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Are you involved in an organization or business that is committed to this community prospering in all ways – especially in equity and inclusivity?

Do you agree with the Concordia Neighborhood Association (CNA) board of directors that working in partnership with each other, the effectiveness of each entity can be maximized?

If yes, then mark your calendar for Wednesday, March 4. The CNA board invites you – and all individuals – to its quarterly general meeting. The discussion will focus on how the various groups in and near Concordia can work together to further education or advocacy toward the goals of equity and inclusivity.

“We’re looking for partners to increase our own efforts – and theirs – to further and more effectively serve the community at low or no cost,” explained CNA chair Astrid Furstner. “We want to help increase outreach and communications opportunities here in Concordia and with people and organizations in neighborhoods next door.

“As a neighborhood association, we believe we can help be a catalyst for collaboration,” she added. “Let us know how you think that might work best.”

If you cannot attend the meeting, but want to explore the concept further, contact Astrid at Chair@ConcordiaPDX. org.

The Dec. 11 CNA Holiday Party was a smashing success with an estimated 250 guests making merry at Cerimon House and enjoying entertainment and food provided by nearly two dozen businesses and organizations.

The food courtyard came alive with the international flavors of Aladdin Café, Alecocina, Angel’s Donuts & Ice Cream, HOTLIPS pizza, Los Pepitos Locos, Lovejoy’s Tea Room, Seastar Bakery, Teote Mezcalería and Vita Café.

Vernon School Band and Faubion School Choir entertained Concordians during the evening, which was culminated with the high energy Andean and Latin American music of Grupo Latitudes.

Raffle sales raised $275 for Northeast Food Pantry, and guests also donated plenty of food and clothing.

Raffle prize contributors included Aladdin Café, Frock, Lovejoy’s Tea Room, Mathnasium, Miss Zumstein’s Bakery and Coffee Shop, Mud Bay and YesYes Healing Garden.

Additional food and decoration items were donated by Fred Meyer and Whole Foods. The Kids Corner – complete with crafts and activities – came alive with materials donated by collagepdx, faithful volunteer Elizabeth Keenan and Mathnasium.

A big thanks to everyone who helped in every way, and to all of the Concordians who took time out of their schedules to attend.

If you missed the party, don’t worry. There’ll likely be another late this year.

Look for details next November and December in CNews and on Facebook.com/groups/ConcordiaPDX.

By Karen Wells | CNA Media Team

Have you heard of National Freedom Day? It’s celebrated Feb. 1, commemorating a congressional resolution built from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

Feb. 1 also ushers in Black History Month, a time to focus attention on the achievements and contributions of people of the African-American diaspora.

In February 1865, President Abraham Lincoln presented Congress a signed resolution proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution changing the legal status of more than three million Americans of African ancestry from “slave” to “free.”

A nine-year-old child of African ancestry living in Georgia as a slave grew to become an officer in the Spanish-American War, banker, distinguished educator, college president and civil rights activist.

His name was Maj. Richard Robert Wright Sr., founder of National Freedom Day Association. Under his leadership, the association repeatedly lobbied Congress to establish a national observance commemorating the signing of the 13th Amendment, which outlaws the practice of applying property law to people.

That former slave died in 1947. The following year, President Harry S. Truman signed a bill proclaiming Feb. 1 National Freedom Day, a precursor of Black History Month.

His life overlapped that of Carter Godwin Woodson, historian, scholar, educator, activist, journalist and publisher. In 1926, the historian launched a celebration of Negro History Week the second week of February.

He selected that week to honor the life of social justice activist Frederick Douglas, whose birthday is Feb. 14. Fast forward to 1969, Kent State University’s (KSU’s) Black Students United, supported by KSU African-American professors, proposed changing the name from “Negro History” to “Black History” and extending the observance to the entire month.

1970 was the first year Black History Month was observed in academic and cultural centers of Portland, and across the nation. In 1976, Black History Month garnered national support during the U.S. bicentennial when President Gerald Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history. ”

From the early 1900s to the present, African American Portlanders have served in the military. African Americans in military service demonstrate patriotism, and more important, contest the myth of white supremacy.

In 1918 50 African Americans were drafted by the Selective Service System to travel 110 miles north for training at Fort Lewis. They were the first of many black men deployed to the front lines of France in World War 1.

Black Concordians have served in military conflicts and crises since then. Is Portland’s history punctuated by black Concordians’ achievements and moxie? Thanks for asking.

Editor’s note: Karen consulted several sources for this piece and shares them with you on Facebook.com/groups/ConcordiaPDX. Do you have a cross-cultural question for her? Send it to CNewsEditor@ConcordiaPDX.org

Karen Wells is a retired early childhood community educator, health and safety trainer.

