If you attended or presented at Grassroots & Groundwork 2010, thank you! Your support and participation was at the heart of the event. This was the first year we held our conference in Portland, and we’ve received very positive feedback about the location and the conference content.
If you weren’t able to attend this year’s conference, look around this site to learn more!
This year, we had:
- 20 break-out sessions with 38 presenters from a wide range of organizations.
- 350 attendees from the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western United States, including Alaska and D.C.
- 4 sold-out site visits to successful and unique Portland-area poverty-reduction projects.
- A popular networking reception where attendees met others devoted to poverty reduction. We can’t say for certain, but we’re fairly sure a record number of business cards were exchanged during the evening.
- 2 well-attended half-day hands-on interactive workshops as part of the Foundation’s Community-Builder Institute.
- A Q&A session with distinguished activist Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. She spoke about how we need to reweave the fabric of our families and communities and focus on best practices so we can open doors to ensure that all children make a successful passage to adulthood.
- An entertaining and insightful keynote address by Paul Saginaw, nationally recognized advocate for socially responsible business and co-founder of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Mich. He encouraged everyone to think creatively and turn a passion into a way to foster a vibrant local economy.
Thank you to our 2010 Host Committee, who added enthusiasm, ideas and energies to help connect this conference more closely to the issues, organizations and aspirations of the Pacific Northwest:
Greg Chaille, Oregon Community Foundation (Host Committee Co-Chair); Martin Goebel, Sustainable Northwest; Mark Levy, United Way of Columbia-Willamette; Carol Lewis, Philanthropy Northwest; Nichole Maher, Native American Youth and Family Center; Michael Montgomery, U.S. Bank; Marcus Mundy, Urban League of Portland; Tripp Somerville, Pyramid Communications; Doug Stamm, Meyer Memorial Trust; William Thorndike Jr., Medford Fabrication (Host Committee Co-Chair)
