Author: Joshua

The Eugene Community Newswire (ECN) is a new website located at newswire.kepw.org that aims to become Eugene’s hub for the kind of local news reporting that doesn’t make headlines in the corporate media, but that is nonetheless vitally important to those that would like be (and feel) more involved in what is happening in town.

The website is designed to foster a network of community journalists, who are in touch with what is going on locally, and can write up and submit articles to the website, as well as a more informed community of news readers who have a place to go for exposure to news from a broad spectrum of local sources. Check it out, and pass the word along!

If you are interested in submitting content but don’t feel like you know how to investigate or write up a good article, the Corporation for Public Community Newspapers is a site partner and offers free assistance in helping to make you a better reporter.

We are working with Jan Spencer to help produce his series of 7 Zoom presentations called “Towards a Healthy Society, Economy and Planet”. The first was recorded 2 weeks ago called “Transforming a Suburban Property”. The second was recorded yesterday called “Allies, Assets, and Actions in The Community”. Both can be found on our YouTube channel or on Jan’s channel which is linked from his website SuburbanPermaculture.org.

Here is the schedule for the final 5 presentations:

• 3 – Thursday, Oct 8, 7 PM, One Earth Lifestyles
• 4 – Thursday, Oct 22, 7 PM, Critique of Market Capitalism
• 5 – Thursday, Nov 5, 7 PM, Pushing Back Against Cars
• 6 – Wednesday, Nov 18, 7 PM, Preview of A Preferred Future
• 7 – Thursday, Dec 3, 7 PM, Systems Change

The presentations are happening over Zoom and you can join with the meeting code: 912 8956 7710 and the pass code is: 7544432

We have setup a new YouTube channel for Cooperation Eugene so we have the ability to post recordings of Zoom meetings we host for groups in the area that are doing related work. Now you can subscribe and get notified when new content is posted that you weren’t able to attend.

We hosted a great webinar yesterday called Divesting & Reinvesting in Housing Not Handcuffs. You can check it out here if you missed it.

Laws and policies – that violate constitutional rights, create arrest records, fines and fees that stand in the way of houseless people getting jobs or housing – don’t work. The evidence is clear that homelessness is reduced in communities that focus on housing, and not those that focus on handcuffs.

What is working in other communities and what are some pitfalls we should watch out for as we advocate for sweeping changes in the way we approach community safety? How do we organize our community to cultivate local resilience and implement strategies that invest in regional self-sufficiency instead of punitive measures?

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Cooperation Eugene stands in solidarity with our community members of color as the tragedy of the murder of another black man at the hands of white police officers once again dredges up the accumulated pain of hundreds of years of mistreatment and inequality. We need meaningful change and healing, and we need it now!

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It has been a challenging time for organizations working to find a balance between keeping society functioning and keeping people healthy as the pandemic rages on. We truly appreciate the time and energy of everyone who has come together to keep this effort moving forward!

We must all be vigilant during times like this to ensure that important gains we have made as a society are not eroded by government and industry looking to exploit current circumstances, as well as keeping our eyes out for opportunities to make progress on creating a more just and compassionate economy for all.

We continue to host our informative Study Circles each month to help educate ourselves. We read about and discussed worker cooperatives at one recent meeting as well as working on gaining a deeper understanding of the importance of the commons in another. For our July meeting we will be doing a deep dive into the meaning of democracy.

After a couple Zoom gatherings with the LSSN time bank community we finally met up in person at a park last week on a beautifully sunny day. It was great to see people’s faces again in person, albeit from a safe distance! Inspired by the pandemic we have decided to switch to having picnics instead of potlucks for any in-person gatherings going forward.

And a surprise occurrence that came out of the need for most communication to move online is that we have started helping a few other groups who have related causes host their meetings online using Zoom. It is inspiring to see folks coming together to help each other out during this crisis.

Take care, stay healthy, and we hope to see you soon!

Hopefully this newsletter finds you all in good health and out enjoying the nice weather we’ve been having lately! Here’s what’s coming up on the CE calendar:

Economic Democracy
Cooperation Eugene is recruiting a team to organize a Regenerative Futures Summit. We want to bring together the many amazing projects in Eugene that are building new models to meet basic needs locally and build community wealth. How can we cross-pollinate silos and scale up  community based systems? 

If you are a systems thinker and want a project that you can dig into, or if you want to help out organizing community conversations, or if you do research or make info-graphics, we could use your help! Figure more or less one meeting for 2 hours a week plus individual projects or team work. We are learning while doing and welcome your voice. Email Clare at: clarestrawn [at] gmail [dot] com or call: 541-285-4504.

Study Circle
Our next meeting will be on April 7th. Check the Study Circle webpage soon for more details.

Lane Service Sharing Network Potluck
Want to live in a world that is beyond work that is unfulfilling? Where we can meet each other’s needs and get ours met as well? This is the first step. We will share food and share the gifts and talents we would like to share, and the needs and wants we would love our community to help with. The meeting of real needs forms a different kind of community. Come share!

Friday March 27th, 6-8:30 pm at McNail-Riley house 601 W 13th in Eugene, Dishes provided.

