"Housing & Belonging" discussion, a conversation that spurred ideas and made connections
On February 29, 15 members of the Wilsonville community met at Clackamas County Community College to discuss the topic of “Housing and Belonging.” Oregon Humanities facilitator and artist Reeva Wortel led us in discussion through guided prompts and captured responses on the board (see images below).
We shared stories about what home meant to us. Then, we looked at the board with our responses and could see that home touches almost every aspect of our lives and range of feelings. We then talked about Wilsonville, which highlighted a few issues:
We have resources, but struggle to connect them to people most in need or specific communities, such as renters, youth, and Latino residents.
We have a certain number of community members that express opposition to more affordable housing or apartments in Wilsonville. It has been challenging to have constructive conversation with this group.
We need to find a way to highlight the stories and humanity of those most in need in our community in hope that this can bring us together.
About half of the room expressed that this was their first WAIC event and didn’t know what to expect of the night. Each one of these people made comments at the end that they felt engaged and encouraged by the conversation. This is a huge win!
We ended about 15 minutes late due to a highly engaged conversation! We were interested in the example that our facilitator Reeva Wortel mentioned. In a past work, she painted portraits of people and wrote their stories as an art exhibit for the community to view and take it. She was struck by the attention and affect that this had on those who attended. We liked this idea to help reach and highlight the stories of those groups that are “hardest to reach” that we discussed earlier.
Action items:
Go to the Oregon Humanities website and sign up for the FREE magazine and email updates.
Attend our next bi-monthly WAIC gathering on April 17 at 7pm. We will gather for food and beverages to get to know one another, conduct a DEI practice, and elect new leaders.
Connect with us at connect@wilsonvillealliance.org if you would like to be a part of our work to address housing equity needs and build upon the assets we have within the community.
Reach out out to Garet and Jay at connect@wilsonvillealliance.org if you are interested in being a WAIC leader or helping out with operational items that support our gatherings, events, or communications (website, email, etc.).
