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On May 6, 2025, the Safe Blocks Program, in partnership with Cascadia Health and Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, hosted a resource fair in Portland’s Eliot Neighborhood near Dawson Park. With the park unavailable due to the Historic Boulders Project’s restoration efforts, the fair took place on a temporarily closed section of N Stanton Street between N Williams and N Rodney. This was the first time a resource fair was hosted on Stanton Street, in front of the Stop N Go Mini Mart that has been a cornerstone location in the community for years and recently came under new ownership.
Vendors and partners offered services for community members, as well as hot meals and groceries for those in need. LaTasha Taylor of TaylorMade Comfort Food provided over 100 meals, and Kim James and Keith Rice of the Street Service Coordination Center also distributed meals and clothing. Furthermore, Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church shared fresh food at the fair in addition to consistently providing it every first Tuesday of the month.
Other attendees included:
- Portland Councilor Dan Ryan;
- Portland Street Response, Self Enhancement Inc., and PBOT’s Vision Zero Team, to provide mental health, housing, and traffic safety resources respectively;
- Prism Health - a program of the Cascade Aids Project - to provide sexual health education;
- Multnomah County Library to provide access to books, reading, and other forms of education; and
- Portland Park Rangers and Portland Police, both of which maintain a regular presence at Dawson Park.
Over the past two years, Safe Blocks’ resource fairs at Dawson Park served as consistent placemaking events to help community members meet their housing, food, clothing, education, and other resource needs. Safe Blocks will continue to partner and collaborate with the community, agencies, and service providers in and around Dawson Park and the Eliot Neighborhood to create space where all Portlanders can gather and feel safe.