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NE Village Public Informational Meeting
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Interested in learning more about the Village Movement in general, and the Northeast Village in particular? Come to our next "Village 101" get-together:
When
:
Sun., Jan. 5th from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m
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Where
:
Gregory Heights Library, 7921 NE Sandy Blvd
No reservation required, just show up!
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Members & Volunteers
At their November meeting, Village Square participants spoke to their choices of topics --topics that might shape the Village community we are building together.
Those topics that received the most support were: Community; Grace Points as we Age (including asking for help), and Seeds for the Future.
Taking the first topic, Community, the question to be addressed by participants is "Over your lifetime, what has been your most memorable experience of community? What made it so? What factors or conditions, do you believe were important?
Discussion Leader: Mary Hansel
Date and Time: Wednesday, January 8, 5:30-7:30
Place: Basement Parlor (adjacent to Youngson Hall) at
Rose City Park United Methodist Church, 5830 NE Alameda.
Reservation Requested ... so we can better-plan the conversation, and insure we have enough chairs and tables. Please RSVP to the NEV Office: 503-895-2750 or
info@nevillagepdx.org.
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Come to Tea on Valentines Day
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Members & Volunteers
Come to Tea on Valentines Day ...
Friday, Feb 14 at 1:30 pm at Lovejoy's Tea House.
You have a choice of "High Tea" or "Queens Tea", which both involve a luncheon with tea. Check their website for costs and details:
www.lovejoysportland.com/parties
RSVP to the Office at
503-895-2750 or info@nevillagepdx.org, stating your preference for which Tea you want.
Limit of 10 persons. Watch for further details on the mid-January Calendar of Events E-blast.
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Workshop in February: Advanced Planning for Health Care
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Northeast Village is planning a workshop, "Aging: Importance of Advanced Care Planning", on making successful plans for your future health care:
When:
Monday, February 10, 2:30 pm
Where:
lower level, Rose City Park United Methodist Church, 5830 NE Alameda
This workshop is
open to members and volunteers. Save the date; for details and RSVP information, check your mid-January Calendar of Events e-mail or check our website calendar. Or contact the NEV Office at 503-895-2750 or
info@nevillagepdx.org.
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You might have more giving power than you think
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Are you aware that a number of companies in Oregon will match employee or retiree donations of time and/or money to 501(c)(3) charitable organizations?
If you retired from, or work for, any of these companies and make a cash donation to NE Village, they will double or even triple your giving power - at no cost to you.
to find out whether your employer offers this kind of philanthropic support (hundreds of employers do). If so, ask the human resources office for a matching gift form when you make a contribution to NE Village.
Another way companies give back to the community is by providing grants to non-profit organizations when their employees or retirees donate their time. If you retired from, or work for, any of the companies listed below and are a volunteer for NE Village, they will give the Village a cash donation to supplement your hours of service.
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Aetna
All-State
British Petroleum
CenturyLink
($500 for 40 volunteer hours in 6 months)
ConocoPhillips
Dell
Exxon/Mobil
Kohl's
($500 when 5 employees volunteer for an event)
Intel
($10 per volunteer hour)
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Microsoft
($17 per volunteer hour)
Outerwall (Coinstar/Redbox)
RealNetworks
State Farm ($500 for 40+ hours)
Time Warner and subsidiaries
Verizon
($750 for 50+ hours)
Walmart
($250 for 25 hours; $500 for 50 hours)
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--Pat Vivian
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Do I need more or better placed smoke alarms?
Do I need carbon monoxide alarms?
Are my house numbers clearly visible from the street?
Are these numbers illuminated for night visibility?
How about gas leaks or hand rail problems?
These are just a few of the many questions you might have concerning the safety in and outside your home. Northeast Village offers a Home Safety Check for all full-service members.
My name is Walt Quade and I am one of the many founding members of NE Village PDX. I want to recall a service call I went on a few months ago. It was initially described as a hot water heater that wasn't delivering enough warm water for the needs of a woman caring for four little children. The furnace and hot water heater were in the basement, so I went down there to adjust the output temperature of the water heater.
There I noticed a 3-inch hole in the chimney flue of the gas water heater. There was a carbon monoxide detector, but it was in the utility room upstairs, behind a closed door and mounted near the ceiling. From an opening so large and unnoticed in the basement, carbon monoxide fumes could have easily overcome everyone living in that house.
