Hood River is facing one of the most serious housing shortages in Oregon. This has been an issue for some time, and the City is looking at a variety of policy options to continue to make housing more affordable and available. As part of this process, the City wants to hear about your values and hopes for housing and our community as a whole.
Street scene in historic downtown Condon with a lamppost, brick building, and storefront displaying potted plants. Photo by K'Lynn Lane
Like many communities in Oregon and around the country, Gilliam County is suffering from a lack of housing for people already living here as well as people who want to move into the community to work and raise their family. Recently, a group of community members from Arlington and Condon created a collaborative workgroup to help create strategies to improve housing options in Gilliam County.
Like many communities in Oregon and around the country, John Day is considering its economic future. Recently, a team of community leaders came together to consider possible strategies to help make John Day and all of Grant County as economically strong and vibrant as possible. As part of that process, the team is considering a number of ideas to strengthen and diversify the economy. They want to hear from you about your values and priorities!
Whenever we hold a public consultation with Oregonians here on Oregon's Kitchen Table, we bring you into a conversation with elected officials, public agencies, or other community leaders who are making important decisions. Often, your input on those decisions is one step in that decision making process, and we know it isn't always easy to see how what you had to say played a part in how that decision comes out.
This spring, our home base at Portland State University, the National Policy Consensus Center, worked with the City of Hillsboro to engage and prepare a diverse group of residents to serve in a range of civic leadership capacities within the city.
Today we're sharing a blog post from Meyer Memorial Trust’s Matt Morton, Meyer’s Equitable Education Portfolio Director, about our latest project to get your input. Head over to Meyer’s blog or check it out below.
Portlanders, pull up a chair and share your values and beliefs with the City of Portland about some important decisions coming up for our community about an important part of the Willamette River.
We know that public mistrust in government is at an all-time high. In fact I read today that only 13% of Americans believe that Congress is doing a good or very good job, though that is up from a low of 7% a year ago. Despite the circus atmosphere that surrounds national political coverage and the run up to a presidential election year, most Americans believe that politics could be more civil, respectful, and functional if elected officials put their minds to it.
With the help of over 217 Oregonians and friends from across the nation, we successfully completed our first civic crowdfund here at OKT. We are thrilled to announce that Josephine Community Libraries Inc. met their goal, raising over $40,000 for First Chapters and making it possible for JCLI to update their children’s libraries in order to better meet the needs of the smallest readers!
Today we're sharing a blog post from Josephine Community Libraries volunteer Jennifer Sherman Roberts about the story of how Josephine County residents lost their library system and then brought it back. Head over to her blog (where she's got a number of pieces about libraries) or check it out below. It's an inspiring story of a community's resilience and love!
Last week we launched Oregon's Kitchen Table's first civic crowdfund on our new site to raise $40,000 for Josephine Community Libraries children's libraries in Grants Pass and Illinois Valley. And it's off to a great start with over $15,000 raised and over 100 Oregonians participating!
Josephine Community Libraries wants to hear the community's thoughts on how the libraries can best serve our youngest readers as they begin their lifetimes of reading. Share your experiences and opinions about our Josephine Community Libraries children’s spaces, resources, and programs.
We are excited to announce a new development over here at Oregon’s Kitchen Table! In partnership with Oregon Business Council’s Poverty Reduction Task Force, we are working to support Oregonian-to-Oregonian micro-lending. By supporting small businesses, we can all pitch in to make our state more prosperous!
A couple of months ago we shared our new partnership with Community Sourced Capitol, a Pacific Northwest B-Corps working with Oregon small businesses and entrepreneurs to access loans from within their own communities. Already, Oregonians have helped two businesses gain funding to expand and grow – Genki-Su and TeaScape. We’re excited to see that our partnership has helped raise $27,350 with 87 folks participating so far!
We've got some exciting news to share this week! The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, recognized Oregon's Kitchen Table this week as one of four finalists for the Roy and Lila Ash Innovations in Public Engagement in Government Award.
In 2025, today’s second graders will be graduating seniors, but between now and then, Portland Public Schools will be making a number of decisions that will affect these students. This week is the final week to weigh in on those decisions!
This month we’re hosting the second of two surveys related to Portland Public Schools – and the newest one (Portland Public Schools 2025) asks those of you within the PPS District (whether you live in the district, work in the district, or send your kids to district schools) to weigh in on some incredibly important issues.
Portland Public Schools is extending the deadline for parents and guardians to complete the PPS Successful Schools Survey to March 6th, so if you are a PPS parent / guardian and have not done so yet, join Oregon's Kitchen Table and share your experience at your student’s school today!
In December 2014, the Oregon Department of Education in partnership with Oregon’s Kitchen Table conducted an online consultation with key stakeholders across the state of Oregon. The consultation was conducted to help inform the efforts of the state’s Early Learning Hubs, which are working across the state to make resources and supports more available, more accessible and more effective for children and families that have historically been over-represented in the opportunity gap and underrepresented in services.
We have revised our privacy policy to reflect some of the changes – like the new log in system – we’re implementing at Oregon’s Kitchen Table and to more clearly reflect both how we collect data and how we use that data. We’ll be sending out an email notification to all of you once we’ve completed transferring new emails to our email system.
We’re heading into the third week of the Portland Public Schools Successful Schools Climate Survey – and nearly 3,000 parents and guardians have shared their school experiences through Oregon’s Kitchen Table! Portland Public Schools has put together a Q and A document to clarify some questions that have come up.
Our first survey of 2015 (and the first one using our new login system) is live today! Oregon’s Kitchen Table is hosting the Portland Public Schools Successful Schools Survey Jan 20 – Feb 28.
We’re excited to start 2015 with some improvements in how we engage with you! One of the first improvements – already up and running – is a new login system that allows you to create a username and password.
We’ve had a busy past few months at Oregon’s Kitchen Table, preparing for a number of statewide and local consultations in 2015 (the Successful Schools Climate Survey for Portland Public Schools families and a statewide consultation on poverty and prosperity in Oregon) and working on some new developments here that we’re very excited to share with you all soon. Stay tuned.
