The Creative Third Way - Portland Leadership Foundation

The “way closing”

BenSand — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:33:53 +0000

Portland Leadership Foundation has the great blessing of being in a position to serve our city’s non-profit sector through our capacity building services. Our Center for Communities has grown significantly, and we are continuing to invest in our infrastructure to serve this sector of our city well. Recently, the Portland Business Journal published an article that highlighted the fact that the non-profit sector in Oregon is a $13 billion dollar industry. For all of the money invested in this sector, we are working hard to challenge the status quo regarding the sector’s ability to accomplish effective outcomes.

There have been times where our outcome-based approach to consulting leads to staff transitions or organizational restructuring for our partners. We recognize that this is not just tactics; this work is incredibly spiritual. Parker Palmer, in his book, Let Your Life Speak, talks about the importance of recognizing the Lord in what he calls the “way closing.” Palmer writes, “As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of a paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up. All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that just closed, turn around—which puts the door behind us—and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls. The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality.”

I’ve spent most of my life afraid of closing doors, but I’ve come to find a unique hope in the idea that the Lord partly closes doors in order that the rest of the world will open up. My prayer each day that I go to work is that the Lord would reign in my life and in our work as we embrace the paradox of change being both about closure and opening. As friends of PLF, we pray this same prayer for you. Thank you for participating in our work as we seek to strengthen and develop leadership for the spiritual and social renewal of the city.

The Civic Forum: Meet our City’s Mayoral Candidates

BenSand — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:01:37 +0000

In partnership with Luis Palau Association, the Albina Ministerial Alliance, and Imago Dei Community, PLF is in the process of developing a new event series in the city we are calling The Civic Forum. The goal is to provide opportunity for friends in the faith community to dialogue around key issues in our city.

The inaugural Civic Forum will take place on April 25th at 7:00pm at Imago Dei Community in the form of a discussion with the three candidates running for mayor of Portland—Eileen Brady, Jefferson Smith, and Charlie Hales (see flyer attached).

Lastly, our goal is to fill the auditorium, so if you are willing, we’d also really appreciate it if you would invite your Facebook friends or post the event flyer/details on your Facebook wall. The link to RSVP to the event itself can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/events/403897556306654/

To Snort with Anger

BenSand — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:29:47 +0000

One of the blessings of our work at Portland Leadership Foundation is that we get to serve our city as an intermediary—a group that acts as a link between other groups in order to bring about agreement or reconciliation. This commitment comes with great responsibility as we continue to develop the faith-based network of non-profits in our community. I often find myself moved by the great work being done; however, I am also often deeply moved by the injustice that continues to wreak havoc on our communities.

In the gospels, Jesus is often “deeply moved” as well. In John 11, one of Jesus’ closest friends, Lazarus, dies prematurely, and John writes that Jesus is “deeply moved” to the point of weeping. Interestingly, the word for “deeply moved” in greek is embrimaomai. To experience embrimaomai is to have indignation, or to snort with anger. In the New Testament, Jesus often is seized with this deep moral outrage. Why? I believe the outrage stems from a realization that His creation has devolved into disorder and disarray. In the case of Lazarus, Jesus came face to face with the death of a friend that symbolized the evil, pain, sorrow, suffering, injustice, cruelty, and despair of a world lost in separation from God.

We experience embrimaomai at PLF on a regular basis as we continue to peel-back the layers of pain in our communities. For example, the need to care for the abused and neglected children in our community is easily apparent. In 2010 alone, 2,914 children spent at least one day in foster care just in Multnomah County. 37% of children are placed into 3 or more foster homes, and nearly 10% of children in foster care exit out of the system by running away, being forcibly removed due to behavioral noncompliance, or simply aging out. With only 1031 certified foster homes in 2010, foster families and social workers are over-taxed and under-resourced while providing care for, on average, 3 foster children per home. As we discern, Portland Leadership Foundation’s team is working hard to identify how we will engage these issues.

Currently, we are studying different models around the country that have been built to connect Jesus-followers to foster children. Please pray for us and the embrimaomai that arises as we ask the Lord for clarity regarding next steps.

