Verde: Working for Environmental Justice in Cully and Beyond

Image from @verdepdx on Instagram. Check out Senator Ron Wyden’s blog post on Verde’s work here.

Last month kicked off our first quarter-long fundraising effort with a focus on environmental stewardship and justice. Verde is our featured organization and is here in the Cully neighborhood. Their mission is to "serve communities by building environmental wealth through social enterprise, outreach and advocacy." They do great work! Verde is truly a community driven organization, taking direction from the community. During the Covid pandemic Verde asked the community what was most needed and responded to requests for emergency food delivery, rent and bill assistance, and access to accurate information.

Verde works on a multitude of layers to address environmental justice, including physical infrastructure, policy advocacy, and building community leadership capacity. They are responsible for the creation of Cully Park, including a "multi-lingual, community-designed way finding system to help residents safely reach green spaces, and has created culturally specific Environmental Education programs for the community...[Verde] continuously work[s] towards creating better access to the outdoors through advancing social equity and engaging communities." (from @verdepdx on IG). Check out their IG to stay up on all the latest or head to their website to learn more.

Raffle ticket sales will be ongoing. For quarterly fundraising, the available prize is a $200 (!!) gift certificate. All proceeds from the ticket sales will go directly to Verde, as will 3% of our proceeds from the quarter's sales. You can read up on our over-hauled giving program here.