I moved the carbon monoxide detector to the floor near the basement door and we called a furnace repairman who came within the hour to install a new furnace flue.
This might be an extreme example, but it shows the value of a Home Safety Check. If you are a full-service member and want to request this service, call the office at 503-895-2750 or e-mail them at
info@nevillagepdx.org
.
There is nothing more important than the safety of you or your family!
--Walt Quade
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Need help paying the water bill?
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Does paying your Portland water bill drain your checking account, leaving you feeling financially underwater? You might be eligible for a break based on income.
Recently the Portland Water Bureau expanded its discount program for households with low and modest incomes by replacing state guidelines with Portland-based guidelines. More households qualify as a result. The bureau also has added staff to reach out to seniors in need.
To qualify for the program, you must receive a water/sewer bill from the City of Portland. Assistance is available to homeowners who occupy their home and to renters.
Qualifying households are now eligible for a bigger discount and more in crisis assistance because the bureau added a second tier that allows an additional $100 off per quarter for households at 30% or below Portland's median family income. Furthermore, customers enrolled in the program qualify for up to $500 in crisis assistance once in a 12-month period.
--Pat Vivian
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Another free housecleaning service for some
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Volunteers noticed and want to broadcast information about a non-profit service that may fit some of our members and family and acquaintances.
Cleaning for a Reason
provides free housecleaning for women going through chemotherapy. From their website
cleaningforareason.org
:
"Cleaning For A Reason steps in, partnering with more than 1200 maid services to provide free house cleaning to women, 19 years or older, battling any type of cancer.... Our cleaning companies volunteer their services and are not compensated in any way. When matched with a cleaning company, a patient receives a total of two free house cleanings, that is, one general cleaning a month for up to two months. Please note that this is not a guaranteed service."
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| Expanding our vision of the village as a community |
NEV QUARTERLY MEETING REPORT
On December 11, over 70 of our members and volunteers gathered for our quarterly meeting at the Hollywood Senior Center. We had a potluck dinner and heard a presentation about moving our focus from primarily a service provider to a larger vision as a community of seniors: supporting each other as we age, with an emphasis on growing, educating ourselves on the choices we face, engaging with each other and our larger community, and developing enduring relationships with village volunteers & members.
A short period of lively table conversations produced an extensive list of ideas & responses, which will provide a start to a follow-up meeting in January.
Much of the presentation content came from research from Village Movement California
which concluded that the original "messaging" which focused on "aging at home" was too limiting -
and should be expanded to more of a "community and relationship" focus. And this will provide many more reasons for people in our age group to consider joining our village.
The presentation looked at where we are now from a community
standpoint. We already have some communities within our village such as:
- People attending recurring events such as the Dining Out group, Book group, etc.
- Members of committees, Office Volunteers, GovCo
- Volunteer relationships with members
- Village Circles (neighborhood-based)
- Village Square (conversations about our community, and what's ahead)
But we can go much further with the
community
focus -
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the variety of events that we offer, opportunities for greater engagement with each other, a new "vision and mission", and increased involvement by members in the governance of our village. You can view the content of the presentation on our website here:
We invite you all to attend our follow-up meeting:
When
:
Sunday, January 19, 2:30-4:30 pm
Where
: Hollywood Senior Center, 1820 NE 40th Ave.
At this meeting, we will continue our conversations about finding ways to engage in developing our offerings of events, exploration of issues, and the like -
without burdening a small group of people with "committee" responsibilities to make this all happen. Come and give us all a hand.
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Volunteer Spotlight: Julie Granger
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| Julie Granger |
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As an original founder of Northeast Village, Julie Granger exemplifies the "community" sense of a village in a personal way we can recognize as natural. She's a leader without being an officer.
Three years before NE Village officially began offering services, Julie recognized the obvious need for Villages when she first heard of them in the smallest explorative meetings. She started out spreading the word, helping with finances and software, and being one of the first drivers.
Now she works in the office matching members and services, assists in coordinating our driver program, presents information at our "Villages 101" introductory meetings and at our tables at events, and is a core member of our Communications, Marketing, and Outreach Committee. She also helps others do the work of running a Village, such as testing a driver, matching a volunteer with a service request, or enlisting a current member to describe the value of Village services to attendees of a "101" introductory session.
