Fifteen staff members (plus a consultant and the bus driver!) from  North joined the Community Volunteer Corps (CVC) team at the ReBuilding Center on Friday, December 10th.  CVC provides meaningful volunteer opportunities to CCC clients. Over a three-month period, they volunteer for 80 hours learning new skills, improving work habits and preparing themselves for permanent work. The program recently surpassed 16,000 hours of service to community.

Click the photo gallery for more images from the afternoon.

For the past three years, North, a Portland ad agency, has opted to do a half-day service project instead of a lavish holiday party. Working with CVC participants, the volunteers transferred huge piles of wood siding and  moved dozens of sinks onto new shelving at theReBuilding Center.

“It was great having North join us,” said Adrienne Karecki, Director of CCC’s Business Enterprises that operates the CVC program. “We love seeing local businesses engaged in community service over the holidays.  The ReBuilding Center is one of our many non-profit partners and we were delighted to give them an extra dose of help this month.”

Central City Concern greatly appreciates the generosity of individuals, businesses, families, church and school groups during the holidays. Some donate to Central City Concern as a holiday tradition, others are adopting a child for the holidays for the very first time and some are motivating others to get involved through creative events. We’d like to take a moment to highlight a few projects and say thank you to all who get involved during this busy time of year!

Jake’s Hosts Lunch for 12th Ave. Clients
For the second consecutive year, Jake’s Famous Crawfish hosted a lunch for 30 clients and a few staff members from our 12th Avenue Recovery Center program the day before Thanksgiving. John Underhill, General Manager of Jake’s, calls it one of their greatest holiday traditions. “Business is fun during the holidays, but this is really special for us.”

Coats & Soap Drive
Our 12th Avenue Recovery Center has launched a Coats & Soaps drive to provide needed new clothing including scarves, hats, gloves, raincoats, underwear, t-shirts, men’s large coats and basic toiletries for clients throughout the winter months. Email 12Donations@CCConcern.orgif you can help!

Thanks to Moule!
All customers who bring in a coat or a pair of boots to donate before December 11th will receive 20% off a new coat or boots. This is applicable on all coats and boots in Moule’s Pearl District location, 1225 NW Everett Street. Items brought in must be in good, wearable condition, clean, no holes or stains and presentable to someone in need.

Adopt-a-Child
For many years, CCC’s Family Alcohol & Drug Free Network Housing (FAN) has brought the joy of the holidays to children living in these 88 units of housing throughout the city. Parents of these kids are working hard to stay on track with their sobriety, employment or education so that they can create better lives for their families. Three giving options include:

    * gift cards (always in style!);
    * donated new clothing for children ages infant through 16;
    * adopt a specific child and receive a “wish list” for your shopping adventures.

Get involved and direct any questions to Holly at holly.redeau@ccconcern.org.

Peet’s Coffee
Peet’s Coffee at the corner of SW Broadway & Washington has chosen Central City Concern as the benefiting non-profit for their special Christmas Eve partnership. Head to this Peet’s for a FREE drip coffee or tea all day on Christmas Eve. Instead of paying for your beverage, Peet’s asks that you contribute to their donation jar for Central City Concern. If the jar hits $1,000 by the end of the day, Peets will match it, dollar-for-dollar! They’ll be open 5:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to help with your last minute shopping.

Annual Springbrook Holiday Bowl -
December 10th, from 6 to 8 p.m.
For the third consecutive year, the alumni of the Hazelden Springbrook invite you to join them in an evening of fun and fulfilling the wishes of families in recovery. The annual Glow Bowling event in Tigard, Oregon includes pizza, beverages, dessert, bowling, and shoes.  Guests are invited to bring a toy or donation for the Adopt-A-Child program at CCC. Hazelden is a national treatment and recovery center helping individuals, families, and communities struggling with alcohol abuse, substance abuse, and drug addiction transform their lives.

Emmanuel Presbyterian Providing a Holiday Party for Letty Owings Center Clients
This West Linn church is preparing for its 15th year of throwing a great party for clients of the Letty Owings Center and their children — a holiday meal, Santa and gifts for all! It takes an army of volunteers to make this happen. Their generous work is profiled in the winter issue of the Letty Owings Center newsletter.

Central City Concern Clean & Safe staffer Rodney Haven was again given the honor of the first ceremonial flush. Rodney participated in Portland’ first public “loo” flush two years ago when it opened at NW Glisan & 5th Avenue.  Formerly homeless and calling the shelter of the Ross Island Bridge “home” for some time, Rodney has worked with Clean & Safe for two years – taking care of the “loos” is his main job and he visits each of the public restrooms twice daily.  He is also the first responder for emergency clean up needs in the facilities. Rodney disinfects the loos from top to bottom, removes graffiti, resolves clogs, disposes of trash and any drug paraphernalia and restocks supplies.  “It’s a unique job,” he says. “There are details … around the edges, under the rim, odors….” Once a week, the facilities are pressure washed.