PORTLAND LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE TO DEVELOP FUTURE LEADERSHIP FOR PORTLAND’S NON-PROFIT SECTOR

BenSand — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:24:31 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2012

PORTLAND LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE TO DEVELOP FUTURE LEADERSHIP FOR PORTLAND’S NON-PROFIT SECTOR

Inspired by a generous grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Portland Leadership Foundation is excited to announce the launch of a new leadership development initiative—the Young Fellowship. Designed to offer select college graduates a “gap-year” experience, Young Fellows will be empowered to become the next generation of urban non-profit leaders. While living together at the Young Family Foundation’s Hillside House, Fellows will serve with a non-profit in the Portland metro area and receive year-long non-profit coaching, personal mentoring and spiritual direction. The program is designed to combine business acumen and non-profit development philosophy with a strong faith. The Young Fellowship inherently believes that young leaders in our community are bright and determined to serve our city with excellence. Also partnering with the Young Fellowship, Warner Pacific College is preparing to launch a non-profit track of their Masters in Management and Organizational Leadership (MMOL). Organizations that participate in the Young Fellowship will also be offered the opportunity for their Executive Director to receive a tuition discount to join the MMOL program.

Portland Leadership Foundation believes that the right amount of investment and focus will incubate a new network of talented and prepared leaders to lead within the non-profit community in our city. The Young Fellowship has been designed to live into this dream.

Recruit and Select
The Portland Leadership Foundation team is actively recruiting young diverse leaders with the objective of encouraging leaders to apply for the Young Fellowship. Students must be between 22-25 to be eligible to apply for the Young Fellowship. Fellow applicants must download the application and submit it to Portland Leadership Foundation on or before April 15, 2012.

Once the application deadline has passed, the PLF selection committee will facilitate a three-phase selection process:
1. Application Screening
2. Phone Interview
3. In-person Committee Interview

Who Should Apply?
The candidates will be evaluated based on the following categories:
• Pursuit of Faith: How faithful, available, and teachable are they with respect to the thoughts of Jesus?
• Vision for Life: Does the candidate know why they want to be in the program? Do they know what they want to do next? Do they seem to understand themselves?
• Work Experience: Dedication to job (length), responsibility at work, perceived level of effort for work (how does Fellow engage challenging/complex tasks?)
• Alignment with Fellows Program Objective: Does the candidate’s experiences and vision for their future alight with the vision and objective of the Young Fellowship (This score will be doubled to emphasis importance)?
• Understanding Relationships: Who are the most important people in the candidate’s life and does she/he include them in important parts of life? Who does the candidate admire? Does the candidate have healthy relationships?
• Sufficient Leadership Experience: Leadership positions, understanding of their leadership style/gifts, demonstrated leadership in interpersonal relationships
• Quality of application: Grammar, spelling, organization of thought
• Intangibles: Things that make the candidate a particularly good fit for the program that may not be evaluated in other areas.
• (Bonus Category) Education Aligns with Work: Area of study in college, extracurricular activities

Successful candidates must have a BA or BS degree from an accredited college or university, with a minimum 2.75 GPA. Additional skill requirements include the ability to work well with people of diverse backgrounds and strong organizational, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Program Timeline:
January—April 15, 2012: Recruiting
April 15, 2012: Application Deadline
April 15—May 15, 2012: Three-phase Selection Process
May 15, 2012: Inaugural Young Fellowship Cohort Announced
July 1, 2012: Fellows Move-In to Hillside House and Begin Training
July 1—June 30, 2013: Fellowship Year

Summary of Purpose
The Young Fellowship experience, paired with Portland Leadership Foundation’s focus on integrating faith and vocation, will result in a year of growth that is unprecedented in terms of developing non-profit leaders. We are proud of this emerging initiative and believe it meets a leadership need in our community. Portland Leadership Foundation seeks to strengthen and develop leadership for the spiritual and social renewal of the city.

Contacts:

Chris Yarco, Center for Communities Director, Portland Leadership Foundation,
(503) 754-4821 or chris.yarco@portlandleadership.org

Ben Sand, CEO, Portland Leadership Foundation, (503)209-3485 or ben.sand@portlandleadership.org

SIXTY-THREE DIVERSE STUDENT LEADERS EARN FULL ACT SIX LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIPS TO EIGHT NORTHWEST COLLEGES

BenSand — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:59:22 +0000

On the same day that student athletes across the country made headlines by signing letters of intent to secure college athletic scholarships, 63 students in five cities across the Northwest quietly gathered with their families to sign commitments for full scholarships of their own. 17 of these students are from Oregon. Selected through a rigorous three-month competition from among nearly 1,000 applicants, these diverse student leaders were chosen, not for their athletic prowess, but for their distinctive leadership, academic potential, and commitment to making a difference in their communities.

