Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, Inc.

- Mission - POIC+RAHS is committed to the success of at-risk youth and adults, providing the highest quality services in education, mentoring, family outreach, employment training, and placement. - Programs & Nike Request Overview - We have been honored for over a decade by the continued, deep support and engagement of Nike executives Eric Sprunk and Dave Schecter, who have served as board members, recently fundraised to bring mental health counselors to each POIC+RAHS campus, and more. Thank you for your invitation to apply for this opportunity. POIC+RAHS is excited about this opportunity to partner with Nike to empower Black and African American community members through workforce ... read more - Mission - POIC+RAHS is committed to the success of at-risk youth and adults, providing the highest quality services in education, mentoring, family outreach, employment training, and placement. - Programs & Nike Request Overview - We have been honored for over a decade by the continued, deep support and engagement of Nike executives Eric Sprunk and Dave Schecter, who have served as board members, recently fundraised to bring mental health counselors to each POIC+RAHS campus, and more. Thank you for your invitation to apply for this opportunity. POIC+RAHS is excited about this opportunity to partner with Nike to empower Black and African American community members through workforce and life skills training. Specifically, we request support for The Kitchen, a special project developed in response to community voice and need. Your funding will help us finalize The Kitchen and launch its first year of operations (beyond the first year many ongoing expenses are self-sustaining). The Kitchen includes a commercial kitchen, culturally specific culinary academy, and learning space in East Portland. The Kitchen meets urgent health, economic and educational needs while building Black-led resilience. Access to healthy food is the number one request of the students we serve at our five school campuses and beyond. POIC+RAHS engages youth and adults most organizations have given up on, yet they represent our community's greatest opportunity to break cyclical adversity and build generational resiliency. And, with five alternative accredited schools and extensive wraparound services, we have unique access to our community's most vulnerable members who will benefit from this project. This pipeline of trainees and consumers of school meals ensures The Kitchen will grow into a harmonious, distinctive, and self-supporting model. The Kitchen and its programs will be housed in Rockwood Rising, a 5.5-acre community development located at 18535 S.E. Stark St. that includes job training and entrepreneurship opportunities; income based housing; a retail market hall; a mixed-use village with access to childcare and more; and an outdoor community plaza. Please see the attached Nike's Contribution document for information about potential recognition and engagement opportunities for Nike (if desired) and what we will accomplish with your support. - About POIC+RAHS - POIC+RAHS has been a beacon for communities of color, particularly the Black and African American community, for more than 50 years. POIC+RAHS was originally founded to provide culturally specific workforce training and career placement services to counter discriminatory practices keeping people of color unemployed, underemployed, and unable to access wealth building opportunities. Then, viewing education as a critical component of a community's success, POIC expanded by founding Rosemary Anderson High School (RAHS), an accredited alternative high school, in 1983 and later an accredited middle school in 2018. With five school campuses now and more than 100 staff, students can access caring educators, culturally specific curricula, and safe spaces. From reintroducing houseless teens to the classroom, to pairing gang-affected students with meaningful career opportunities, to helping youth experiencing domestic violence find stability and hope through mentorship - POIC+RAHS provides a continuum of education, career, and family services. Current services: -Open-door, accredited high school diploma and GED program at RAHS's four high school campuses -Open-door, open enrollment middle school programming at Rosemary Anderson Middle School's campus -Best practice peer, adult, and gang-impacted youth mentoring -Evidence-based young parent education and case management -Leadership development and training -Youth and gang violence intervention and prevention -College and career exploration, career coaching, internship opportunities, and job placement services -BOLI-certified construction pre-apprenticeship program -Evidence-based, trauma-informed therapy and case management for justice-involved youth In addition to these direct services, POIC+RAHS also works towards systems change - partnering across all sectors towards policies and practices that address root causes of generations-long inequities. - Who We Serve - Of the more than 3,000 youth, adults, and their families POIC+RAHS serves annually, many have un- or under-diagnosed and untreated mental illnesses as well as ongoing stressors and histories of trauma. Many are also experiencing