization’s leaders to hire administrative staff and step back from day-to-day operations. By doing so, they could focus on building capacity to deepen relationships, develop partnerships, and create the community-led infrastructure for systems change advocacy.

SKCE increased the size and resources of their advocacy program budget to campaign for a more equitable and culturally responsive education workforce. 38% of the district’s students are Latino, but only 6% of their teachers are, and SKCE knew students would benefit from seeing themselves reflected in their educators. It is well-documented that when students see their race, ethnicity, and culture reflected in their schools, their educational success, health, and attendance significantly improve. In addition to funding staff time for advocacy activities, committee participation and professional development, KPCF provided critical technical assistance to conduct a community assessment, clarify strategies, and use developmental evaluation to track community change.

Building strong relationships with district administrators and leaders was a key component and took lots of time. SKCE was able to hire more people and parents from the local Latino community and develop their leadership. With their new capacity, they had the ability to attend the school district’s decision-making committees, testify more at school board meetings, and meet consistently with district leaders. Together with district leaders, they identified specific changes the Salem Keizer School District needed to make in their recruiting, hiring, and training practices.

Annalivia is excited: “I started bringing Latino parents and staff to committees. I’ve got staff that are trying to learn English, and they’re boldly going forth and trying to figure out how to get in this committee and say something. KPCF had an understanding that we have to pay low-income, underrepresented people to do what you would expect other white organizations to do with volunteers.”

With SKCE’s expert Latino parent voices, the district adopted their first Safe and Welcoming School Resolution, created a new office of Equity and Student Advancement, and promoted a long-time principal of color to direct it. The new office began the work of training principals and teachers in cultural awareness and responsiveness, and developing long-term plans for continual professional development in these areas. Latino students and parents began feeling more welcome and safe at school.

With flexible funding, SKCE was also able to hire Spanish-speaking parents to plan a systems change strategy with their constituents. They focused on partnership development and continuously showed up to district meetings as they grew into a trusted partner of the district. The highlight came in the summer of 2017 when the district awarded SKCE a contract to conduct a teacher training institute in collaboration with the district’s human resources department. Hosted at SKCE’s office, 17 educators attended the pilot Language and Culture Institute, learning Spanish in the morning (taught by the district) and spending the afternoon doing activities with Latino parents and staff. SKCE staff also worked with the district to host job fairs where they hired Latino employees.

The relationship between the district and parents of SKCE has grown strong, in part due to the openness of Superintendent Christy Perry and the people she hired. Last year, SKCE was recognized as the district’s partner of the month at the school board meeting. “I feel like we have finally reached our goals of being a partner to the district, of being truly valued as a Latino organization. This literally happened because KPCF,” said Annalivia.

Without the capacity and technical support of KPCF, Annalivia says they never could have maintained the steady growth, and the steady planning and accountability meetings needed to reach many of their goals. Annalivia added, “We are changing school and district culture, and we will never stop, and we will become a part of their culture so what was radical 20 years ago is best practice and innovative and highly praised now.”

KPCF is proud of our flexibility in keeping up with the latest research and trends, not just in health but in the nonprofit sector, in education and in and equity issues in general. We found that our culturally specific nonprofit partners were more than ready to take their work to a higher level of systems change as soon as we stepped up to help them make that possible, and other foundations are following suite. Culturally specific organizations are often led by people who are affected by the social justice issues KPCF wants to fund. We are investing in these organizations as the most effective way to improve health and education equity in our society.

The Roots of Health: Resolutions Northwest

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was founded in 2004 with an initial $28 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to improve conditions for health. As we learned how to best partner with community organizations, we made pivotal decisions that changed how we operated. In this story, we tell how Resolutions Northwest taught us to focus on the roots of health, even when it pushes us out of our comfort zone.

Restorative Justice Co-Director Natalia Mathews leading circle with students at Rigler.

Rigler Elementary School felt a lot different before Resolutions Northwest brought restorative justice to the school. Ten years ago, if a student ignored instructions or disrespected a teacher, they would have received a referral. In some cases they may have been sent to the office and spent a portion of their day there, missing critical instruction time. As referrals built up over the course of the year, the student may have faced suspension or even expulsion.

Now, as one teacher recounts, restorative justice helps educators address factors underlying behavior and keep students in school. One teacher told Resolutions NW, “I participated in a restorative dialogue with a student who had ignored instructions and used disrespectful language with me. During the session, he said he thought of himself as a bad kid and assumed that I saw him as a bad kid. The session allowed us to start to address this self-image and was the turning point in our relationship, which has been extremely positive ever since.”

Restorative justice holds students accountable without the strict punishment that is often disproportionately applied to students of color and students with disabilities. It is a philosophy and practice to address harm between individuals and communities and undo systemic patterns of institutional racism and oppression. “Our goal is to build, maintain, and repair relationships in order to foster healthy and inclusive school communities,” said Christina Albo, director of restorative justice for Resolutions Northwest.

Restorative justice uses dialogue and social-emotional learning to teach young people to navigate their emotions and take responsibility for their actions. The skills it teaches create healthy habits that last a lifetime. In schools where restorative justice programs have been implemented, there has been a decrease in the difference of academic and disciplinary outcomes between students of color and their peers. During three academic years (2011-2014) of the Restorative Justice Program at Rigler Elementary School, African American and Latino students’ rate of major disciplinary referrals declined compared to their White peers. Relative rates began to rise in 2014-2015 when the program didn’t operate that year.

As KPCF matured, we decided to focus on education as a key area for investment that can create health in our communities. With stated values around social and racial equity, we were introduced to the work of Resolutions NW. “Education is a key factor to determining life-long health. We can’t measure impacts to health immediately, but we can find other indicators to measure our progress toward healthier communities. Resolutions Northwest helped us see how we can realize our vision by improving graduation and school discipline, and decreasing bias against students of color and students with disabilities,” said Michael Reyes Andrillon, Community Engagement Officer with Northwest Health Foundation.

With our support, Resolutions NW was able to expand their pilot into five additional schools and develop a partnership with Portland Public Schools. They now work closely with the district to reduce disproportionate discipline for youth of color and have even negotiated a multi-year contract with the district to build restorative justice into the district at all levels.

“Looking back, we now see that creating partnerships between schools and community organizations is key to creating health. Schools are asking for help, and the solutions they need can be created only in partnership with the students and families in their communities,” said Michael Reyes Andrillon. As a result of how we matured as a fund, and the decisions we made to address the roots of health in education, Resolutions Northwest has been able to nurture school efforts that give students a greater chance to live vibrant, healthy, and fulfilling lives.