Empowering Communities to Create Lasting Partnerships

Exchanging Ideas - The Oregon Community Foundation

Eastern Oregon Regional Action Initiative Takes Additional Steps to Focus on Mentoring & Enrichment Opportunities for Youth

In celebration of reaching a $1 billion endowment in 2008, the OCF board of directors launched the Regional Action Initiative to empower volunteers in each region with $1 million to create long-term beneficial change.  Eight regional leadership councils began a process two and a half years ago to determine how to invest the funds in their communities.  The Eastern Oregon Leadership Council identified academic achievement as the principal focus area for their nine county region. In order to improve academic achievement, the council developed strategies to improve access to mentoring and enrichment opportunities for youth.

Through this Initiative, OCF awarded eight large multi-year grants to nonprofit organizations to increase their capacity to serve youth in Eastern Oregon last year. Grantees are providing opportunities ranging from afterschool programs to student writing workshops.  While the grantees will reach thousands of students, the Council wanted to do something that would help build capacity within organizations throughout the region as well.

This spring, the Council is sponsoring four regional trainings for youth-serving nonprofit organizations.  Trainers from Oregon Mentors and Oregon ASK (Afterschool Network) will provide tools and resources for participants to improve their use of best practices, from volunteer recruitment and retention strategies to assessment tools that measure outcomes effectively.  The Council encourages other grantmakers to attend the trainings, meet the leaders and learn about their programs.  They want to help their RAI grantees and others become more familiar with the funders in Oregon and vice versa.

Girls pose for a picture during their afterschool activities at McNary Heights Elementary School, an OCF grantee in Umatilla, OR.

“We were pleased with the response the Eastern Oregon RAI has generated”, said Steve Corey, recent past board chair of The Oregon Community Foundation, “There are many worthy programs serving youth, and we witnessed nonprofit organizations within communities coming together for the first time to form partnerships as a result of the RAI.  It is our hope that this type of collaborative spirit will continue long past this Initiative.”

If you are interested in participating, please contact Tiffany Hegarty, OCF Eastern Oregon RAI Coordinator, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Melissa Durham, OCF Director of Strategic Projects, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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