The Act Six Leadership and Scholarship Initiative announced today that 63 emerging urban and community leaders across the Puget Sound region, Portland, Spokane and the Yakima Valley will receive full-tuition, full-need scholarships to George Fox University, Warner Pacific College, Whitworth University, Pacific Lutheran University, Northwest University, Trinity Lutheran College, Gonzaga University and Heritage University. Collectively, the awards will provide more than $8 million in financial aid over four years.

The 17 newest Oregon Act Six scholars will be recognized in a community celebration on Monday, Feb. 6, at 6:30 p.m. at Life Change Christian Center. They join over 60 graduated and currently enrolled Oregon Act Six scholars.

Launched in 2002, Act Six seeks to develop urban and community leaders to be agents of transformation on campus and in their home communities. Since the program’s inception, 37 cohorts of ethnically diverse and mostly first-generation, low-income Act Six scholars from urban Tacoma, Seattle, Portland, Spokane, and the Yakima Valley have enrolled at eight Northwest colleges and universities.

Act Six develops leaders through a simple, but powerful, four-step strategy:
• Recruit and select diverse, multicultural cadres of the Northwest’s most promising emerging urban and community leaders.
• Train and prepare these groups of students in the year prior to college, equipping them to support each other, succeed academically, and grow as service-minded leaders and agents of transformation.
• Send and fund the teams together to select private, liberal arts colleges in the Northwest on four year, full-tuition, full-need scholarships.
• Support and inspire by providing strong campus support and ongoing leadership development to nurture these young people as they find their vocation and grow into the next generation of community leaders.

To date, 90 percent of the 256 scholars who have started college have graduated or are still enrolled – reflecting graduation and retention rates that far exceed national averages. Two Act Six scholars have been elected as student-body president and scholars have been involved in numerous other leadership roles on campus and in the community. Nearly 85 percent of Act Six alumni have returned to work and serve in their home communities, and 22 percent are pursuing or have earned graduate degrees.

“Act Six is a blessing. Not only do I have the opportunity to pursue a degree in higher education, but now I have the support and the resources to make my dreams come true,” says Michaela Brown, a freshmen scholar with the second cadre of Act Six at Gonzaga University. “Act Six is so much greater than me, that at times it’s hard to wrap my head around the vision, but all I know is that Act Six has changed my life and I can’t wait to start giving back by living the mission.”

Pamela Ryan, director of Act Six in Oregon adds, “Our scholars are distinguishing themselves as leaders and agents of change on campus, and they are investing wisely in their future through internships in businesses, non-profits, and the community. They each have a vision to transform the community they call home. And they view this educational opportunity as a primary key to unlock the potential in themselves. We believe this new generation of leaders will help launch the dreams of students and communities that have historically missed out on the opportunities afforded by higher education.”

Following is a list of this year’s Act Six Oregon recipients:

George Fox University (Cadre Six)
Joshua Cha, Benson Polytech High School
Janet Dan, Parkrose High School
Oscar Gomez, Newberg Senior High School
Asia Mayo, Roosevelt High School
Austin O’Neal, David Douglas High School
Jessica Rivera, David Douglas High School
Nancy Vazquez, Forest Grove High School

Warner Pacific College (Cadre Three)
Reggie Chipen, Madison High School
Arianna Cruz-Sellu, De La Salle North Catholic High School
Alejandra Garcia, Sam Barlow High School
Thalia Garcia Aguilar, Century High School
Robel Haile, Jefferson High School
Milo Lopez, Forest Grove High School
Justine Moore, Roosevelt High School
Jessie Osuna-Mondragon, De La Salle North Catholic High School
Ricardo Ruiz, Reynolds High School
Jordan Shellmire, U.S. Grant High School

Following next week’s celebration, scholars begin an intensive seven-month training program that involves weekly meetings with Act Six staff, retreats and campus visits.

Learn more about Act Six online at www.actsix.org.

Contacts:

Pamela Ryan, Act Six Portland site director, Portland Leadership Foundation,
(503) 869-4714 or pamela.ryan@portlandleadership.org

Joel Perez, dean of transitions and inclusion, George Fox University, (503) 554-2305 or jperez@georgefox.edu

Shannon Mackey, executive director of enrollment, Warner Pacific College,
(503) 517.1024 or smackey@warnerpacific.edu

Peace on Earth!

BenSand — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:44:27 +0000

My favorite Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” is based on a poem penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day in 1864. As he yearned for the safety of his son—who was fighting in the Civil War—Longfellow wrestled with a duality of emotion. The poem speaks of both deep despair and deep hope simultaneously. Longfellow writes:

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on Earth,” I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on Earth, good will to men

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead nor does He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on Earth, good will to men!