unstable housing or houselessness, limited economic resources, communal and relational violence, involvement with the justice system, social injustice, racism, and grief or loss. More than 90% of those served identify as a person of color, over 60% are impacted by gangs, 84% live below the federal poverty line, and nearly 20% have children of their own. The following unique characteristics ensure our programs successfully reach vulnerable youth and families: - A deep connection to Portland's communities of color. POIC+RAHS works with thousands of youth of color and their families each year. Many relationships with families span multiple generations. - A trusted resource. Because of POIC+RAHS' extensive history serving communities of color, and because staff are representative of those served, POIC+RAHS has become a trusted resource among Portland's low-income communities of color. POIC+RAHS is often an individual's first point of contact to access a variety of services. - Kitchen Project Details - The Kitchen serves three main functions: 1) Give POIC+RAHS the ability to bring production of their daily school lunches in house for their five school campuses - offering more control over the quality of food, its nutrient density, and ability to use the practical application of cooking daily school meals as a hands-on learning site for culinary academy participants and other students. 2) Launch a culinary academy and food-based career training program to complement POIC+RAHS' existing workforce development services. Much like its other workforce development programs, the curriculum is culturally specific and uniquely accessible to participants. Beyond the restaurant world, this academy extends to a variety of food-based businesses in a high growth group of industries from food science to urban agriculture to sustainable food production and more. 3) Welcome the broader community of families and individuals POIC+RAHS serves to learn about nutrition, healthy living, cost-effective food preparation and other health affirming topics that can be applied immediately to improve one's quality of life and future opportunities. This is in response to food insecurity, food deserts, and rising health disparities specific to the populations POIC+RAHS serves. Specifically, The Kitchen project aligns well with Nike's focus on equity, social justice, and community by increasing: -Organizational Resiliency. Bringing daily school meal food services in-house eliminates POIC+RAHS' dependence on external meal services while creating nutrient-dense food for students who face a variety of traumas including food insecurity. -Community Resiliency. This for us, by us project is guided by Black, African American and other diverse community members, most all of whom live in low-income households. These parents, guardians, students, and community members are collectively asking for resiliency, agency and autonomy for their urgent health, economic and educational needs. -Youth Engagement. One fact is crystal clear: when students are hungry or when the food they are eating is not nutritious they are less engaged - be it learning in the classroom or participating in additional services. Access to healthier food is students' number one wish list request. -Economic Opportunity. Extending far beyond restaurant and hospitality careers, food is big business and big opportunity. The culinary and food-based career training program expands equitable economic opportunities for a variety of food-based careers from food science to food processing and so much more. - Health and Wellness. The Black and African American community continue to disproportionately suffer from a variety of health conditions, including COVID-19. Access to healthy food and nutritional knowledge builds personal agency and increases health resiliency. -Community Connections. Heralded for its foodie culture and access to premium agricultural, meat and seafood products, Oregon's food scene continues to bustle and hustle while the voices of chefs and foodies of color continue to be underrepresented. From community events to showcasing of Black-owned food businesses and chefs - this project creates avenues to elevate the role of Oregon's growing Black and African American food scene. Specific project outcomes: -Increased access to careers in high growth food related industries. -Increased access to healthy food for youth of color and their families. -Increased organizational resiliency through decreased food costs for daily school meals. -Elevated role and voice of Portland's Black chefs and food professionals. -Increased community cohesion through shared meals and learning opportunities. -Improved health outcomes, particularly among Oregon's Black community members. -Increased leadership opportunities for youth as they spearhead a variety of healthy eating school and community-based campaigns, and more. Annually, this program will: -Educate 40 to 60 culinary academy trainees who will graduate ready to enter the workforce. Participants receive POIC's signature workforce support (at least two years of post-program mentorship and career navigation). -Reach 75 additional local families through innovative nutrition and food programs -Provide daily school meals for 550 students at five RAHS campuses