Oregon Community Foundation’s youth program marks milestone | Oregon Community Foundation

PGE Foundation launched Community 101 in 1997, and OCF joined the partnership and assumed day-to-day operations around 2010. Today, Community 101 is supported by OCF with major ongoing support from PGE Foundation and dozens of individual donors and philanthropic funds across the state.

This year, Community 101 turns 25 — in the same year that OCF crosses its 50th anniversary milestone. Statistics speak to the program’s success. During the 2021-21 academic year, about 900 students in 40 schools around Oregon participated in Community 101. Most are high schools, but some middle schools and elementary schools participated. Students granted $155,000 to 81 Oregon nonprofits and donated thousands of hours of community service.

Katie Dearing, OCF’s Community 101 Coordinator who meets with all Community 101 classes throughout Oregon, said, “Community 101 allows nonprofits, donors, and really anyone participating to see the very best of schools and their students. Giving students agency to affect change is a powerful thing.”

Dearing is an educator who taught Community 101 in her own classroom before joining OCF. In her current role, she meets with all Community 101 teachers and students throughout the year, making in-person visits to as many schools as possible, and connecting virtually with schools that may be more difficult to access, including schools in eastern and southern Oregon.

”As a career teacher, what amazes me about Community 101 is the opportunity it provides for students to engage in real-world experiences,” Dearing said. “It’s not always easy to find authentic ways for students to practice such important life skills including communication and compromise.”

OCF provides a $5,000 grant, along with user-friendly workbooks to guide students through a thoughtful grant making and community service process. During the school year, each class evaluates community needs, writes a mission statement, researches nonprofits in their community, invites nonprofits to apply for a grant, reviews grant applications and awards the funds at the end of the school year during an awards ceremony. Students also are encouraged to serve as community volunteers.

Each class writes a mission statement together, focused on real-world challenges: homelessness, hunger, child abuse. Since the pandemic, OCF has noted a sharp increase in mission statements relating to mental health. In 2019, before the pandemic, about 35% of student-written mission statements related to mental health. In 2022, that number jumped to 75%.

At Scappoose High School, students participate in Community 101 as part of Kristen Hagen’s community leadership class. Students wrote a class mission statement focused on supporting child abuse issues. They revised it 20 times.

In the fall, Community 101 students organized and volunteered at three community outreach activities. At a Veterans Day breakfast to honor local vets, students organized the event, solicited donations from the community, and helped cook and serve breakfast. Students provided Thanksgiving food baskets for families who otherwise may not have a holiday meal. When Spanish-speaking families picked up their baskets, student Ivan Garcia Ensaldo served as translator. Students also organized a holiday giving tree to provide gifts for 40 local children and teens in foster care. Most tags on the giving tree requested basic needs: a sweatshirt, a coat, a hairbrush.

Amalie Anderson, 15, said, “It puts into perspective how fortunate we are.”

As they focused on grant making, students researched Columbia County nonprofits to find which were the best fit with their mission statement. Then students invited selected nonprofits to apply for a grant. OCF provides a rubric students use to determine which nonprofit projects to fund.

Grant requests often far exceed the $5,000 available. Students use critical thinking skills to determine which requests to fund.

“Their decisions weren’t made lightly,” Hagen says.

Students decided to grant $2,500 to Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) to train advocates for children and $2,500 for AMANI Center.

Kennady Hoag, 15, said, “Seeing how many places in our community are helping kids makes me realize there are so many kids who need help. You can do a lot with very little.”

Every day for an hour, Hagen’s Community Leadership class practices leadership skills, public speaking, problem solving, learning to make business phone calls, writing professional emails and writing thank-you letters.

“It really helped to practice making phone calls,” Kennady said. “Now if someone asks me to call a business to ask them to donate, I know I can do that.”

Community 101 teacher Hagen said, “I’ve seen so many talented students with a heart for service come through this class. It’s humbling. Not everyone is open to that transformation.”

On the first day back to school after spring break, Many Nations Academy teacher Ben Taylor and his Community 101 students reviewed their mission statement, which focuses on assisting people struggling with housing and homelessness, substance abuse and mental health.

