Welcoming Beaverton: City Officials Now Accepting Mini-Grant Applications for September Event

BEAVERTON, OR – Last year, for the city’s second official Welcoming Week in September, Beaverton residents were treated to several activities that helped promote cultural understanding and build bridges between the city’s diverse communities.

From an African cooking class to a Taiwanese tea ceremony, visitors of all ages shared with each other their cultures and celebrated the music, food, and art that separate yet connect all people.

To build on the excitement generated by last year’s incorporation of city-funded community projects into the Welcoming Week program, city officials are once again accepting applications from individuals, nonprofits, and community groups for 2017 Welcoming Beaverton mini-grants (click here to apply and for more details).

Awarding a maximum $500 to each applicant, the Internal Grant Committee –– made up by two city employees from the Cultural Inclusion Program and one from the city library –– are looking for applications that show community-driven projects designed to bring together immigrants and non-immigrants in the city. Essentially, said Megan Cohen, cultural inclusion specialist for the city and deciding member of the committee, “the mini-grants and Welcoming Week are part of a greater Welcoming Beaverton initiative to recognize, welcome, and support the successful integration of the immigrant community in Beaverton.”

Application are due by Friday, May 12.

“We’ve had great enthusiasm for the grants,” Cohen told Patch Thursday. “I think it has more recognition (this year).”

Last year, the committee only received five applications, so all five were funded the full $500. This year, however, Cohen anticipates seeing more applications come through.

The Internal Grant Committee has budgeted $2,500 to award through the mini-grants –– meaning five $500 grants could be given, though there will likely be a few more if applicants ask for less than the full amount, Cohen said. Also, she added, applicants are expected to match the mini-grant award with their own contribution. So if an application is awarded $250, the applicant will be expected to also put up $250 in cash, in-kind donations of goods/services, and/or volunteer time, which is valued at $22.55 per hour, Cohen explained. And all mini-grant funds are intended to be used during Welcoming Week Sept. 15 to 24, she said.

Through the Welcoming Beaverton initiative, “I think what we’ll get is a more welcoming community that maximizes opportunities for economic growth and cultural vitality for everybody here,” Cohen said. “We’ll grow stronger ties between immigrant and non-immigrant longtime residents.”

Beaverton, which city officials declared a Sanctuary City in January (meaning it has chosen not to assist federal immigration officials in any deportation efforts), has other upcoming events to further support and celebrate its increasingly diverse population –– including one next week.

On Wednesday, April 5, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Oregon Humanities Conversation Project will present "The Space Between Us: Immigrants, Refugees and Oregon" at the Beaverton City Library, 12375 S.W. Fifth St.

Manuel Padilla, who has worked with refugees in Haiti, Chad, and Washington, D.C., will lead the conversation.

According to city officials, Padilla has asked prospective participants to consider questions of “uprootedness,” hospitality, identity, perception and integration, and how people might work together to establish more informed, responsive, resilient, and vibrant communities in Oregon.

“The Space Between Us” is a free program, open to the public. No registration is required.

For more information on next week's conversation, visit the Beaverton library website, or call 503-644-2197. For answers to specific questions on Welcoming Week, email equity@BeavertonOregon.gov.

Photo Courtesy: Katharine Kimball, care of City of Beaverton