Coalition of Communities of Color
Fall 2021 Equity Lens
IN THIS EDITION OF THE EQUITY LENS:
Message from the Executive Director
Dear Members, Partners, and Community,
As the season settles into Fall, we are moving forward with a wide range of important projects and welcoming wonderful new people to our community. I am reflecting that our work here is ever-evolving, varied, and essential. Our outstanding staff and emerging leaders are showing the way towards a brighter future amidst the hardships and challenges we have faced.
There is so much work to do, new directions that the present moment beckons us to grow towards, and a persistent gap between the vision of justice our communities hold and the resources and will needed to make it a reality. With all the lessons we have learned and the seeds that the movement for racial justice has planted, it’s high time we closed that gap and made way for our communities to flourish.
Below you will find a snapshot of how we are supporting our Members, our communities, and Oregon.
We have welcomed new leaders among our members (Candace Avalos of Verde, Marsha Williams of KairosPDX, Khanh Le of Unite Oregon, and Tony DeFalco of Latino Network), and said farewell to others. Our staff team has grown to include vital new capacity in our advocacy, research justice, and development efforts.
We have embraced our expansive pallet of projects, from examining the nexus between climate and health to researching the racial wealth gap and a comprehensive analysis of behavioral health on BIPOC folks in Oregon. The once-in-a-decade convening of the Portland Charter Review Commission offers us the opportunity to explore a new form of government and elections for the City of Portland where the needs of communities of color are not left out.
Along the way, we have participated in and led discussions about issues as far-ranging as campaign finance reform, supportive housing services, the Reimagine Oregon Project, property tax reform, pediatric oral health, transforming criminal justice, COVID-19 response strategies, and more (in case you missed it, click here for a recap of our 2021 state legislative progress).
CCC has been a consistent conduit, a think tank, a voice, a powerful sentinel for our communities for the past 20 years. This coming spring, we will be celebrating our 20 years of service as well as 10 years of our Leadership Development programs. We hope to see you there as we look ahead to the next 10 years, 20 years, and forthcoming generations who will sit under the trees we plant today.
Respectfully,
Marcus C. Mundy, Executive Director
Coalition of Communities of Color
ADVOCACY UPDATES - Get involved in PORTLAND's CHARTER REVIEW
Take our Portland Charter Survey: bit.ly/charter-survey
CCC is excited to announce that we will be supporting vibrant community engagement in the City of Portland's Charter Review process. Every ten years, the Charter Commission meets to review Portland's Charter (city constitution) and recommend changes that impact all Portlanders.
The Charter Commission is currently exploring changes related to Portland’s form of government and City Council elections. The recommendations made by the Charter Commission have the potential to strengthen our democracy and build a collective vision of a city that works for our diverse communities.
To ensure that historically disenfranchised communities will be heard in this process, CCC is partnering with twelve of our members and partners to design and implement culturally specific and multiracial community engagement activities.
CCC’s 12 member collaborative includes APANO, Hacienda CDC, IRCO Africa House, Pacific Islander & Asian Family Center, Muslim Educational Trust, Native American Youth & Family Center, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Inc., Slavic & Eastern European Center, Unite Oregon, Urban League of Portland, Verde, and Next Up.
If you would like to stay informed about how to participate in the Charter Review process, sign up below!
We have also launched a multilingual survey to hear about how you would like to participate in the Charter Review process! Take our survey by Tuesday, October 12, 2021, to shape our future outreach efforts.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE UPDATES
This summer’s heatwaves, fires, and droughts as well as the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have made it clearer than ever that the climate crisis is here, and it is impacting communities of color and low-income Oregonians first and worst. As temperatures in Portland hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit, over 100 Oregonians died in what has become our state’s second deadliest natural disaster on record.
Though the urgency of this moment is rising, so too are communities of color creating solutions that build resilience and adaptation to extreme weather and disasters while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, CCC and several of our member organizations helped lead the groundbreaking Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity campaign, winning 100% Clean Electricity by 2040 (House Bill 2021), the Healthy Homes Repair Fund (House Bill 2842) and the Energy Affordability Act (House Bill 2475).
Artwork by Erica Alexia (@EricAlexia), in support of the successful Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity campaign.
As we look ahead to implementing these bills, we are also continuing our work with Build/Shift, a collaboration between community organizations and the City of Portland working on community-driven policy development with a focus on buildings and energy. CCC convened a two-part policy convening this summer attended by 65 BIPOC community members at which we established collective values, discussed policy ideas, and shared our experiences with the recent heat wave. Stay tuned for more on Build/Shift as we prepare for a public campaign launch later this Fall.
