Building Safer Communities
The POIC Community Care Team in Jamaica, Queens, with The King of Kings Foundation.
Community Care Team Visits NYC
With the significant increase in community violence in Portland, POIC continues its efforts to keep our city safe. In alignment with the Cure Violence Model, POIC approaches community violence as a public health issue.
Our approach to curing the disease of violence will take two steps. One, the widespread understanding of addressing violence as a public health issue, and two, developing the professional public health worker career pathway.
To implement the Cure Violence Model in Portland, the POIC Community Care Team took a development trip to NYC, joining the King of Kings Foundation and ManUp!Inc, which have both adopted the model. Our leaders met with Cobe Williams, Deputy Director at Cure Violence, to share our work. Great conversations emerged about how the Cure Violence Model will positively impact our local community. Our team is focused on professional development; we know it will take a well-trained group of people to make a difference.
The Community Care Team at POIC continues growing in response to the increase in community violence. President + CEO Joe McFerrin II facilitated a recent meeting to keep vision in mind. We are keeping an eye on the future, and looking forward to predict how we can best contribute to the community.
POIC is taking steps to professionalize the public safety career path. Credible messengers - those with lived experience - can have difficulty finding livable wage jobs. This public safety worker position will put the best candidates for outreach in the field in order to provide effective mentorship and support to victims of violence. POIC is creating a viable place of employment for these folks to find jobs that make a living wage and an opportunity to give back. The community thrives when more people are in jobs.
Alexβzay (left) and Aundreas (right), Rosemary Anderson High School students, pose outside of the Senatorβs office. The Spring Leadership forum was both their first time on an airplane and outside of the state of Oregon. Alexβzay, a junior, is considering becoming a doctor.
Rosemary Anderson Students Travel with Word is Bond PDX
Two Rosemary Anderson students from the New Columbia campus traveled with Word is Bond, an organization in the POIC Public Safety Village, to Washington, D.C., for their annual Spring Leadership Forum.
This seven-day public policy and HBCU leadership trip gave Word is Bond ambassadors the opportunity to meet with national leaders and organizations, including Senator Jeff Merkley, Senator Ron Wyden, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, Open Society Foundations, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The young men met with lawmakers to advocate and discuss a policy to introduce Black study courses to schools across Oregon. This trip provided the opportunity not only for the group to discuss policy with lawmakers but also to visit new places and tour Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Word is Bond empowers young Black men, engaging them in leadership, professional and career development, mentorship, Black history and Black identity, mental health, self-care, and many additional areas of growth. Word is Bond is one of eleven grassroots, Black-led organizations in the Public Safety Village that fill in local gaps in violence intervention and prevention services.
