The SNACC committee will hold its monthly meeting on July 21st from 6:30-8 p.m. Weather permitting, we hope to meet outside at Laurelhurst Park. Last month we discussed strategic planning for the Sunnyside Shower Project. We will be continuing this conversation and picking up any new topics relevant to the community that emerge over the next few weeks. Check back on the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association website for details about the agenda and location of the meeting or email [email protected] for my information.
Category: Neighborhood Newsletter
What if We Got it Right?
I was listening to a recent podcast from On Being with Krista Tippett. She was interviewing a marine biologist who asked a BIG QUESTION…. “What if we got it right?” She is referring to the fact that, we, as humans, know all the reasons that there is a climate crisis, and that, in fact, we already know many right actions that, taken soon and collaboratively, might put us on a better path.
Jumping to my favorite topic – emergency preparation. What if the BIG QUESTIONS questions shifted to something like this…What have I already done to be prepared for any type of emergency? What else needs to be done? Who can I engage to help me be more prepared?
When it finally stops raining, I plan to write a chalk greeting on the public sidewalk in front of my home, something like… “Are you my neighbor?” I plan to invite friends on my block to write a similar greeting. It’s a conversation starter and a way to build community. And then I can ask my neighbors the BIG QUESTIONS mentioned above. One conversation at a time.
What might you plan to do to build/expand your community and build resilience and safety?
Cheers for summer, and continue to reach out ([email protected]) if you need support with your questions about emergency preparedness.
Sunnyside Neighborhood: Getting to Know Your Neighbors
Q&A with Cole White
Cole White has been a steady presence at the Sunnyside Shower Project for over a year—first as a guest and then as both a guest and a volunteer. Always ready with an open mind and some witty banter, he is fun to do a shift with because you can swap book recommendations (most recently he had Italo Calvino’s short stories in his back pocket) and discuss everything from punk rock to religion. In March, the SNACC committee applied for and won a grant to pay him a stipend, so now he’s the only paid member of our team, stocking toiletries and other supplies at the Sunnyside Methodist Church and generally ensuring that things run smoothly. A graduate of UC Santa Cruz, where he studied math and literature, White writes creative nonfiction including a newspaper called The Portland Interrupter. He recently landed his own apartment and he’s also the most recently elected member of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association. Please join us in welcoming him to this new role.
Last Month’s News. This Month’s Plans.
The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association met virtually in May to discuss the upcoming Board elections. The elections will be hosted in-person during June’s SNA meeting on Thursday June 9th from 7 to 7:30 p.m. in the SE Uplift parking lot (3534 SE Main St). Please join us and consider running for one of the five open Board seats. No previous experience is required and existing Board Members will help you navigate this role. It’s a great way to get involved in your community and have a voice. As a Board representing the neighborhood, it’s good to have different perspectives, so if you feel that something is missing from Sunnyside I encourage you to nominate yourself and partake in your local civic service. The role is a two year term and meets monthly. There’s no better way to create transformative impact than on a local level.
The SNA completed the organization’s Community Agreements and will upload the document to the SNA website for folks to view by the end of June.
This document is an outlined code of conduct for our meetings and is meant to encourage respectful, inspiring, and curious behavior towards one another. The Board applied a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility (DEIA) lens when considering key focal points. The Community Agreements is an evolving document, so if you feel something should be added please join us at the July SNA General Meeting to discuss.
Emily McCadden, the SNACC Co-Chair, shared the results of the needs
assessment report from the Sunnyside Shower Project (Instagram:
@sunnysideshowerproject) which is hosted at the Sunnyside United Methodist Church (3520 SE Yamhill St). The report provides an ongoing assessment that started in December 2021 and that the SNACC Committee has been actively working on. Some highlights include: individuals who use the program have asked for longer shower times than the allowed 30 minutes, more shower availability during the week, hotter water, and some hygiene resources.
The Sunnyside Shower Program offers showers Tuesday and Thursdays from 1 – 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 2 – 6 p.m. The program is in need of more volunteers for the Saturday shift. If you would like to sign up for a shower shift please email Hannah Wallace ([email protected]). You’ll be partnered with another volunteer so it’s a great way to meet your neighbors while helping out your community. Double win!
The SNA continues their gratitude for the May newsletter donations. We greatly appreciate your generosity and goodwill. Please keep the support coming so we can continue to publish our local newsletter. The donation link is on the SNA website for folks who would like to contribute to the newsletter’s expenses (sunnysideportland.org/donate-to-our-newsletter). We also have available advertising spots if you have a business or want to spread the word about something. We’re still plugging along to reach our annual production costs of $6,000. You can follow our fundraising thermometer to see where we’re at with donations.
June’s meeting will be held in-person on Thursday the 9th at SE Uplift. Meeting details and the agenda will be posted on the SNA website (sunnysideportland.org) on Tuesday the 7th.
Sunnyside Neighborhood Community Cares (SNACC) Committee Updates
The SNACC committee met in-person again this month (although a few members joined virtually, including two new faces). Welcome to the neighborhood Ignacio and Eleanor! We discussed several updates on meetings our members recently attended, including LNA’s IDEA committee meeting and a community listening session about a possible tiny home village coming soon to Laurelhurst that will serve Indigenous houseless folks. We discussed planning a series of community meetings between our volunteers and guests at the Sunnyside Shower Project (SSP), as well as some fundraising plans to repair damage at the Sunnyside Methodist Church. This brought us to a discussion of our strategic vision for our committee’s work and the future of the SSP.
June’s SNACC meeting will be devoted to a deeper dive into strategic planning, and we intend to host this meeting outside (location TBD) to make attendance more accessible. This will be the beginning of a multi-step process that engages housed and unhoused neighbors to set intentions for how we can bring our collective vision for this committee and the SSP to life.