Portland Clean Energy Fund grant applications now open
The second-ever cycle of Portland Clean Energy Fund grants has begun - the deadline to apply is November 30th, 2021: portland.gov/pcef-grants
The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) has launched its second major request for proposals (RFP). The City of Portland will award $60 million in total to community nonprofits to build clean energy, job training and workforce diversification programs, and green infrastructure such as tree planting and urban gardens. Check out the City’s PCEF website for more details as well as the following information sessions:
PCEF Grants Info session for small organizations (3 year-round, full time staff or fewer) and/or fiscally sponsored organizations: Thursday, October 7, 5:30 - 7 p.m. | Register here
Info session for organizations that are led by and serve PCEF priority communities (BIPOC, low-income, and people with disabilities): Monday, October 11, 12:30 - 2 p.m | Register here
Research Justice Institute Updates
Our Behavioral Health Report in collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority will be available this Fall.
Staffing update:
We are thrilled to have a third team member join the Research Justice Institute -- Khanya Msibi, Data Manager. Khanya focuses on providing relevant data on BIPOC communities in our region and managing all of the coalition's internal data.
Oregon BIPOC Mental Health Survey
We have completed our community-led statewide research on BIPOC communities' experiences with mental health. In collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority, we will host a Zoom town hall in November to discuss our survey findings with community members, elected officials, philanthropy, and others doing mental and behavioral health across the state.
Racial Wealth Gap Report Underway
The Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust are supporting CCC’s research on the historical and current drivers of the racial wealth gap and policy solutions to addressing the gap in Oregon.
The report includes an extensive literature review, survey findings from philanthropy, government, business, nonprofits, and BIPOC-facing organizations, and analysis from 23 interviews with folks working in dominant and community-based organizations across the country on economic justice. The report will be published later this Fall.
Growing Research Across the Region
Clackamas County Racial Justice Study
CCC is now in the planning stage of a multi-year, community-based participatory action research study.
Currently, we are building relationships with stakeholders who work with and serve BIPOC communities in Clackamas County, including elected officials, school administrators, school board members, diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals, and community-based organizations, to learn about the needs, challenges, and desires of BIPOC communities. From there, we will form a steering committee of BIPOC community leaders, including youth, to design, plan, and execute this research.
Clark County, Washington
In collaboration with our member organization Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), we have begun preliminary research of available data on BIPOC communities living in Clark County, Washington. We welcome any residents or employees of Clark County with relevant information to reach out to us: contact andres@coalitioncommunitiescolor.org.
Announcing New CCC Board Members
Candace Avalos (she/her), Executive Director, Verde
Candace Avalos is the Executive Director at Verde. She is a first generation American “Blacktina”, daughter of Black Americans from the south and Guatemalan immigrants. Originally from Virginia, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern Foreign Languages, with a focus on Spanish and Italian, and Master of Education degree in College Student Personnel Administration from James Madison University. Prior to her venture into the nonprofit world, she worked at Portland State University for 8 years providing civic engagement education and advising support for student leaders. She lives in NE Portland and is an active member of her community, such as a co-founder of the Black Millennial Movement, serving on the Citizen Review Committee and Charter Review Commission for the City of Portland, as well as on the boards of Portland: Neighbors Welcome, Street Roots, and the Oregon Kickball Club. Her hobbies include watching cooking shows, reading social justice literature, playing outdoor sports, and walking and biking around Portland. Su nombre en español es Candis Ávalos.
“Despite the many complex challenges ahead of us, we have an opportunity to leverage these difficult times to make a long-term impact on the communities who have been most impacted. Joining the CCC board to help advocate for that work along with our member organizations is an honor and responsibility that I won’t take for granted. My lens is that of younger generations who have the most to lose from the widening economic disparities, devastating impacts of climate change we see today, and democratic systems that are being put to the test. I hope to bring that perspective to the CCC board as we shape our collective action for today and the future.
Seeing the impact CCC’s member organizations are having in our communities is inspiring and motivating. I look forward to learning more about the members and finding ways to collaborate as we all work towards racial, economic, and environmental justice.”
Marsha Williams, CEO, KairosPDX
Marsha Williams was appointed in July 2021 as the Chief Executive Officer for KairosPDX. Williams is a seasoned executive, who brings a wealth of diverse organizational skills and thought leadership to community-based and national organizations, most notably currently serving as the Chapter President of the Portland Willamette Valley Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated, and as a Trustee on Warner Pacific University’s Board. Williams is a KairosPDX Co-Founder who has been co-leading the organization as the Operations Director since its inception. She has also chaired the KairosPDX Board of Directors for the past several years. Before KairosPDX, Williams worked in the health care sector, with over a dozen years researching and publishing in academic medicine. Williams received her bachelor’s from Brandeis University, where she played collegiate basketball, and subsequently completed a Fellowship in Policy Research at Harvard Medical School. Marsha comes to Oregon from New York by way of Boston and resides in Portland with her husband and five young children.
WELCOME NEW CCC STAFF
We’ve recently welcomed three new staff members to the CCC team: Khanya Msibi, Data Manager; Sol Mora, Civic Engagement Manager; and Damon Motz-Storey, Communications & Development Manager. Check out our staff page to get to know them.
Khanya Msibi, Data Manager. Pronouns: she/her/hers
Sol Mora, Civic Engagement Manager. Pronouns: she/her/hers
Damon Motz-Storey, Communications & Development Manager. Pronouns: they/them/theirs