City Repair

Announcing Request for Proposals!

The Village Building Convergence Request for Proposals are here!

Dear Portland community and beyond,

The City Repair Project is proud to announce that we are now accepting proposals for community building projects for the 12th annual 10-day Village Building Convergence (VBC) held from May 25th -June 3rd 2012!

Every year City Repair helps many communities around the greater Portland area gather their community together to collectively transform the uncultivated spaces that surround them into rich vibrant gathering places that strengthen the community. City Repair facilitates this “place-making” activity of transforming “spaces” into “places” year-round, but it is during the annual Village Building Convergence that most of the place-making activity takes place. Whether it’s an intersection repair project, an outdoor classroom, a covered bench, neighborhood garden, or more, we welcome all ideas and would love to help turn your vision into reality.

Anyone interested in doing some form of community-oriented placemaking project during the VBC is welcomed and encouraged to submit a Request For Proposal (RFP). Everyone that submits a RFP by the January 27th 2012 deadline will automatically be accepted to join our planning process in which the place-making team will provide in-depth, weekly training and support to help your project succeed with flying colors. Even if you have no idea what you’d like to see happen in your neighborhood or community, please feel free to peruse and fill out the RFP form and we will be more than happy to help you get the ball rolling, the sparks flying, and the under-utilized space transforming into a vibrant welcoming place!!!

Please read from the following link completely and fill out the application by January 27, 2012.

It’s Here!

Please share this with anyone that you think might be interested!

If you have any questions at all, ask away, we’re here for you!

Meet your neighbors, build your dreams!

Contact:
vbcplacemaking@cityrepair.org
Placemaking Coordinator: Hannah Poirier, 541 419 6723

2nd Saturdays

2nd Saturdays – 1/14/12
Heart Space: Finding your inner Heart
2800 SE Harrison St.
Time: 5:30pm till 10pm

Join us for February’s Second Saturday  as we explore what it means to love, both others and yourself. We will be joined with a wonderful group called Heart of Now. (More to be announced on this.) We will also be having an ecstatic dance. (More to be announced on this.)

We will also be having a potluck with delicious goodies to warm the heart, so bring a favorite dish. Hope to see you there. ~Blessings

eddie@cityrepair.org

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2nd Saturdays – 1/14/12
UnEqual Opportunity: Understanding White Privilege
2800 SE Harrison St.
Time: 5:30pm till 10pm

How do we build real community? America is “The Melting Pot” and is not like any “traditional village” -which tended to be very homogenous. Today our communities are diverse. Our political and financial institutions, too often guided by greed, have over the history of our country embedded privilege in some groups where it is not always apparent, especially to those who have it. If true peace, justice, liberty, or freedom are to be served – if *real* community is to be forged – we need to face this embedded privilege and understand how it impacts our daily lives. This 2nd Saturday is an invitation to go deeper into the heart of building community together.

We will be accompanied by some very special speakers, Eleyna Fugman, Ashish Bauron, and others who will open up and explore this enlightening subject.  We will begin the evening with a cross-cultural potluck, so please bring you favorite ethnic dish to share with the group. Foods from your own cultures are encouraged too, including those of the European descent, if you choose. There is a donation requested for use of the building and supplies. We look forward to seeing you all there.

eddie@cityrepair.org

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2nd Saturdays – 12/10/11
Community Gathering and Skill Share
2800 SE Harrison St.
Time: 5pm till 10pm

Come join City Repair for its Second annual monthly event, held every 2nd Saturday of the month. Once a month at the same place and time we gather and create, present and play. We will share food, exchange ideas, create bonds, play games of connection, sing and dance. It will have a different theme every time. Our Second one will be  Skill-share & Crafts. Join us as we break bread together and share food and learn the skills of the giving season. We will be providing some food but we encourage you to bring your favorite dish as well. Dinner will start at 5pm and with lively conversation. Then, around 7pm we will begin a skill share with many different beautiful people from our community to teach fun skills  and crafts, some will be useful for the holiday season. If you have a particular skill you would like to share, please feel free to contact us. We are requesting a small donation. We hope to see you all there.

