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 – 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

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.

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.

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

• -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!!)

Dear Community members, The Village Building Convergence 2011 begins officially this Friday and while we have already created so much goodness there is still plenty left to do! We could use some good ‘ole fashioned Community support in the form of work trade volunteers to help us get the ball rolling. Will you come create a Village with us?!

Here’s How to Help:

From Tuesday to Friday we will be Building our Village Heart at the Venue (St David’s Church 2800 SE Harrison) from 10:30 – 6:30. Bring hands and determination to help us create our Village infrastructure.

Most Importantly! There are still open work trade shifts for during the first three days of the VBC! That means This Friday, Sat., and Sun. Shifts are 4 hours long and except for kitchen prep at 1pm, all shifts begin when we open our doors at 5pm. Shifts include everything from kitchen prep, ticketing booth, Kid’s Room supervision, selling baked goods at The Nest and More!

These awesome volunteer opportunities count as Work Trade towards getting a pass into the Venue for an evening event. (…with the exception of the Tuesday night Starhawk event)

Now that you’ve decided to help, it is imperative that you send us an email at vbcvolunteer@cityrepair.org. Or better yet! Give us a call at 503.388.1612 and we’ll get you plugged in right away!

To be waiting at the brink of this creation is a wild and wonderful place to be. I very much look forward to jumping in and seeing what (in our wildest dreams) we’re capable of this year.

Thank You For Your Support ~The VBC Volunteer Committee

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
~Margaret Mead

Download Here (8.2mb PDF) (Update 3) please share this with your friends and community!

The VillageBuilder, official guide to the VBC is now available digitally. Inside this newsletter you will find:

- Introduction to VBC, City Repair and its projects

- Information about our wonderful sponosors

- Ads for conscientious local businesses and organizations

- Information about all of this year’s participating community placemaking sites

-Location and contact info

- Description

- Photos and design images

- Volunteer work schedule

- Evening events

- Ticket prices, dates, locations and timelines

-Presenter bios and presentation informaiton

- Musicial performances

- Featured VBC Workshop ($20)

The VBC core organizers and placemaking sites are still hard at work getting everything ready for the event, so information is likely to change. Check the site pages for most up-to-date info and follow us on Facebook to hear about changes as they occur: facebook.com/cityrepair

If you have any questions go to vbc.cityrepair.org for general info on VBC or contact vbc@cityrepair.org

***We had so much fun during our last gathering, lets do it again!***

Saturday May 14th from 1-4pm @8516 SE 8th Ave

There are many different ways to get involved with the Village Building Convergence. Most people know about participating at the community placemaking sites around the city, during the days of the event. But most of the village building goes on behind the scenes and leading up to the citywide celebration.

The life force of the VBC is a diverse and passionate collection of volunteers. We start gathering in the late fall to vision our path towards successful, healthy village building and work to develop models and practices to support that goal.

Turns out, it takes a village to build a village. This all volunteer event wants a large community of organizers to help develop and prepare its many facets. there are opportunities of all shapes and sizes for varying levels or experience and commitment. This gathering will be an opportunity to meet some of the current core organizers and get involved in a way best suited for you.

Here’s what you can do before the event arrives

• • Read more about the Village Building Convergence
• • Read about our newly developed organizing committee structure
• • Fill out a VBC Volunteer form
• • Contact the volunteer committee for questions or more information at vbcvolunteer@cityrepair.org

Our main vision this year for the evening events of the VBC (May 27th to June 5th) was ‘participating in the village experience’. We’re making the VBC more engaging and accessible than ever with reduced ticket prices and a wider variety of evening activities that attendees will be able to really part-take in rather than just watch or listen.

Check our Evening Events page for a day by day preview!

Except for one evening, which will be at Tryon Life Community Farm, all evening events will be taking place at our Central Venue, St. David of Wales Church at 2800 SE Harrison. Tickets for each evening can always be purchased at the door but discounted presale ticket packages are available online at vbc.cityrepar.org/ticketing

The full schedule of evening events and daytime placemaking opportunities will be coming online in early May but here’s a preivew:

Special guests to this year’s convergence include Robert Laporte and his wife Paula Baker-Laporte, distinguished natural builders and authors of Eco Nests. They will be joining us the evening of Friday May 27th to speak about forefront of natural building.

We will also be celebrating a local victory for natural building. The Alternative Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) recently approved a submitted proposal for the use of light straw clay insulation (similar to cob but with much higher insulation value) for permitted building projects in portland. This proposal was a joint effort between Robert, Paula, Portland’s local organization Recode and many esteemed natural builders in the region.

Other great news is that the beloved Permaculture-feminist-activist-grandmother-author Starhawk will be joining us again this year for both an evening celebration and a featured workshop.
We will also be joined by Benjamin Fahrer the Permaculture Director at Esalen Institute in Big Sur California & His Love, the incredible activist songstress Diane Patterson.

As always, each evening will include a wholesome meal.

This year we’re exploring ways to further enrich and develop our ‘village experience’ and will be including many different types of participatory activities in the evenings through out the week including skill sharing sessions, a new community-based urban permaculture exercise developed by Mark Lakeman called ‘Block Repair’ and an evening where we’ll all be heading over to Tryon Life Community Farm for an exhilarating and rejuvenating whole-body music experience known as ‘Singing Alive’.

Check our Evening Events page for a day by day preview!

More updates coming soon! Find us on facebook for updates as they happen