A heartfelt thank you to all you wonderful people and organizations that filled the Sokhum Tauch Community Center and spilled out on to the IRCO plaza last Saturday for our third annual Community Care Festival!

Between us, this is what Community Care looks like:

• Fun and Food! The children were well cared for with face-painting by Jenny-Jo, caring adults to help with crafts and games and books, and the cool model train from the Rose City Garden Railway Society. Multicultural food offerings were delicious! (Over 450 meals were served.)
• Direct Care and Health Care access – Vision screenings, lead testing, ability to make appointments with health care providers
• Education and Job Skills – From Mt. Hood Community College Head Start to Worksource, Job Corps and SE Works.
• Social Services – Information about what’s available to help and support families, from pregnancy through early childhood and adolescence. Help and support for seniors, veterans, people with disabilities.
• Public Services – Midland Branch Public Library, Multnomah County Elections, 211info and Multnomah County Public Health resources.
• Neighborhood Resources – So Many! From the Oregon School Employee Association who gave away toothbrushes and toothpaste and 349 children’s books, to Friends of Trees who work with young people to plant trees in East Portland year-round, to the Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) volunteers who signed up more volunteers, to the amazing Rosewood Initiative (community center) and Division-Midway Alliance.
• Build Civic Involvement – From the Multnomah County Office of Community Involvement, East Portland Action Plan and the East Portland Neighborhood Office to grassroots and advocacy groups Pueblo Unido and Latino Network to Healthcare for All Oregon and Oregon Walks Vision Zero and Bark (they work to protect Mt. Hood for all of us).

You are inspiring! Your dedication and hard work builds and strengthens our East Portland Community and beyond.

Thanks to the East Portland Action Plan (EPAP) for a generous grant, Rosewood Initiative for support, and People-Places-Things for administrative help.

A special shout-out Thank-you to our artists – you provided a great deal of the heart shared at the event: Arabic Dancers and Musicians, Axtec Dancers, Isaac Trimble Native American Flutist, Jim Gion – artdog – Sculptor, Christian Orellana Bauer Poems and Paintings

With gratitude,
Co-chairs 2017 Community Care Festival at IRCO,
Debbie Gordon and Layla Assem

(Community Care Festivals’ mission is to present family-oriented events utilizing arts, food and fun that facilitate intercultural participation and empowerment in building healthy and resilient neighborhoods and communities through information, education, social services, civic engagement and local resources.)