190960

The purpose of this ordinance is to provide funding to community partners to implement small, on-the-ground restoration, education and leadership development projects. These diverse projects will plant native landscapes, engage and train underrepresented community members in stewardship of natural areas, create learning gardens, and educate community members of all ages about watershed health. 

This year’s Selection Committee included BES Community Engagement staff, Judy BlueHorse Skelton, Associate Professor, Portland State University Indigenous Nations Studies (INST), Naomi Rodriguez, INST Student, Sophia Reyes, INST Student. The committee continues to use three selection criteria: benefits to watershed health, community partnerships, and the degree to which the project serves and is led by underrepresented community members. Sixteen pre-applications were received this year by CWSP.  Gather Make Shelter, Social Justice Action Center and World Salmon Council are three organizations that are receiving CWSP funding for the first time. 

Estimated grant awards are indicated below, but final awards may vary based on possible additional funds needed such as insurance coverage to meet City requirements.

Specific projects funded for 2022-23 are:

1. ELSO Inc.($12,000) Black-identified youth will participate in environmental education experiences led by peer mentors, including water quality investigations, natural area revegetation, garden installation, and invasive species removal.
2. Gather Make Shelter (GMS) ($10,000) will work with community partners to bring exploration and learning opportunities in the Columbia Slough Watershed's natural areas to unhoused community members who participate in GMS services. 
3. Green Lents ($12,000) will expand tree cover at Lent Elementary School to provide heat relief and reduce air and noise pollution from nearby I-205, and connect the community to urban ecology and environmental justice. Offerings will include multi-lingual access.
4. Grow Portland ($10,000) will partner with Indigenous community members to develop native planting designs, create education curricula, and enhance planting spaces at multiple garden sites. 
5. Growing Gardens ($12,000) will work with inmates and correctional officers at the Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) to build a garden and a bioswale. The project teaches healthy watershed gardening practices, providing inmates, who are in a recovery program, with an increased sense of environmental knowledge and awareness, job credentials, self-agency and healing.
6. Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership ($9,889) will provide 4^th and 5^th grade students from a predominantly low-income school with hands-on classroom science lessons, followed by a field trip to experience local wildlife, reinforce classroom learning, and engage in a native plant restoration project.
7. Social Justice Action Center (SJAC) ($10,000) will create a native plant habitat at the Center, to provide a safe green space where service recipients and volunteers can take refuge and learn about the beneficial functions of native plantings and derive inspiration from the experience. 
8. Tryon Creek Watershed Council ($10,950) involves immigrant youth in education and on-the-ground watershed restoration and training. Workshops involve an introduction to watershed science and stewardship projects to remove invasive plants and plant natives. 
9. World Salmon Council ($10,000) brings students from the Blueprint Foundation, Native American Youth and Family Center, Latino Network and Girl Scouts to mark storm drains, plant trees, and restore riparian areas to learn about and participate in salmon-saving contributions.