REV Newsletter
Winter 2024
Vol. 1, No. 2
GRACE NOTE
Northern Blues All Lands Conference
During the winter months I have had the pleasure of having conversations and making new connections with community leaders from across the state, including John Donovan (Oregon Regional Solutions), Tony Salvador (The National Policy Consensus Center), Brenda Smith (High Desert Partnership), Sara O’Brian (Willamette Partnership), Kara Carslile (The Ford Family Foundation), Lisa Mensah (Oregon Community Foundation), Noah Leavitt (Whitman College), Marcus Nichols - Treasure Valley Community College, Shawna Peterson (Eastern Oregon Boarder Board), Oregon Humanities staff, and many many more. I am continually inspired and energized by the amazing work taking place across the state and the willingness to contribute to the shared success of organizations involved by sharing, collaborating, and supporting others to create better outcomes for Oregonians.
I want to specifically thank Courtney Crowell with Oregon Regional Solutions for being a super connector and helping make many of these connections possible!
I’m so grateful for the support we have received from our board, our officers, and the community. We are excited for what spring has in store for REV; a number of new projects are underway and our team is diligently working to build partnerships and deliver value to communities across our vast and beautiful landscape connecting students with meaningful career pathways in eastern Oregon after graduation.
Grace Donovan
Executive Director
RECENT EVENTS
Student Engagement
Early in the winter term, EOU President Kelly Ryan put out a request for entities on campus to engage with students. REV staff worked with EOU’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging Office to develop an idea to give students a creative outlet. As tattoos hold deep cultural significance across various societies worldwide, and serve as expressions of identity, belonging, and rites of passage, on Feb. 23, REV staff and DEIB staff - along with the help of Monty - applied prepared and student-designed temporary tattoos.
Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit
In December, REV was invited by EOU to showcase its programs and initiatives at the 2023 Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit alongside other public universities in the state. Over 1,200 attendees heard from state leadership about initiatives to grow Oregon’s core industries while meeting housing and infrastructure needs and showcase how public universities are taking action to meet these needs in their respective communities.
CURRENT PROJECTS
REVitalized website
We recently launched our new website!
Our goal with it is straightforward: to improve our storytelling to help you understand how we can assist you. Whether you're a potential partner, a community member, university student or faculty, or someone seeking our services, we aim to provide comprehensive information about who we are and how we can collaborate effectively.
Here's what you can expect from our new website:
What We Do: Discover our range of services and initiatives, from youth education programs to sustainable agriculture projects, all aimed at addressing community challenges and creating opportunities.
Who We Work With: Learn about our diverse network of partners, including local governments and grassroots organizations, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts in driving change.
Where We Work: Explore our project locations and the communities we serve in eastern Oregon.
Newsroom: Get an understanding of current and past projects through press clips.
Resources: Ranging from reports by and about REV, to videos highlighting aspects of our programs, we wanted to provide you with the means to dive deeper into REV’s work.
By prioritizing user-friendly design, interactivity, and visual appeal to enhance your online experience, we hope you continue your journey of discovery with us at revcenter.org.
FUNDING
February 27, 4pm, Ackerman Hall 210:
Dr. Jennifer Sherman, Professor of Sociology at Washington State University, will be giving a public lecture on her recent work exploring inequalities in a rural community in Washington. The event is sponsored by: EOU’s Anthropology/Sociology program, the EOU Foundation, EOU’s Moonshot for Equity, and the Rural Engagement & Vitality Center. The event will be livestreamed and available to view at https://www.youtube.com/@TheMountieNetwork/streams
Spring 2024 - Get Outside After School Activity Program (GO-ASAP)
The Get Outside After School Activity Program (GO-ASAP) offers middle school students activities, including hiking, paddle boarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, and cross country skiing to promote adolescent health through outdoor activities. The goal of GO-ASAP is to provide students with an opportunity to get outside, build positive community experiences, and learn physical activity skills students can carry forward as lifestyle choices.
Spring 2024 - Urban Rural Ambassadors
Planning is underway for the 2024 Urban Rural Ambassadors Seminar, a collaboration between Eastern Oregon University and Portland State University, in partnership with the National Policy Consensus Center and REV. In 2024, the class will include one weekend-long residential field trip to La Grande and one weekend-long residential field trip to Portland as well as several online sessions with guest speakers and activities to complement the field outings. The institute provides students from both schools an opportunity to learn about the commonalities and differences between Oregon’s communities, building a critical framework for understanding the nuances of working across the state’s urban-rural “divide.”
April 28
The Urban Rural Theater Project is set to have its first read-through at EOU! Playwrights Sarah and Jack Greenman conducted 30 interviews of Oregonians over three years and are at work with REV intern Logan Flynn to finalize the script for the April reading based on excerpts from the Greenman’s research.