Collaboration Circle Update & Next Meeting

A big thanks to everyone who gathered for the first Collaboration Circle! It was very informative to hear more about what people and groups in our local community are working on, as well as what we are most interested in and concerned about. We had the opportunity to hear about the tiny house cooperative Emerald Village, which is an innovative example of a group working together with the community to create an affordable housing solution. Housing affordability emerged as the dominant theme of the evening.

We are looking forward to making this meeting a monthly event and an opportunity to have a community round-table where we can work to build a living network that connects individuals and groups that are focused on regenerative solutions to democratize our local economy. Let’s work together to increase collaboration and break down the silos that separate us! The next meeting will be at Emerald Village Community Room, 25 N. Polk at Railroad Ave (please park on Polk or in the lot across Polk from Emerald Village), 7pm Thursday January 9^th, and we look forward to seeing you!

Study Circle January Event

We expect an interesting, real-world discussion this month. Cooperation Eugene is planning to host an economic democracy summit toward the end of 2020. This is a forum in which leaders from around Eugene from various sectors are invited to a discussion where we pose that the problems we all face are from a single underlying cause and the solutions lie in our ability to understand this and unite.

Poughkeepsie, NY, held a summit similar to this and wrote up a PDF how-to document which you will find here. The Study Circle discussion will consider how we can create a Eugene version of that project. Please read it sooner rather than later because you may wish to come to this one even if you’ve not attended previously, or invite someone you know who would be interested!

See our Study Circle page for more information.

Lane Service Sharing Network – Time Bank

LSSN is already making strides to demonstrate that a more friendly and community oriented economy is possible. We look forward to continuing to grow our sharing community in the new year. Please join us!

Cooperation Eugene is on Meetup.com

Now there’s another way to stay in touch with us. We’ve joined Meetup.com and you can join our events by visiting:
https://www.meetup.com/Cooperation-Eugene/

We’ve set a date for the first monthly Cooperation Eugene Collaboration Circle meeting and you are invited! Thursday November 14th from 7-8:30pm at Emerald Village Community Room, 25 N. Polk at Railroad Ave (please park on Polk or in the lot across Polk from Emerald Village).

The agenda will include a brief introduction about what the regenerative economy might look like in Eugene and watch a brief video by Ujima, a new economy organization that is making waves in Boston. We will also make space for all comers to share their related project ideas looking for collaboration.

We have a couple exciting new projects that are in the early stages of development which we will discuss in more detail at the meeting as well:

The first is a Micro Grants program to support projects that are aligned with the mission and aims of our organization. How do we make these decisions? What criteria do you recommend? If these funds were available, do you have a project that needs funding?

Also, we are planning an Economic Democracy Summit that will bring regenerative economy thought leaders together with local key stakeholders and community members to forge new approaches to rebuilding the commons based on successful models in place elsewhere.

The vision for the Collaboration Circle is that it will create opportunities for greater community involvement that are well suited to newcomers and those with busier schedules. We’d like for it become a place where existing projects collaborate, new projects form, and people go to find out more about opportunities. We see it as a place where collaborative outreach events get organized, and community experts join us to lend their advice. We are also looking forward to seeing what ideas you have to contribute!

Please join us on Nov 14th!

Over 300 people enjoyed the Community Resilience Festival on Aug 24th! They browsed, tabled, heard about solutions for resilience from speakers, and collaborated on ideas for community action such as a local food system network.

If you weren’t able to make it but are interested in seeing some of what happened you can watch video that has graciously been taken and made available by Todd Boyle. See our own Clare Strawn presenting on creating a regenerative and resilient local economy!

Plenary Talks:
Clare Strawn – “Creating a Regenerative and Resilient Local Economy”
https://youtu.be/YSaLrs7iFjs?t=3377Clare Strawn – “Creating a Regenerative and Resilient Local Economy”
https://youtu.be/YSaLrs7iFjs?t=3377
Jan Spencer – “Towards A Green and Resilient Culture and Economy”
https://youtu.be/YSaLrs7iFjs?t=325
Terry McDonald, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul – “St. Vinnies Builds Community Economic Resilience”
https://youtu.be/YSaLrs7iFjs?t=1032
Charlie Tilt and Kate Perle – “Local Food Systems Build Regional Resilience”
https://youtu.be/YSaLrs7iFjs?t=1622

Residential Coops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8cjoEIy9v0&t=1449s
Skeeter Duke – East Blair Housing Cooperative
Rob Bolman – Maitreya Eco Village
Tom Atlee – Walnut Street Co-op
Joanne Fox – PDX Commons, Portland

We are co-hosting an event on Saturday, August 24, 2019. 10:30 AM to 5 PM at the River Road Recreation Center, 1400 Lake Drive!

The Community Resilience Festival is a day long event that will be fun, educational and timely.  Its all about reducing our ecological footprints and building positive community culture. The event will show and tell projects, actions, allies and assets we have in Eugene and the southern Willamette Valley for creating more green and resilient homes, lifestyles, city and region.

For more complete information check out the event page on the River Road Community Organization Website or see the event page in Facebook.