Office of Community & Civic Life

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  • Spearheaded the City's first Get Out The Vote effort campaign. This non-partisan, content-neutral GOTV effort focused on four out of five of the lowest voter turnout precincts in the last three elections, which were all located in East Portland. Election results show a notable increase in voter turnout in the four precincts covered.
  • Made progress toward restorative justice through the Cannabis Social Equity Grants. Worked in partnership with Commissioner Fritz to create an executive committee of community partners with a racial justice lens to identify the top concepts for how the money could best serve BIPOC Portlanders, conducted a citywide survey to garner feedback, and developed the grant opportunities based on that feedback. This resulted in the first-ever cannabis dollars that funded criminal expungements.
    First page of the Civic Life Zine "This is Your Portland" with a forest graphic and the subheaders "One City, Many Communities"
  • Championed and secured funding to ensure a complete count of hard to count (HTC) communities in the 2020 Census. An accurate count in the 2020 Census stood to substantially increase federal assistance in Oregon. Oregon had a 99.9% Census response rate in 2020. 
  • Led the City’s planning for the 2020 Census, and co-chaired the Multnomah County Complete Count Committee—which worked with diverse populations to provide accurate information and ensure a thorough Census count—with Commissioner Stegmann and Gresham Councilor Morales.
  • Co-created the “This is Your Portland” zine that explains how Portlanders can engage with City government.
  • Successfully secured funding for PUAH—Portland United Against Hate.
  • Engaged on the local, statewide, and national level in conversations around social consumption. As of January 2021, there are very few options for consumers to enjoy legally purchased cannabis outside of a residence: it cannot be consumed in a public area, and there is no statewide regulation telling us where people can get high in a legal and safe place. There are many reasons why it is vital for the future of cannabis to support social consumption—from racial and class equity, to consumer choice, to regulatory consistency, to the reduction of public use, the impact of a properly implemented social consumption framework will benefit all Oregon cannabis retailers.
  • Began a vital conversation about the need for a truly representative civic engagement network.  
  • Convened stakeholders representing diverse neighborhoods and communities to advise the City on how to modernize the Chapter 3.96 public involvement code.
  • Transitioned Civic Life’s enforcement, fear, and suspicion-based Crime Prevention Program to a Community Safety Program, which prioritizes the safety needs of communities underserved and historically surveilled by typical crime prevention programs.