Cottonwood Crossing Summer Institute
June 16-21, 2024 - Learn more >
High school students are invited to take part in the Cottonwood Crossing Summer Institute (CCSI), a week-long residential field studies program for high school students held in Cottonwood Canyon State Park. Participants choose from course options where they learn about locally significant cultural or natural resources. Projects are led by EOU faculty, EOU students, and other regional professionals. High school students will earn two college credits through EOU.
Cottonwood Canyon Teacher Institute
June 23-26, 2024 - Learn more >
During the Cottonwood Canyon Teacher Institute, K-12 teachers engage in hands-on learning in three disciplines – neuroscience, riparian ecology, and storytelling. Our program is focused on technical skills and adaptive projects you can employ with your students and also encourages collaborative time with your colleagues. Teachers who attend receive a stipend and Professional Development Units.
OPPORTUNITIES
Currently, REV has three interns: Claire Bever (Blues Intergovernmental Council), Josh Ferguson (social media), Logan Flynn (Urban Rural Theater Project).
If you are or know of any EOU students looking for experiential learning opportunities, have them check our Student Internships.
EOU faculty members looking for opportunities to collaborate and give students a real-world experience in their chosen field, see the model REV uses and projects we’ve done.
If you are a community leader seeking support for an initiative or challenge in your community, see how REV works with partners and connect with us to determine if REV is the right partner for you.
About the REV Newsletter
Winter 2024
Volume 1, Number 2
The newsletter of the Rural Engagement & Vitality (REV) Center is an quarterly publication designed to inform its audience about activities of the center. For more information about this newsletter, contact Terri Kaiser, Editor, 1 University Blvd., La Grande, OR 97850.
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Frontier Oregon Innovation Hub
In October, REV and Wallowa Resources completed a planning grant for a Regional Innovation Hub; the proposed inREV Hub would serve traded-sector entrepreneurs in northeast Oregon. After careful consideration, REV and Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton decided to combine efforts and collaborate to provide services to traded-sector rural entrepreneurs across a broader region. Regional Rural Revitalization (R3) also joined as a partner in a collaborative bid to bring resources to underserved rural communities in ten eastern Oregon counties. Together, these three organizations have applied for funding from Business Oregon as the Frontier Oregon Innovation Hub.
Downtown La Grande REVitalization
The City of La Grande was selected to participate in the Recast City 2024 cohort. Recast City is a consulting firm that specializes in community and economic development strategies by working with small and micro manufacturers to revitalize downtown corridors. REV and EOU GO-STEM are working with La Grande Economic Development and La Grande Main Street Downtown to explore strategies to re-energize the Jefferson Corridor and downtown district while supporting small local businesses.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Recharge Our Community’s Economy Workshop
REV, along with Northeast Oregon Economic Development District (NEOEDD) and Wallowa Resources, in partnership with Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), facilitated a workshop series at the Cook Memorial Library in La Grande. The workshops explored a methodology to address the challenges and opportunities for local and regional economic development and uncover solutions by evaluating local assets and community wealth, and creating plans to turn ideas into actions. In April, RCAC will host a four-part workshop series with community leaders to collectively identify solutions and develop implementation strategies. If you would like to be a part of this initiative, please contact Ashley Innis.
Rural Planning Projects
Wallowa County Fairgrounds
REV was contracted by Wallowa County to support the development of a Master Plan for the Wallowa County Fairgrounds and Event Center and engage university students in local government, public engagement, and community surveys. REV will be working with Devco Engineering and Dr. Shannon Donovan of the Sustainable Communities program at EOU to assemble a plan that will capture a long term vision and plan for the fairgrounds that incorporates public opinion and invites additional investment into this community asset.
City of Joseph
Joseph officials are working with EOU students and faculty members as the city creates a Buildable Lands Inventory. The intended outcomes are to provide Joseph with documentation that will support long term needs of the city while also engaging EOU graduate and undergraduate students in policy analysis and code review — work that could lead to an update of the city’s comprehensive plan while providing students with impactful experiential learning. The Joseph effort is funded by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development and supported by ECONorthwest.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Nels & Eileen Gabbert for their generous support of REV. Your dedication and commitment are instrumental in driving our mission forward and making a tangible difference in our community.
REV was proud to co-host the 2024 Annual Conference of the Northern Blues Restoration Project February 1-2 at Eastern Oregon University. More than 100 representatives from across the region gathered to discuss growing a natural resources labor pool with the skills needed across forestry, prescribed fire, invasive species, First Foods, and aquatic restoration required to sustain a resilient Northern Blues Landscape.
Many thanks to all who attended, organized and facilitated the event, including:
Bureau of Land Management
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Eastern Oregon Workforce Board
The Ford Family Foundation
The Nature Conservancy
Nez Perce Tribe
Northern Blues Forest Collaborative
Northern Blue Mountain Cohesive Strategy
Oregon Department of Forestry
Oregon Prescribed Fire Council
Oregon State University Extension-Union County
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
U.S. Forest Service
U.S. Forest Service - Umatilla National Forest
U.S. Forest Service - Wallowa Whitman National Forest
Voices of the Blues
Wallowa Resources
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
Western Environmental Law Center