It took two rounds and two days of deliberation to narrow down an impressive pool of 95 applicants for the 2021 cycle of Metro’s Community Placemaking Grants. The twelve recipients were selected by an advisory group of community members who work at the intersection of arts and social justice in the Portland region.
This year’s grants include efforts led by and directly supporting people experiencing homelessness, presently and formerly incarcerated people, Indigenous, Black and Latinx communities and BIPOC youth.
Recipients:
Camp E.L.S.O. Inc.: Your Street Your Voice ($20,000) Metro’s grant supports after school virtual programming where BIPOC youth will be paid to learn about the built environment and use design as a tool for racial justice. (North/Northeast Portland, Forest Grove, Parkrose, east Multnomah County, others locations TBD)
The AfroVillage Homebase ($20,000) The site owned by Home Forward will host a refurbished MAX car, pods, and a gathering space, becoming an incubator to test the community services, amenities and partnerships that will be the foundation of the AfroVillage, a broad reaching effort to meet the essential needs of people experiencing homelessness with a focus on racial disparities and inequities. (Portland’s Albina neighborhood)
The Vanport Mosaic: Walking through Portland with a Panther - the life of Mr. Kent Ford, All Power ($20,000) Linking current social justice efforts to critical local history, this grant supports a new solo play that features the history, sites and stories of Black Portland leaders. (Virtual, various Portland locations including high schools)
Tin Can Phone ($7,200) An inclusive collective of presently and formerly incarcerated artists will work together in locations around the region to produce a podcast series of investigative journalism, mutual self-exploration and the restoration of people that have been significantly harmed by incarceration. (Virtual and various regional locations)
Friends of Noise/City Repair: Youth Power PDX ($19,500) Metro’s grant supports two cycles of a 3-4 month long leadership program in the planning, building and running of youth led events based towards intersectional social justice and art. (Virtual and Portland TBD)
Atabey Medicine Apprenticeship Program ($20,000) Atabey Medicine, in partnership with Wild Diversity, Brown Girl Rise, Mudbone Grown, Portland Plant Medicine and the City Repair Project, will use Metro’s grant to create a platform for healing by training the next generation of BIPOC healers and herbalists, connecting people to each other and the land. (Various regional locations)
Centro Cultural Del Condado De Washington: Arts + Cultural Events at Centro ($20,000) Metro’s grant supports five culturally specific events at Centro to build community and strengthen sense of belonging; to promote the visibility and cultural expression of Washington County’s Latinx community. (Virtual, Hillsboro, Cornelius and TBD Washington County)
Eena Festival ($5,250) An Indigenous-led festival in late 2021 will raise awareness about non-human led restoration, share education about Traditional Ecological Knowledge and create a safe, welcoming means to increase BIPOC access to nature. (Southwest Portland)
Community Development Corporation of Oregon: Food for All in Rockwood ($15,000) Addressing food security has never been more important. Metro’s grant will support Rockwood Speaks! sessions where paid, trusted community liaisons engage culturally specific groups about access to food and the 2-year food security work led by CDC of Oregon.
Hacienda CDC: Hacienda’s Portland Mercado ($15,000) Especially hard hit by COVID-19, Metro’s grant will help sustain the Portland Mercado and the community of Latinx entrepreneurs they support, and when safe, celebrate the resiliency of the community they serve with music, art and delicious food. (Southeast Portland)
Triple Echo Studios: We Can Be Heroes ($20,000) Project partners will create a 12-part STEAM focused comic book series and short film featuring Gresham landmarks and a BIPOC cast, crew and characters, with production sourcing resources and food from locally owned businesses. The series will be aimed toward 3rd graders and will be broadly distributed. (Virtual, Gresham)
Unite Oregon City: Oregon City Schools are "No Place for Hate" ($11,000) Metro’s grant will support a two-year collaboration between students, staff and parents working to address bullying and bias by bringing the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program to every school in the Oregon City School District.
Applications will open for the 2022 Community Placemaking grant cycle in early August 2021, will be due in late September and awards will be announced in early January 2022. Sign up here for updates. Metro’s Community Placemaking grant program helps people tackle community challenges or opportunities through creative, arts-based, equity-focused projects. Grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 support efforts that foster connection to place, strengthen social fabric and involve and benefit communities of color and other historically marginalized