SKILL-SHARES AND CRAFTS SO FAR:

-Natural Lotions, toners, salt & sugar scrubs, and face cream

-Darning (mending by weaving thread across a hole with a needle). Bring something to mend, like socks or a sweater.

-Self-massage. Great de-stresser for the holidays.

-Beeswax, Salve, and Massage oil

-Drumming (bring a drum or shaker)

…and anything YOU want to share, just bring it!

eddie@cityrepair.org

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2nd Saturdays – 11/12/11
Food Fermentation & Preservation
2800 SE Harrison St.
Time: 5pm till 10pm

Come join City Repair for it’s first monthly event, held every 2nd Saturday of the month. Once a month at the same place and time we gather and create, present and play. We will share food, exchange ideas, create bonds, play games of connection, sing and dance. It will have a  different theme every time. This first one will be  Food Fermentation & Preservation. Join us as we break bread together and share food and learn the skills of the harvest season. We will be providing some food but we encourage you to bring your favorite dish as well. Dinner will start at 5pm and with lively conversation. Then around 7pm we will begin a skill share with many different urban farmers from our community to teach some skills in the area. It will be by donation. We hope to see you all there.

eddie@cityrepair.org

HOWL 2011: City Repair’s Halloween Benefit Party

Greetings Everybody!

The time is near! The dreary season is settling in but we’ll keep our spirits high. Every October for the last 8 years, City Repair’s Earth Day Celebration Co-creator, Eric Steindler, and an amazing group of organizers put together a fantastic Halloween celebration and fundraiser: HOWL.

This one night goes such a long way to support our placemaking efforts around the city. This year we’ve accomplished more than ever, connecting neighbors and communities through our Earth Day and Village Building Convergence placemaking activities. We were able to extend our support to 30+ neighborhood placemaking projects this year during the VBC. This could not happen without your support…both volunteer efforts and donations.

Attending events like HOWL makes it possible for us to continue to provide extensive support for free to any community in need. It’s pretty great that we can go to a party and simultaneously support community empowerment and sustainability.

If you haven’t already done so, please consider grabbing a ticket. And to everyone, whether you can attend or not, spread the word to all your friends! Pass this email on, Share the event on facebook, tweet it into the twittersphere, or speak in an uncharacteristically loud voice at your local cafe about how awesome the event is going to be (making sure to repeat key information such as location and time). Not only will it help us out so wonderfully much, but it will make the party better too!

So grab your ticket ahead of time for the presale discount and make sure to tell all your friends! Here are the details:

When: Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011 9:00 PM (till 5:00AM)

Where: 320 SE 2nd Ave Portland, OR (Rotture)

Price: $26 ($30 at the door)

Tickets: Brown Paper Tickets (paper tickets available 10/14 at: Metro (3524 SE Hawthorne), Frock (1439 NE Alberta))

Website: howlpdx.com

Facebook: facebook.com/howlpdx

Contact: Matt Phillips, 503-235-8946, info@cityrepair.org

With 4 music areas indoors and out, you’ll be partying the night away. Don’t forget your costume… the party is known for drawing some of the most amazing outfits since returning from Burning Man last month

The music line-up includes performances by Portland favorite DJs & performance troupes (Solovox, GlobalRuckus, Manoj, The Good Time Girls), as well as new talent, both local and from afar (Bridge Town Review, Real Time Hand Motion, Professor Stone, Cornflower, Forrest Avery, Mazeguider and more). See the website for the full line up.

Placemakers’ Academy: Free Placemaking Workshop Series

No registration necessary, but we’d love to know if you plan on coming!

Come learn the basic elements of placemaking, and become empowered to spread the word! After getting our basic overview of placemaking (what, why and how) along with discussions and group activities, class participants will learn how to give a basic City Repair slideshow. Also, we’ll provide those who show up with training in how to give a tour of past VBC sites.

Each class features Michael’s entertaining and informative power point presentations, group discussion, and a hands-on activity to feed your creative soul.

With Michael moving to the mid West this winter, we’re needing to grow a crop of placemaking superheros. The free Tuesday night course this fall will be focused on these skills.

What : Introduction to Placemaking

When : Tuesdays, 6:45-8PM, Sept 13 – Nov 1, 2011

Where : HARP, 2926 NE Flanders, lower level (enter from rear) — except on Oct. 4th when we will meet at Kailash Ecovillage at 4311 SE 37th ave!

