Portland Farmers Market Urban Homesteading Skill Share, at the King Market

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Portland Farmers Market seeks neighborhood experts to join us for a one-day urban homesteading fair at the Sunday King Market.

 

The fair will take place on July 15th from 10:00am – 2:00pm at the King Market, located in the parking lot of King Elementary School at NE 7th and Wygant.

 

The Market seeks community members to staff resource booths to answer shopper’s questions and execute simple demonstrations or activities that illustrate different areas of urban homesteading. The goal of the event is to educate urbanites about how they can become more self-sufficient in the realm of home arts. Expert staffers can be self-taught or sanctioned, local business owners, or simply individuals passionate about sharing skills with the public.

 

Community members are still being sought to staff booths in the following areas of focus:

* Food preservation

* DIY baby food

* Animal husbandry for city dwellers (goats, bees, chickens)

* DIY personal care products (make your own shampoo, toothpaste,

laundry soap, deodorant, etc.)

* Simple bike repair/inspection

* Creative ways to stock the home pantry

* Creative reuse (i.e. making reusable tote bags from old t-shirts)

 

If you are interested in sharing your talents with your neighbors or have other partnership ideas, please contact Anna Curtin at anna@portlandfarmersmarket.org or call (503)241-0032.

King School to Host Second Round-Up May 31st

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King School will host an informational open-house for parents of incoming students and prospective students as well as anyone else who would like to learn more about the school such as parents of pre-school age children.  Set aside time on your calendar on May 31st at 6pm to get your questions answered.   For parents not currently enrolled in Portland Public Schools or unfamiliar with King’s program, this will be an important opportunity to get up to speed about all the changes such as:

  • King is currently an International Baccalaureate school.  The elementary grades, prekindergarten through 5th are authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization while the middle school grades 6-8 are finishing up the authorization process.  IB is an interdisciplinary, globally focused approach to education that “help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.”
  • King is in its second year of a federal school improvement grant that is funding a transformation effort at the school.  Oversight from the State of Oregon will ensure that “the new principal has the experience and skills needed to implement successfully a transformation model; implements a rigorous staff evaluation and development system; institutes comprehensive instructional reform; increases learning time and applies community-oriented school strategies; and provides greater operational flexibility and support for the school.”
  • The President’s Council on the Arts and Humanities selected King as one of eight schools nationally to participate in its Turnaround Arts Initiative, a program that recognizes King’s commitment to arts education as part of a holistic approach to education, reinvigorating the school, and improving overall achievement.

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Resilience: Community Disaster Preparation workshop at King School, June 2nd

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About Resilience

Resilience PDX is an event to connect Portlanders who want to acquire or share knowledge and skills about disaster preparedness. Geologists suggest we are due for a major earthquake in this region, and better preparedness can save lives and minimize impacts of a disaster. The more we are prepared, the faster we will be able to recover and return to ‘normalcy’. At this event, we will showcase the various groups around Portland that can serve as resources for the community before, during, and after a major emergency. There will also be a number of skills workshops, where experts will share knowledge to help you prepare for and recover from a disaster. All for free! Come learn and get connected. The final schedule will be posted by the end of May.

The following workshops will be offered:

  • Earthquake-Proofing your Home
  • Preparing a Comprehensive Household Kit
  • Food Storage/Preservation
  • Clean and Potable Water
  • Home Energy
  • Managing Pee and Poop
  • Individual Resilience
  • Organizing your Neighbors
  • Bicycle Cargo Demonstration
  • Social Media and Other Technologies in Disasters
  • Putting Out Fires

The expected attendees include : Multnomah County Emergency Management, City of Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, Multnomah County Environmental Health, Earthquake Tech, Seismic NW, Oregon Red Cross, Oregon Food Bank, PREP, PHLUSH, Cloacina, Terra Firma, Portland Preparedness Center, Metrofiets, Portland Parks, Trackers Earth, PortlandNET, Betsy Shand, and more!

Who is Behind This?

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Sharing Ideas for Community

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From Our United Villages:

Celebrate the positive things happening in community!

Community Outreach of Our United Villages invites you to the sixth presentation of Sharing Ideas on Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at the June Key Delta Center (5940 North Albina Street) from 6:00 – 8:00 PM. Sharing Ideas showcases the positive efforts of neighbors, groups and organizations throughout Portland.

Three projects will be invited to share the spark that ignited their idea, the tools and strategies used to turn their ideas into action and their hopes for the future of their project. Make connections, build support for positive efforts in the community and discover possibilities for creating similar projects in your neighborhood. Featured projects include:

• Founded by a group of Northeast Portland neighbors, Kitchen Commons works to support the development of “a network of community kitchens in every neighborhood.”

• Entering its second year, Village Market is a community-led, nonprofit grocery store in New Columbia providing healthy food, local jobs and education.

• Slated to open in June, Kitchen Share Southeast will be Portland’s first community kitchen tool library.

Register to attend online at www.ouvcommunityoutreach.org or call 503.546.7499. FREE and open to the community. Free food! Child care (9 and under), transportation, and interpretation provided upon request. To read about past Sharing Ideas events and for more information, visit our website at www.ouvcommunityoutreach.org.

ABOUT COMMUNITY OUTREACH OF OUR UNITED VILLAGES
Our United Villages (OUV) is a local non-profit organization. As a program of OUV, Community Outreach serves as a free resource for those who see value in connecting with each other. Working from the roots, we bring people together to share their ideas that inspire practices to strengthen community.

REGISTER TO ATTEND

KNA Supports Portland Flea, Backpack Lunch Program–May Update

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At the May meeting of the King Neighborhood Association the NA voted to:

  • Approve a letter to Parks & Rec supporting Portland Flea’s desire to hold a flea market at the King Facility parking lot once a month through October. We will also meet with Flea and NECN to discuss educational opportunities and mini-employment opportunities that might be built into the market;
  • Approve a letter to PDC supporting Woody Broadnax’s desire to hold a “June 19th Voter Registration Drive” at MLK/Alberta’s empty lot, on July 21st and 22nd;
  • Launch the KNA backpack lunch collection drive, to collect food and money through KNA’s account at NECN, for the backpack program specifically at King School. We hope to raise enough to do a large backpack lunch packing in November-ish. Please give some thought to how we can raise money for the program;
  • Launch the Soil to Soul food security committee. The backpack program will be under Soil to Soul’s banner.

Also, Katy Kanfer announced that June will be her last month as part of the NA, as well as as a resident of Oregon.  We will miss her terribly and to pieces.

We would love to have folks on hand at upcoming Farmers Markets this summer to let people know about KNA, our programs, and our events.  Please volunteer for an hour or two on an upcoming Sunday to help us publicize and get the word out.  Email us when you’ve found a free hour or two to be at the Market and schmooze, and we will get some fliers to you!  Thank you very much for helping with this!

Also, please let folks know about the Clean-up next Sunday, May 19th! Let me know if you want fliers to hand out – full sheet or 1/4 sheet – or I can email you the flier.

Upcoming: we hope to have a rep for Parks & Rec to talk with us about the Sprite Spark Parks program; and Dr. Maila Davenport will continue to talk with us about the World Tree Project. We will also begin to put together the details of the Movie in the Park, on June 30th.

Other than that, we will do our best to keep summer meetings light and easy. We will also work on the by-laws, keeping an eye on the upcoming election for board positions in September.