It is impossible to work in our city’s underrepresented communities and not be overwhelmed with a similar sense of duality. On the heels of despair—God is not dead nor does he sleep.

Portland Leadership Foundation is working tirelessly to develop new voices in leadership for the future of our city. As we head into 2012, we are prepared to serve in new and creative ways. We continue to grow Act Six as we prepare to launch a new Non-profit Fellows Initiative underneath our Center for Communities. As we select this first cohort of Fellows, we will be embedding them in urban non-profits with the objective of developing them as the future leaders for the city. Each Fellow will also receive weekly spiritual direction and leadership coaching from a member of our Center for Communities team. After winning a grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to launch this work, the Young Family Foundation (YFF) has recently made the decision to bless us in partnership in two significant ways:

1. YFF has given us their Hillside House to use for our Fellows to live together. This gift came unexpected and has blessed the PLF team beyond words!
2. YFF has given Portland Leadership Foundation a $20,000 year-end matching gift.

Please consider investing in our work knowing that each gift, up to $20,000, will be directly matched. As we celebrate Christ’s birth with you this holiday season, the Portland Leadership Foundation team is grateful for your partnership. The Lord is on the move in our city. We pray for “peace on Earth, good will to men!”

In Him,

Ben

Announcement: M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Invests in PLF again!

BenSand — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:43:49 +0000

We’re proud to announce that Portland Leadership Foundation has been awarded a “Vision and Call” grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to build a Non-Profit Fellows Initiative.

Our goal will be to provide a “gap year” apprenticeship program to identify and invest in future leaders for the non-profit sector.

More to come on this soon!

Act Six: Phase I Selection Info

BenSand — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:51:36 +0000

First round selection decisions will be emailed to Act Six Leadership and Scholarship Initiative applicants this Wednesday, November 16.

From 975 applicants we expect to select about 575 candidates to advance to Phase II events on December 3. See the full selection process timeline at http://www.actsix.org/apply/timeline.aspx

Bridge the gap: A reflection on gang violence

BenSand — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:51:37 +0000

It was the fall of 1987 when I found my life at a low point and lonely place. I was just entering into my freshman year of high school and felt completely unsure of what was in store for me. I was insecure, angry, and longing to be loved by my father. I was fighting to find my place of significance in this world while wanting to be anywhere but home to have to battle my mother’s ninth husband and non-engaged step father.

You see, I was living in the middle of an internal war zone—trying to find my way without a father. He chose to not take his rightful place in my life, and he was never present to teach me what it meant to grow to be a man. I was forced to live in a home with nine other men who taught and showed me things that a young fourteen-year-old boy should never be exposed to.

It was then, in my freshman year, when I became determined to establish myself as a person of significance. Having no good models of what significance looked like, my approach was to enter into a gang. I immediately took all the negative things that I was exposed to by all the step-dads in my life and married them up with the glamour that followed those associated in gang life. Over the next two years, I almost lost my life multiple times. I saw things that I’ll never forget, and I hurt people that did not deserve it. But our wonderful Lord had another plan for Anthony Jordan that changed my future forever.

He connected me with Donnie MacPherson who made a commitment to love me and teach me all that I was missing as a young man at that point in my life. So much so, Donnie MacPherson is still in my life twenty-five years later. It is with this gift the Lord gave me in Donnie that I live my life today to bridge the gap for the young men in our city today. It is unfortunate that I had to experience what I did, but I believe my story has provided me a platform to dive into the lives of the young people that I have the honor of serving today.

This letter comes out of the pain of losing DeAndre Clark last week to gun violence. He was a young man that I served in my years with Young Life. What is going on in our city has stirred-up the memories that I experienced as a young man. Please pray with me that we will truly find more Donnie MacPherson’s in our city that will help bridge the gap for our young men and be willing to father them if need be. It changed my life and my four children are living an incredible life because of it. Thank you for your support of our work in the City of Portland. We appreciate you!

Love,

Anthony Jordan

Non-profit Luncheon

BenSand — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:22:40 +0000

In partnership with Mission Increase Foundation, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, and the Luis Palau Association, Portland Leadership Foundation is excited to host a luncheon for the faith-based non-profit community on October 20th. With the objectives of saying “thank you” and discussing how collaboration will impact our work in the future, we are very much looking forward to this unique gathering. Join us!

Date: October 20, 2011
Location: The Hilton Hotel
921 Southwest 6th Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
Time: Noon-1:30pm

Please RSVP by emailing rsvp@palau.org.