Improving Services for Homeless Families

Bridges to Housing continues to serve homeless families throughout the Portland metropolitan area.  Neighborhood Partnerships is pleased to report on an exciting offshoot of this innovative program. Bridges to Housing included a substantial evaluation component, conducted by Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute.  Their latest evaluation report highlighted the impact of trauma on families in […]

We All Have a Role to Play

Earlier this month, Neighborhood Partnerships held the third session of the Advocacy College with Patrick Bresette of Demos and Larry Wallack of Portland State University. Thirty-five advocates joined the Advocacy College in September. We’ve learned some of the basics of framing and messaging, we’ve begun to digest Demos’ research on government and the economy, we’ve […]

Wanted: Visionaries

As we head into a new year, a new legislative session, and complete this election cycle, Neighborhood Partnerships is working to build a new vision for Oregon. There have been a number of good looks over the past few years at what’s wrong with Oregon’s revenue structure. We—as a state and as local governments—lack the […]

Oregon IDA 75% Tax Credit–You Make a Difference!

Oregon has one of the strongest Individual Development Account (IDA) programs in the country, thanks to a unique state tax credit that lets you make a big difference in someone’s life.  IDAs help low income Oregonians to, increase their financial education and create family economic stability by saving for and purchasing an asset. Across Oregon, […]

Expanding the Pie

Neighborhood Partnerships staff is in Washington DC attending the CFED Assets Learning Conference.  We were also fortunate to attend a pre-conference session for State & Local Assets Coalitions.  This pre-conference session was attended by 43 state asset coalitions and over 30 local asset coalitions.  Both on days one and two, attendees were challenged to help […]

Neighborhood Partnerships Celebrates and Launches Leadership Salons and an Advocacy College

Neighborhood Partnerships celebrated their 20th anniversary and launched the Leadership Salon and Leaders Advocacy and Messaging College in a whirlwind of well attended events in mid-September. [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/neighborhoodpartnerships/5020223847/[/flickr] Special guests Patrick Bresette and Larry Wallack headlined many of the events with key partners from across the state.   Bresette and Wallack are experts in framing and messaging.  […]

Closing the Racial Wealth Gap through Asset Development

Speaking yesterday at the opening plenary of CFED’s biennial Assets Learning Conference, Thomas Shapiro and Melvin Oliver outlined four strategies for eliminating the United States’ racial wealth gap.  Shapiro and Oliver are authors of Black Wealth/White Wealth, a flagship work on wealth and inequality.  Speaking to a crowd of over 1,000 advocates and service providers […]

Poverty Rates Demand a New Conversation!

On Thursday, September 16, the Census Bureau released new data on income, poverty and health insurance coverage.  The news was bleak—increased rates of poverty and decreased health insurance coverage as a result of the current and ongoing recession. The release of data by the Census Bureau revealed: 3.7 million more Americans have fallen into poverty […]

The Assets Movement at Its Moment

Recently released data shows that the total number of people in poverty grew to one in seven Americans in 2009.  This heart wrenching economic news tells the story of hardship many of us know well since nearly everyone has watched family members and friends struggle through prolonged periods of unemployment or underemployment since the start […]

Supporting Asset Development in Oregon, and the Assets Learning Conference!

In less than two weeks, staff from Neighborhood Partnerships will travel to Washington, DC for the Assets Learning Conference hosted by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED). CFED, one of our partner organizations, is dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for all Americans for over 30 years. The conference, The Assets Movement at its Moment: Creating […]