It’s Taylor’s seventh year of teaching Community 101 at Many Nations Academy, a high school that integrates local native traditions and hands-on learning with project-based lessons in small classes. He directed the students to divide into two groups to review grant applications they received from two local nonprofits, New Avenues for Youth and Transition Projects.

“We’ve researched issues and organizations,” Taylor said. “Now we’re looking at program budgets. How much money are they asking for?”

Shayra Javier, 16, and her group were reviewing the grant application from Transition Projects, which helps people who are homeless transition into housing. Shayra turned the page to the budget table. “They’re asking for $2,500.”

Taylor asked, “How will they spend the money?”

Citlaly Mendoza, 17, scanned the page and said, “To buy move-in kits.”

Taylor asked, “What’s in a move-in kit?”

Shayra read from the list: “Laundry baskets, towels, cleaning supplies, sheets.”

Taylor nodded, “That stuff is important. It’s expensive to move into your first place. How many move-in kits can they buy for $2,500?”

There was a pause while the students looked at the grant application.

“Twenty kits,” answered Tekiah McBurnett, 17.

Taylor said representatives from both nonprofits would be visiting the Community 101 class in the next week so that students could ask questions about their organization, their grant request and their budget.

He said, “I want you to figure out how much of the program budget will come from us. What percent? If we don’t fund them, can they still do their project?”

More discussion followed until the bell rang. As the students gathered their papers and prepared to leave, Taylor reminded them, “New Avenues for Youth is coming on Thursday. Think about what questions you want to ask them.”

During the pandemic shutdown that began in March 2020, Community 101 classes pivoted to accommodate the changing times. OCF granted each Community 101 class the $5,000 and provided flexibility in granting the money.

A handful of high school boys in the Community 101 class at Wallowa County Alternative Education Program in Enterprise proposed using the OCF money to refurbish the derelict Enterprise Skatepark. Its last update had been 20 years earlier. In sparsely populated Wallowa County, entertainment for teens is scarce. The boys knew an updated skatepark would be popular.

Dearing of OCF explained, “Some schools either didn’t receive applications back or felt driven to change their mission statement to meet the moment. We allowed this flexibility, and some schools like Wallowa Alternative Education Program got creative in amazing ways.”

When the boys shared their idea with their Community 101 teachers, Maria Weer and Ron Pickens, the wheels started rolling. The teachers took the boys to the city council meeting, where they made a presentation about their idea. The council got excited about it. But they learned that $5,000 wasn’t enough. Word spread. The kids and the community held fundraisers. People donated. Pickens wrote grants. An anonymous donor made a generous contribution.

Eventually, Community 101 students brought together the community to raise $300,000 to revamp Enterprise Skatepark and revitalize the entire space. At the grand reopening on August 7, 2022, the school brought a professional skateboarder to town to demonstrate the new half-pipe, the park’s centerpiece. A large crowd showed up. The root of the project was that first $5,000 grant from OCF’s Community 101 program. On a recent sunny day, 15 to 20 kids were skating at the revamped skatepark.

This year, Community 101 students at Wallowa County Alternative Education Program promoted the grant program to the community and six nonprofits applied—double the size they had received in past years. The students got to work.

“If you put kids in leadership positions, they want to rise to the occasion,” Weer said. “Being an alternative education teacher, we often have kids who don’t have the means to give back to the community that has given so much to them. Community 101 gives students that opportunity. It’s empowering.”

In their academic classes, she said students often ask “Why do I have to know this?” However, Community 101 students recognize the value in what they are learning.

“Some kids don’t take the best path of making good choices,” Pickens said. “This experience rooted in Community 101 and the concept of giving back to where you live was life changing. Especially for kids who haven’t connected in a positive way with adults and their community, this can be a turning point for how they see themselves.”

“In Community 101, kids get to have a voice at that local level,” Pickens said. “Hopefully, down the road as adults, they’ll be inspired to participate in their local community and give back.”