Who: final class led by Michael Cook before he moves!!!

Tentative course topics:

• Social Context and Indigenous Roots of Community Placemaking

• Scope of Placemaking

Universal patterns we draw from, insights for creating human-scale places in our neighborhoods. Understanding and contrasting the particulars of community placemaking. Understanding it’s reasons, scope, and goals and why it works. Grokking Placemaking.

• Gatherings and Group Process

Neighborhood outreach, meeting prep, basics of facilitation, decision making models (and their place), overcoming challenges, nurturing leadership.

• Social Capital and Community Asset Mapping

Seeing the Matrix. Seeing the Village. Understanding social capital and its stages. Making and utilizing community oriented asset maps. Building trust and nurishing potential.

• Collaborative Design

Identifying values, determining functions, setting priorities, while maintaining inclusivity in the design.

• Placemaking Modalities (Natural Building, Permaculture, Community Art, Community Building)

Models of inspiration. The many ways in which placemaking manifests and how we can make our places more sustainable. (Share your own ideas!)

• Making it Happen: Community Workparties

Pre-event site prep, materials, volunteer coordinator, education and site leaders, safety, having fun.

• Celebration and the Future

The importance of celebrating work, process and progress. Storytelling (mythmaking), traditions of upkeep.

VBC11 5/30 evening events at Tryon Community Farm!

Monday, May 30th
Theme: Singing Alive
Cost: By Donation!

Singing Alive exists to encourage the remembrance of a deep desire to sing from the heart, and provides resources in the form of songs, the community to sing them, and support for those of us who want to live the teachings of the songs.

Location:

Tryon Life Community Farm (No programming at St. Davids!)

11640 SW Boones Ferry Road Portland, OR 97219

There will be a group of bicyclists heading to the farm from St. David’s at NOON!

There will be a shuttle running between St David’s to TLC farm every hour starting at 12 pm. There will also be a shuttle running between the Riverdale High School parking lot (9727 Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard) every hour starting at 12:30 pm. Shuttles will also run back to St. David’s and Riverdale HS after the event ends.

Evening Lineup:

5:30 – 6:15 pm | Dinner (Vegan)

6:15 – 7:00 pm | Tales of the Song Village

7:00 – 9:45 pm | Singing Alive Presented by Morgan Brent

VBC11 Needs: Food Stuff!

This year at the village building convergence (vbc) you have the opportunity to contribute to the nourishment of all who attend and volunteer at the vbc. In the spirit of a truly communal kitchen with community building at its finest, we invite you to bring key ingredients to help the kitchen be as healthy and bountiful as possible. We feed between 150 & 200 people for 9 nights. It takes a village to raise a child…it takes a village to create a new paradigm that respects and honors our earth mother. Be the village, help us create what we dream, help us nourish the community!

• -Tre, VBC Kitchen Magician and the Nourishment Team
• vbcnourishment@cityrepair.org

WISH LIST:

Supplies:

(we’ll be sure to get these back to you if you wish at the end of the vbc)

• • chefs! (for one night or multiple nights)
• • propane burner and tank
• • 2 large rice cookers
• • electric car/truck to pick up supplies
• • 3 refrigerators
• • Dr. Bronner’s soap
• • 100% recycled toilet paper
• • a dozen used 5 gallon buckets w/ lids
• • 2 or 3 hayboxes
• • 1 or 2 solar ovens
• • 2 or 3 large stainless steel pots w/ lids (3 & 1/2 gallon size or larger)
• • 2 or 3 rubber spatula scrapers
• • 3 or 4 large stainless steel or wooden salad bowls
• • 1 or 2 large wooden stirs
• • 50 to 100 stainless steel forks
• • 20 to 40 cloth napkins
• • 2 or 3 extremely large cast iron skillets
• • vita mix blender
• • quisenart food processor

Food:

(larger quantities are requested however no amount is too small…we appreciate whatever you can contribute…in an effort to has as little impact on the environment, we respectfully request bulk purchased with reused containers or bags/ local and organic (as much as possible) …thanx so much!!)