The way she
works is just like
being with people - listening and talking, just doing the work of life and meaning something to each other. After talking for awhile, it's clear she deeply comprehends how this works.
First, she articulates listening as wanting to hear everyone's stories, "Sharing our stories is how we make connection." Respect for people's life stories is central to the meaning of this time of our lives. Second, her conviction is that every person has something to
do with and for the Village. All interactions are reciprocal. She gets as much out of taking a member to the grocery store as the member does from the outing. She values interacting with members and volunteers in person, and over the phone when matching services or just doing a phone buddy check-in.
Julie finds balance in her life by combining her work with other older people and her family life. Living with her husband at home and her grandchildren's family across the street, there's always time to sit with the children as well as do Village work. I found a connection with Julie in hearing how she inspired her child's family to buy a home across the street, and she and her husband built a
green home to fit multiple generations, with a fully accessible ground floor, an ADU, and an "accessory bedroom."
Julie finds special meaning in driving Village members to their own volunteer jobs. We do the everyday work and the circle completes. She'd like members and volunteers to tell their stories of Village experiences to others. The connections create community.
--
Jeanne Bear
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Highlighting new members & volunteers
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New members who have joined us since August:
- Jo Culver: likes to work and play with art; world traveler and artist
- Ann Wilson: also enjoys art and is interested in forming an art activity group
- Marie Ades: interested in small group gatherings, dining out, and circle groups
- Rebecca Saltanstall: who is volunteering in the village, moved here to be close to family
- Norma Roland: was a volunteer coordinator and mentor
- Barbara and Thomas Ellicott
- (and two others anonymous)
Our new members are interested in participating in small interest groups and volunteering.
New volunteers who have joined us since September:
- Rebecca Saltanstall
- Ann Gardner
- Mary Lopez Loftin
- Nick Bouwes
- Marian Flood
- Laurie McVay
- Beth Hooker
- Jon Dickman
- Billie Jean Register
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On the Nightstand: White Rage: The Outspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson, PhD, Professor of African-American Studies, Emory University
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Here's a good read. I taught university courses on poverty that included black poverty. But I had forgotten
some grim details, especially how Reagan and Nixon thwarted black civic and political rights. Anderson describes how white fears, disdain, perhaps envy, operate to prevent blacks in our nation from enjoying the everyday political and civic rights at least formally accorded white Americans. I say "formally"
because, of course, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, and age affect actual access.
But for black Americans, perhaps as early as the late 16th century and then through the years to and after the Civil War and Reconstruction, white rage curtailed access to rights. Anderson notes, for example, that before and after the Civil War, whites tried to prevent free blacks as well as runaway slaves from going North. And she describes how, despite the Civil Rights movement and today's movements for black rights, whites have been doing their best to curtail black access to a good education, to skilled jobs, and
to decent housing. Today, white rage is focused especially on limiting black voting rights, undercutting access to reasonable mortgages, and preventing integrated upscale neighborhoods.
How presidential white rage put severe limits on blacks is especially egregious. Some examples:
Reagan and Nixon were anti-black (and anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic). Both adopted the "Southern strategy" to attract white voters, assuring Southerners with "dog whistles." As president, Nixon tried but failed to cut the particular federal jobs filled heavily by blacks who were denied comparable private jobs. He was more successful in curtailing black votes by under-funding oversight. Reagan was more malicious than Nixon. Congress refused his desire to fund the right-wing Contras waging war against the government of El Salvador. Reagan got funds from the drug cartel, active already in Florida, by allowing them to sell drugs throughout the nation
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crack cocaine in black ghettos, powdered elsewhere for the whites. The view that crack was worse than powdered cocaine - no doubt, racist - got blacks harsher punishments for using it than whites.
Voter suppression of the black vote continued despite or because of Barack Obama's election. And he
was disrespected in the media and by members of the Congress. There his neo-liberal proposals were often blocked effectively. Donald Trump used the reliable Southern strategy - white rage - to gain the presidency and now works to undo, however he can, the gains of black Americans.
The myth of white supremacy has not expanded the political clout of white Americans who earn low wages, live in deteriorating communities, lack assured health care, lack access to good schooling, and according to recent studies, experience a declining male life expectancy. So, these whites just "eat
prestige," when they could join with blacks living in similar circumstances, to work for their common good.
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Nona Glazer
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