Rodney is one of more than 30 Clean & Safe staff members who keep the downtown area in order. In a recent 30 day period, Clean & Safe reported the following accomplishments:

• 2,080 graffiti tags removed
• 1,957 bags of trash removed
• 575 citizen cleaning responses
• 1,293 needles and items of drug paraphernalia removed
• 2,285 restroom inspections and cleanings
• 242 bags of leaves removed

The Portland Downtown Business Improvement District  contracts with Central City Concern for the maintenance portion of its Clean & Safe program to address a 213-block area in central downtown and along the bus mall

Central City Concern’s Chief Operating Officer Traci Manning is among 12 newly selected members of the Portland Housing Advisory Commission (PHAC). ThePortland Housing Bureau initiated an open application process for the new commission in October, and received more than 60 applications from a broad cross-section of the community.  The Commission will advise PHB Director Margaret Van Vliet, Housing Commissioner Nick Fish and the Portland City Council on a range of housing policy and program issues.

Traci began her CCC career in 1993 as a receptionist. She quickly moved into fundraising and public affairs before settling into housing development work. Traci spent nine years working in this segment of the organization, and was directly responsible for the renovation, acquisition or construction of 7 buildings ($61 million), representing 770 units to the agency’s portfolio. She led financing, design and construction on all projects. Her passion and involvement in ending homelessness via increased access to affordable housing has had a substantial impact on the City of Portland’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.

In 2008, Traci was selected for NeighborWork’s Achieving Excellence program, a collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School. This qualified CCC to compete nationally for a $100,000 James A. Johnson Community Leaders Program for leadership development. CCC was one of six affordable housing organizations to receive the James A. Johnson award.
 
Other committee members include:
Jesse Beason, Executive Director, Proud Ground
Andrew Colas, Principal, Colas Construction
Rey España, Housing Development Director, Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA)
Deborah Imse, Executive Director of Metro Multi-family, represents owners of larger multi-family properties. 
Marc Jolin, Executive Director, JOIN
Christine Lau, Chief Operations Officer, Asian Health & Service Center
Carter MacNichol, Principal, Shiels Obletz Johnsen, Inc.
Carmen Rubio, Executive Director, Latino Network
Tobias Washington, retired investment banking executive
Michael White, Chair, Powellhurst-Gilbert Neighborhood Association and East Portland Neighborhood Office. 
Brian Wilson, Executive, Kalberer, Inc.

Stand Down & Job Fair

Central City Concern serves upwards of 800 Veterans every year. We revel in our success stories and share the following to inspire your Veterans Day – tomorrow – November 11, 2010!

Dedicated Father
A 36-year-old US Army Veteran came to CCC’s Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) seeking assistance with employment and housing. A father to 5 young children, he came to us homeless, separated from his family, and determined to be reunited with his partner and children. He worked diligently with his HVRP Employment Specialist and the Job Developer to build his resume and increase his computer skills. All of his hard work eventually paid off and he took a temporary job through CCC’s Clean & Safe Program, and has since then obtained a permanent position. Despite these difficult times, he and his family have stayed together and, through it all, he has worked hard and has stayed positive.

From the Streets to His Own Apartment
Another of our veteran customers arrived in Portland from Las Vegas only to find himself sleeping on the streets. We were able to provide temporary shelter through vouchers to City Team Ministries until he was accepted into TPI. He completed his HVRP pre-employment action plan and became active participant in our job club. He obtained a 6-month position with CCC’s Clean & Safe, and then became a janitor, earning nearly 50% more than in his previous position. He is currently living in his own apartment, and has moved into retention with HVRP.

A Veterans Program Specifically for Women Makes the Difference
One customer recently found herself homeless again, and was living in the woods. While reluctant to return to traditional programming, the fact that Central City Concern now has a female specific program attracted her enough that she re-engaged. As a result, she is now accessing safe housing and employment development support as well.

If you  live in Portland, you’ve likely driven by the Sally McCracken Building at NW 6th & Everett in Old Town, perhaps never knowing that Sally McCracken is a real person! 

She is one of Central City Concern’s founding board members and a friend for many years. We are pleased to be honoring Sally (as well as longtime board member Dean Gisvold) at our Working Our Way Homeluncheon on Nov. 9, 2010. The luncheon benefits self-sufficiency programming at CCC; you may buy your ticketshere.

Here’s some background on Sally:

Sally has been a committed volunteer all her adult life. In the late 1960s when her children reached school age, she expanded her volunteer life to embrace community action. She joined the boards of a church community action program (East-CAP), then the board of PACT (now known as Portland Impact, but then was part of the “War on Poverty.”) In 1976, Sally was chairing the PACT board and also the Emergency Helping Agencies Committee (EHAC) of the Tri-County Community Council. In EHAC meetings the needs of the Burnside community came into focus and several meetings were held to see what could be done. As a result, a small group of Portland civic leaders formed the Burnside Consortium in 1979 and it later became Central City Concern.

