Homeless mothers can live in apartments at Kathy’s Place for little or no cost and receive assistance in creating a stable future. Students with behavioral health issues can interact with educators at Serendipity Center who can relate to their distress and offer them coping mechanisms for intense emotions. Adults who require assistance learning to read or passing a test that equates to a high school diploma can work with tutors through the Portland Literacy Council to accomplish those vital objectives.
Although each group may have a different aim, size, and focus, they all have the fundamental drive to help individuals who fall between the many social cracks. Instead of ignoring challenging circumstances, they offer the assistance and resources necessary to help people in crisis regain their footing and their optimism for a brighter future. And to help them stretch every last dollar they raise, they enlist the services of regular volunteers.
The 13 charities chosen as recipients of this year’s Season of Sharing campaign include the three organizations. The Oregon Journal started the yearly program during the Great Depression by giving away stockings to people in need, and after it merged with the Journal in 1982, it was run by The Oregonian. The program’s nonprofit arm, Oregonian Publishing Co. Public Benefits Inc., manages the newspaper and pays for its administrative expenses. More than $135,000 was kindly donated by readers, many of whom were repeat donors and loyal supporters, for the 2023 beneficiaries last year. The funds were disbursed as unrestricted grants.
From Friends of Noises’ intentions to open an all-ages music venue in North Portland to the Commons Law Center’s sliding-scale legal counsel for low-income Oregonians facing evictions, the organizations seek to address a wide spectrum of needs. They include more established nonprofits like Bradley Angle, which supports survivors of domestic abuse, and more recent ones like the Siletz Regalia Sharing Closet, which provides ceremonial apparel for powwows to tribal community members around Oregon.
The Season of Sharing volunteer board this year also gave particular consideration to organizations that support the mental health and homelessness concerns of young people. Community Transitional School, a preK–8 school in the Cully neighborhood that assists homeless students in the Portland region, is one of the recipients. It offers meals, transportation, and academic stability to children whose living circumstances are anything from stable. A week’s worth of school lunch deliveries would be covered by a $25 contribution. Alberta Kerr, a reputable nonprofit organization that has long offered counseling, psychiatric care, and other assistance to young people with mental health issues or intellectual and developmental disabilities, is another benefactor. For children with anxiety, therapeutic instruments would be purchased with a $50 donation to the charity. For adolescents and families, AndLooking Glass Community assistance in Eugene provides food, behavioral health assistance, and drug abuse programs. A $25 donation would pay for 25 young people’s dinner. These organizations are essential in filling the gap in the availability of child-focused mental health treatments in Oregon, which has some of the worst access in the nation.
The St. John’s Food Share program, Forward Strides, which provides rehabilitative services relating to horses, and Street Roots, which distributes a street newspaper given by vendors, are additional groups that are part of the campaign. As they are published through December, stories on each of the organizations will be accessible on OregonLive.com/sharing.
Donations are tax deductible for the Season of Sharing program through December 31.
Readers can text the code Season2024 to 44-321 or visit OregonLive.com/sharingpage to make an online donation to the Season of Sharing General Fund. Additionally, donors can mail checks to Season of Sharing at 336 N.E. 20th Ave., Portland, OR 97232, c/o Oregonians Credit Union.
Although financial contributions are a quick and effective way to help organizations, many also rely significantly on volunteers. The websites of the groups provide further information for readers. There are countless ways to contribute to a community safety net, as these organizations demonstrate.
-The Editorial Board of Oregonian/OregonLive
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