Submitted by Laura Fay – Approved February 27, 2023

Continue reading Eliot Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes 1/23/23

Submitted by Laura Fay – Approved

Continue reading Eliot Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes 11/21/22

Submitted by Laura Fay – Approved

Continue reading Eliot Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes 10/17/22

Submitted by Laura Schuchardt,   APPROVED at the July board meeting

Board present

• Laura Schuchardt
• Elliott Armstrong
• Jimmy Wilson
• Steffanie Lorentzen
• Allan Rudwick
• Jennifer Wilcox
• Shireen Hasan-McFarlane
• Eric McFarlane
• Patricia Montgomery

Others present

• Andrew Champion
• Cassie Muilenburg
• Laura Fay
• Keith Rice
• Julie Allen

• Welcome and Introductions – 7:02pm
• Agenda Additions?
  • None
• Volunteers of America – change to Good Neighbor Agreement and discussion 
  • VOA has a Men’s residential center on MLK and they’ve been in the neighborhood for a long time. Part of the agreement of them entering the neighborhood was that there would be a screening committee from ENA. That agreement has not been revisited in quite a while.
  • Hoping to amend the screening so that VOA could work with STEP and accept people under their criteria
  • Current criteria states that stranger to stranger crimes can only be a year or more in the past, which would be modified under STEP
  • The courts have a new program that’s been very successful at improving the reoffend rate, and part of that is getting into residential programs like VOA is offering. The people that this program is targeting have more recent violent incidents.
  • Proposed compromise: ENA will screen everyone who comes in through STEP for six months to get a sense of who’s coming in. Have a touch base every few months to see how things are going – enhanced screening period to ensure everything’s going smoothly.
  • Per Allan, the facility typically serves 200-250 people per year
    • 70% successfully graduate from the program, 30% fail
    • There’s a much greater incentive for the people who would be newly eligible to succeed, because they’re facing more jail time
  • Allan to set up an informational session with Greg Stone (gstone@voaor.org) at VOA for all interested parties to learn more about the proposed changes
  • This matter will be revisited in ENA’s July meeting
• Job Fair [Jennifer]
  • Shireen and Eric’s idea, too
  • Asking the board to be a sponsor – just goodwill, not money
    • The board approved
  • Cascadia (Jennifer’s employer) would be actively involved
  • Cassie mentioned we should see if VOA can get involved
  • Good to have training programs and apprenticeships represented
    • ex. Free Geek will be coming
  • Also good to have wraparound services present
    • Jennifer plans to have other resources present
  • Julie Allen is in HR and could put us in touch with her employer
• Spending money to try to reduce violence
  • We haven’t won any of the grants we’ve applied for, but we have some money in our coffers; do we want to use it?
  • How can we use it to support causes in our neighborhood?
    • Allan thinks we should spend what we have
    • Jimmy is worried about spending what we have when there’s lots of money out there to be had
  • All are invited to bring ideas to the board
• Discussion of in-person meetings vs online. Do we want to switch back?
  • Options are Cascadia (possible to have hybrid meetings) or the church (just in person)
  • The board agreed that they wanted to have a hybrid meeting at Cascadia
• Neighborhood Updates
  • Eliot News (call for articles for next issue)
    • Recent issue just came out
  • LUTC update
    • Albina One update – proposing six story building, and are working to make it affordable housing (residential with community space)
• Public Comment
  • Andrew is concerned that no one is going to address the public safety issues in Eliot
    • Not gun safety, not poverty
    • These are things that are controllable
    • Store should be held accountable
  • Pat asked if we sent the letter out to the store
    • No, Andrew’s letter was rejected by the ENA board
    • Elliott and Steffanie had a letter, but Andrew did not approve
  • Several board members thought we were going to send a letter to multiple businesses and organizations in the neighborhood inviting them to attend ENA meetings
    • This did not end up happening
  • Allan thinks we need to send a strong letter, include the police, neighboring organizations and businesses
  • Cassie knows someone at the Community Safety Program safety assessment (free professional advice from the city)
    • We could ask them for recommendations
    • It was suggested that ENA could help pay to implement their suggestions as a show of good faith
    • Cassie to email Allan
• Approve Minutes from past meetings
  • January approved
  • March – amended to strike a detail deemed irrelevant to the Women’s First section
    • Shireen proposed, Allan seconded
  • April – amended to remove email addresses of community members and to remove a point regarding a topic that was dropped from the meeting
    • Passed as amended
  • May – amended to clarify parties responsible for suggesting the job fair
    • Passed as amended
• Shireen brought back up the idea of buying a computer
  • This will be added to the next agenda
• Adjourn

