Coalition for Racial and Educational Justice

This year, the organization expanded and added four new programs: 1.) The aspiring bipoc educators program, 2.) Lgbtq2sai+ student success programming, 3.) A partnership with project rebound, based on the fifty- year-old cal state program, project rebound in oreogn is a program led by formerly incarcerated students serving their community at portland state university, 4.) And finally, our black student success focused programming, which continues to be at the center of our organization's endeavors. Campus compact of Oregon also participated in community-based research, listening sessions, interviews, and needs assessments to ensure the programming was designed with the community and responded to our quickly changing world. This is particularly important in the field of education, where students are struggling to catch up after the pandemic, anti-crt' initiatives are silencing the stories of historically marginalized communities, and new technologies are changing the cultural landscape. During 2022, ccor received new funding from the Oregon department of education, Oregon community foundation, meyer memorial trust, Oregon serves, and the higher education coordinating commission. The organization continued to serve as the comprehensive fiscal sponsor for the portland united against hate Coalition. Programmatically, we were focused on advancing Racial equity through direct service and in-classroom interventions geared toward addressing chronic absenteeism and academic disengagement among k-12 and higher education. This work was always complex, but the post-pandemic Educational climate has presented our ccor with new challenges as we work to support Oregon students holistically. This includes addressing root causes for academic disengagement, all of which correspond with issues of equity and access. As a result, our organization has increasingly acted as a wrap-around service provided to the students and communities we serve across the state. This year, our office provided academic support and mentoring services to Oregon students; we also provided housing and utilities, mental and medical health, food, clothes, childcare, and job placement services. Supporting Oregon students required ccor to work closely with community partners and campus representatives invested in Racial and economic Justice. We also collected their testimonies regarding discrimination at school and in the workplace, how Educational environments could be spaces of inclusion and belonging, and how Oregon schools can aspire to be student-ready instead of visa versa. Due to fundraising initiatives led by the organization's executive director, ccor has raised significant money and leveraged previous investments to prepare our new programs for success. While 2022 was undoubtedly a year of challenges and transitions, it was also a year of firsts and accomplishments. Our organization began changing its name and governance structure to embody the agency's intersectional Racial Justice mission authentically. While the conditions prompted our move from downtown portland (the fallout from measure 110), we did relocate to a larger and safer workspace where we could host training, consulting, and convenings of partners, staff, and americorps members. All funding proposals and program designs were developed, written, and managed by the campus compact of Oregon's executive director and later implemented by highly qualified and talented staff who were hired based on demonstrated experience working in higher education and established Racial Justice and equity knowledge. External accomplishments and activities: connect2complete programming: one of the organization's signature programs expanded this year. Our office received a formula grant and a plan from Oregon serves to support our programming expansion targeting the root causes of chronic absenteeism in Oregon. As a result of this funding, connect2complete provided thirteen americorps members from historically underserved and underrepresented communities with paid work-based learning opportunities that allowed them to address Educational disengagement in their communities. During the last year, our office worked with project sites such as project rebound, higher education in prison, the school for global diversity and inclusion (all portland state university), alder commons, and blue mountain community college. According to our final report from fy 22, 16,000 children and youth were served by our organization and it's affiliates, including 1:1 relationship building and tutoring sessions, food and clothing drives, data Justice projects, family engagement, financial aid sessions, and other convening that reached large and small groups of Oregon students. During fy 22 americorps recruited 400 individuals who served as volunteers to develop food drives, providing the aforementioned wrap-around services to communities. Further, 320 program participants received job training and placement, and over 9,000 students reported improved attendance as a direct result of our programs and work with our americorps advocates. Our organization enrolled 13 americorps members, who each serve for 1700 hours. Aspiring bipoc educators planning grant: in the fall of 2023, our organization received a planning grant from Oregon serves to design and implement a program to increase the number of black, indigenous, and people of color educators and Educational administrators at Oregon schools. The research and development year was 2022, and the executive director led most of the research and planning, which hsiao-yun shotwell later picked up, refined, and implemented. The program partners with portland state university, southern Oregon university, david douglas high school, and portland public schools. Vista accomplishments and program closeout: after over ten years of serving as an americorps vista intermediary grantee, our organization has decided to sunset the program in 2022, with a gradual program close out in 2023 and 2024. After a cost/benefit review and a program restructure under the trump administration, the organization decided that hosting the program was no longer financially feasible. Organizational restructuring: to accommodate the expansion of new programs and our organizational rebranding, campus compact of Oregon developed its first-ever administrative team composed of a deputy director, an administrative assistant, and an operations director. Increase in americorps and staff compensation: in 2022, the executive director raised enough funding and was able to restructure to increase the capacity of the organization to serve its communities better. As a result, the organization developed a new compensation structure that accounted for new employee categories and compensation scales. Human resources: the organization works with bambee hr and hr answer to protect the organization and its employees. Hr representation and authentic hr knowledge have become increasingly important in a labor market in a quickly changing labor market. Bambee and hr answers have provided our organization with document storage, renewed employee and hr conduct standards, a new employee handbook in alignment with Oregon and federal law, and ongoing support when needed. Fiscal fiscal review: as of 2023, the organization is working on an in-depth fiscal review focused on fy 22. Our organization is due for a review and then an in-depth independent audit. It is ideal to have some review annually. Still, our ability to conduct a full audit has been affected by the impacts of measure 110 on downtown portland, in addition to the fact that we have still felt the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on our personnel, our student population, and our partners all of which have had an impact on our internal operations. While delayed, ccor is working with dougall conradie llc and rich winkle, cpa, to conduct a fiscal review for fy 2022. Our office also releases an rfp for a single audit in the coming fiscal year. This internal review will enable our organization to improve its systems and know where what is working and what is not working. Governance: changes to the organization's bylaws: the organization changed its bylaws. The caveat requiring that half of the board of directors be presidents, chancellors, or regional colleges and universities was removed. In its place is the requirement that at least 75% of board members represent communities impacted by racism and have practiced and demonstrated expertise in Racial equity and Justice. Name change and mission clarification: in march 2023, our organization's board of directors voted to change the organization's name from campus compact of Oregon to the Coalition for Racial and Educational Justice.