By Mischa Webley | Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods

Mira Ayala (left) and LaVeta Gilmore-Jones lead the Leaven Community, a nonprofit incubated by the Salt and Light Lutheran Church to serve the community in changing times. Photo by Mischa Webley

On Killingsworth Street, across from Vernon Elementary School, a small, modest building is evidence of a solution to a changing community. This is the home of Leaven Community, a nonprofit incubated by the Salt and Light Lutheran Church, previously Redeemer Lutheran, which has been in the northeast community for decades.

Starting in 2010, church members began to rethink everything.

Seeing the neighborhood change rapidly around them – and the feelings about church and religion changing with it – they decided the answer was to lean into the change wholeheartedly and embrace it.

To do that, they hired a community organizer and spent three years soul searching and simply listening to their neighbors: they knocked on doors, held public meetings and heard about what holes in the community they could fill.

They had decided the key to moving forward wasn’t to serve the community in a one-way relationship. Rather, it was to build a platform that could become whatever it was the community decided it should be.

The result was Leaven Community. It’s an organic and constantly evolving project that, among other things, hosts a variety of grassroots community organizations as well as the Salt and Light Church of Christ. The change has been an undertaking that’s much bigger than a single church. In fact, most of the groups are not faith-based at all.

“It’s a practice-based community,” said Mira Ayala, a Leaven Community member and organizer with Oregon Synod, the regional arm of the Lutheran church. “It’s about practices, not an expectation to subscribe to any set of beliefs.”

The groups on-site are diverse, and decidedly agnostic:

• The Portland Tool Library, which loans out tools to neighbors
• A Buddhist meditation group
• A feminist women’s group
• A food collective
• An innovative Salt and Light program called Intercambio
• An intercultural language exchange that hosts dinners for people who speak different languages to come together and learn from one another

It’s all part of a broader philosophy that defines the role of the church as providing the journey, but not necessarily the destination.

In the words of LaVeta GilmoreJones, Leaven Community co-executive director, “We create spaces for people to be who they are through the exploration of their spiritual journeys and to act together out of our stories and the love we have for one another to do systemic and structural change so that we have more thriving neighborhoods.”

Editor’s note: This story was reprinted with permission from NECN’s Hey Neighbor! newsletter. See more stories at bit.ly/NECNHEY

By Nancy Varekamp | CNews Editor

You haven’t heard the Office of Community & Civic Life (OCCL) has plans to change the ordinance that governs Portland’s neighborhood associations, neighborhood coalitions and business districts? Where have you been?.

“It is a complicated story we’re trying to share with you,” Suk Rhee told about 40 Concordians at the local neighborhood association’s annual meeting early last month.

She’s the OCCL director, hired two years ago, and is trying to assure all Portlanders the opportunity to participate in their city government. The original 1974 ordinance – which created neighborhood associations – carried several requirements. They must hold open meetings, take fiscal responsibility and provide the opportunity for anyone who lives or owns property within their boundaries to participate.

According to media reports during the past six months, the draft revisions omitted all mention of neighborhood associations and any geographic representation of Portlanders.

During the past year of conversations with residents of diverse Portland groups, Suk said she heard from residents who believe there is racial, disability and social injustice in participating in government.

“We need to meet community where they’re at,” explained OCCL staffer Sabrina Wilson. “We need to go beyond the current network to where they’re at: youths, native Americans, houseless communities, the aged.

She said ordinance authors considered, “How do we open the doors even wider? It’s not to take away and give to anybody else.”

Several Concordians took exception to the concept neighborhood associations can’t represent the diversity of Portlanders

“We’re a model for the country for citizen engagement,” pointed out Bob Boyer, one of Concordia Neighborhood Association’s (CNA’s) founders, former CNA chair and former state senator.

Another Concordian scoffed at the results of a survey that engaged just 1,000 people in a city of 650,000-plus.

Ike Harris, CNA board member, also cast doubt on the process, and he criticized the absence of input into the draft from neighborhood associations. “Why did [city commissioner Chloe] Eudaly not meet with neighborhood associations herself, as opposed to doing this in a clandestine way, sneaking it in?”

Kelvin Hall recommended the commissioner visit the neighborhood associations and work with them. He believes city leadership has gone afoul. “This process will be and continue to be in conflict until they clarify their vision.”

Following the local meeting, the city announced the brakes have been applied to changing the OCCL governing ordinance.

For detailed coverage on OCCL’s plans for the next three years, visit the Portland Mercury at: bit.ly/33U4nCB.

Nancy Varekamp is semiretired from her career in journalism, public relations and – her favorite work engagement – writing and editing targeted newsletters.