Sally served as CCC board chair for seven years and spent many hours working with the agency’s executive director, navigating complex governmental requirements and always scrambling for the next dollar. She retired from the CCC board in 1990. Among her other volunteer activities are the Oregon Community Foundation where she served for 11 years as a board member (two of those as chair) and where she still serves on some committees as well as chairing the Giving in Oregon Council.

Currently she is a member of the Joseph E Weston Public Foundation Board, an Emeritus Board Member of the Ford Family Foundation in Roseburg and an Emeritus Trustee at Reed College. In addition, she is a former board member of the University of Oregon Foundation, the Providence Medical Center Advisory Board and two State Commissions. Sally has received many honors for her contributions including the 1985 George A. Russill Community Service Award and the 1998 Aubrey Watzek Award. She was declared a “Model Citizen” by the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Commission, when she ended her term at CCC. In 1991, CCC persuaded Sally to allow it to name a building after her – today, the Sally McCracken Building houses 95 very low-income individuals as well as the agency’s administrative operations.

At a November 9th luncheon, CCC will proudly honor Dean Gisvold, one of our longest serving board members.  Tickets are available now.

Dean Gisvold is CCC’s third board chair and has served as chair since 1987. A senior partner with the McEwen Gisvold law firm, Dean has over 40 years of professional expertise in real estate law and is a member of the prestigious American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He has helped guide Central City Concern through many housing development projects, expansion of services and organizational improvements.

Dean is also a founding board member of the statewide Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, a past president of the Irvington Community Association (ICA) as well as current board member, past chair of the Portland Public School Board, past chair of the Multnomah County Library Advisory Board and past chair of the Downtown Plan Advisory Committee, nationally recognized with the Rudy Bruner Award for excellence in urban planning. Dean was also honored with the George A. Russill Community Service Award in 1990. Dean and his wife Susan were early advocates for improving childbirth education and allowing fathers in delivery rooms; they were also active leaders in a variety of parent organizations supporting local schools.

In 1968, Dean was elected to the Model Cities board, where he worked on school and neighborhood issues. He is presently on the Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee. In a 1985 address to a graduation class, Dean shared a favorite quote from Harry Truman with students: “My father used to say that a man ought to leave the world a little better than it was when he came into it, and if that can be said about me, I guess you’ll have to say I lived a successful life.”

Today, in downtown Portland, the City of Portland honored two Clean & Safe staff:  past Central City Concern staffer Stephany Noll who picked up litter and debris from Portland’s streets, and security guard Ken Sterns who is a private security presence in downtown.

Clean & Safe is a program of the Portland Downtown Business Improvement District and is designed to keep a 213-block area of downtown Portland clean and safe for visitors and residents alike.

Central City Concern operates the “clean ” portion of Clean & Safe and employs roughly 20 people at any one time in six-month cleaning positions. Stephany began her employment with Clean & Safe in September 2008. She completed the program and greatly impressed her supervisors. Frequently, Clean & Safe employees have histories of incarceration, addiction and homelessness and they are working to reintegrate into the community. Stephany had come to the program after a 13-month prison sentence.

When Clean & Safe employees are nearing completion, they participate in Central City Concern’s “Life After Clean & Safe” array of classes at CCC’sEmployment Access Center. The classes address job readiness, resume writing, job search techniques and interviewing skills. Participants may also access one-on-one assistance with the job hunting process.

Central City Concern’s Employment Access Center put Stephany in touch with a warehouse job opportunity. She impressed the employer and she was promptly hired. She has worked for Universal Recycling Technologies for 18 months.

Ken has been with Clean & Safe for almost eight years and brings more than 25 years of law enforcement experience to Portland’s downtown business district.

Central City Concern is pleased to announce approval of a VA Per Diem grant specifically for female veterans. We now have access to 22 beds for female, homeless veterans in need of safe housing. This grant will be a huge support to a Homeless Veterans Reintegration Grant for Women we received earlier in the year.

Central City Concern’s Director of Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Services, Sarah Goforth, will receive a Distinguished Service Award at this year’s Hands Across the Bridge event on Labor Day.  She is being recognized for her success and vision with CCC’sHooper Detox Stabilization Center and Community Engagement Program.  She has worked in the social service arena for 20 years and is locally and nationally certified as a drug and alcohol counselor, and a certified forensic counselor. She joined Central City Concern in 2003.

9th Annual Event
10 a.m. - noon
Monday, Sept. 6

Oregon and Washington residents will celebrate recovery from alcohol and drug addiction when they join hands to span the Interstate 5 Bridge connecting the states of Washington and Oregon.

Ceremonies on both the Vancouver and Portland sides of the Columbia, kick off National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Community members will begin the walk to the Interstate 5 Bridge and bridge the gap between the Oregon and Washington recovering community, family members, and supporters.

Sarah will receive her award and address the group at the Jantzen Beach Red Lion Inn toward the beginning of the event at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Last year’s event drew almost 3000 participants whose lives had been affected by addiction and touched by recovery.  This year’s event seeks to raise awareness about the increasing level of stress in society and the impact it has on addiction.