Submitted by Jennifer Wilcox,   APPROVED at the June board meeting

Board Present:

• Jimmy Wilson
• Jennifer Wilcox
• Eliot Armstrong
• Shireen Hasan McFarlane
• Eric McFarlane

Others Present:

• Greg Stone, Program Director of the VOA MRC, 
• Amelia Harris
• Marjorie Ferrini
• Eric Bloch, Circuit Court Judge in Multnomah County, supervising the STEP Court Program
• Jake Wicks, LCSW Behavioral Health Clinician at Randall Children’s Clinic
• Sean Kelly, VOA
• Caroline Wong (Mult co DA office)
• Andrew Champion
• Cassandra Muilenburg
• Pam Kelly, VOA
• Serena Li
• Elisabeth Sheard, (office of DA Mike Schmidt)
• Mike Schmidt (DA of Mult Co)
• Keith Rice
• SV
• Steffanie I

Welcome and Introductions – 7:00pm, 

• Volunteers of America – 
  • change to Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) and discussion
  • Currently then GNA says that a person would be ineligible if they have charges of stranger to stranger violence in the past year.  They would like that language stricken.  Potential residents with any history of violence would be referred to Eliot screening committee.
  • Staff shared some history of VOA and their involvement with the neighborhood. If you are interested in a tour of the facility please contact Greg Stone at 503-841-1643. They are located at 2318 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.
  • VOA specializes in working with individuals who experience substance use disorder in addition to mental health challenges and criminal justice involvement. They are services are most effective when they are able to work with consistent judicial partner (drug court). It is a very accountable model with maximum incentives.
  • A presentation was also made about Step Court: Multnomah county started the second drug court in the nation. It is a collaborative criminal justice model where everyone comes together to promote change through incentivized good behavior and sanctions to bad behavior. This model has been studied for 4 decades and has been found to be highly effective for certain populations. The court would like their clients to have the benefit of the VOA men’s residential treatment center.  With the current GNA, some individuals would not be able to access those services. 
  • STEP court serves no gang members, Sex Offenders, homicide, or domestic violence cases.  They are very selective of participants because they want it to succeed. Send very few people to come to this court to keep the community safe.
  • It was decided the board would like additional written material overviewing the court and with specific information about demographics of individuals being served.  We will wait to get written materials and vote next month. 
• Stop and Go letter round 4:
  • Andrew Champion presented a letter he would like the ENA to send to Stop and Go, including endorsements for the letter. There was much discussion of what the next steps should be. 
  •  There was a different letter which had also been drafted a letter to invite the Stop and Go to the community safety meeting
  • A question that was raised was: Has office of civic life done a safety assessment on the corner?  Where there actionable suggestions?
  • JW moved, Eliot and Eric seconded that we will send the letter drafted by Eliot and Steffanie to businesses in the neighborhood to invite them to the community safety meeting. Motion passed 

• Dawson Park Concerts 2022
  • The city has agreed to host one concert, Jennifer suggested we could do a second one.  There was discussion and it was suggested we could have a job fair or a training fair in the park instead of a second concert.  
  • We will discuss a job and or training fair at the community safety committee on the 24th. 
• Alcohol Bylaws (skipped)
• Neighborhood Updates
  • Eliot News (call for articles for next issue) Deadline is June 8
  • LUTC update (skipped May meeting)
  • [Announcement] Safety and Livability- citizen led (not NA) meeting 5/24 (Tuesday) at 6pm
    • This is a follow up meeting that is community led, outcomes will be reported back to the city.  The hope is to come back with a stronger consensus and coordinate with existing resources and lobby the city for the support we would like to have.  Invites have been sent out to people that shared their email in the initial session. Please share widely.
• Public Comment
• Approve Minutes from past meetings Jennifer moved, Eliot seconded that minutes be approved as amended. Motion passed
• Adjourn 9:03