Community Fund presents first quarter grant awards

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

The total number of grants was down for the Spirit Mountain Community Fund first quarter check presentations, but the projects those grants funded were vital to their constituents.

With decreases in available funding nationally in the last year, need has grown.

“We were only able to fund approximately 10% of the applications we received, which means we left a lot of amazing work on the table,” Community Fund Executive Director Angie Sears told the assembled representatives during the first quarter check presentation in the Governance Center Atrium Wednesday, March 11.

Representatives for The Homie House and Homeless Solutions of Clackamas County spoke about the vital nature of their work.

Other grants funded building financial capability among Grand Ronde youth, technical assistance for Latino entrepreneurs, health and wellness projects for Latinos in Yamhill County, granting wishes for critically ill children, protecting wildlife and more.

The Community Fund awarded seven large grants totaling $395,467 and six small grants totaling $33,996. Since its inception, it has awarded 3,494 grants totaling $103,650,053.

Tribal Council Secretary Jon A. George gave the invocation. Tribal Council members Kathleen George, Matthew Haller, Toby McClary and Pete Wakeland also attended the ceremony.

“There are discouraging days coming,” Kathleen George, who also serves as secretary-treasurer of the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, told the audience. “You know, the kind of days when you feel a little bit of dread when you go to turn on the news, cause you’re just not really sure what you’re gonna hear. And that doesn’t feel good. And too many days of that and I start to feel tired. I start to feel discouraged. I don’t know if any of you have felt like that at all lately, but if you have, please know that you are not alone in that.

“But I think today, very intentionally, we are coming together to celebrate that…great work continues to happen. And that when we come together and when we refuse to lose sight of our common calling to serve one another in community, then we can make choices that in fact can encourage us, restore our souls and restore my sense of hope.”

George told the assembled representatives for the grant recipients that, “The organizations that you represent, the work that you represent and our coming together in community around that work, that to me, is the ultimate repudiation of discouragement.”

George added that she is grateful for the perseverance of the ancestors.

“That power of persistence is never to be underestimated,” she said. “Never, and it can overcome amazing challenges and trials.”

The Homie House of Lincoln County Mentor Michaela Wood, Homeless Solutions of Clackamas County Executive Director John Duke and Homeless Solutions Coalition Board Chair Dan Fowler spoke about their programs.

Duke and Fowler explained that the coalition is building a 35,000-square-foot center in Oregon City to house multiple nonprofit agencies serving homeless residents in Clackamas County. It will include a day center, outreach program, a drug and alcohol treatment program and social services.

“If you put yourself in the life of a homeless individual, for them to gain those services is a mountain to climb,” Fowler said. “They don’t have a car in most cases. To get around from one nonprofit agency to another might be miles apart.”

Duke said the grant is “transformative.”

“Just having your name, the credibility and values that you bring to the project shine on us; we’re really grateful and appreciative for that,” he said.

In addition, Fowler said, “We’ve also had a generous private individual who is matching several million dollars of gifts that we’ve raised.”

The Homie House is a mentoring program in Lincoln City for youth ages 14 to 21 who may be dealing with challenges in their home lives. It provides mentoring, tutoring, family-style meals and educational opportunities.

Wood read a letter from Tyler Watkins, executive director of The Homie House.

Watkins explained in the letter that $1,500 of the grant will be used to provide shelf-stable food and $1,000 will be used for clothing.

“We are going to provide opportunities for our youth to create their own design on our next quarter of house swag,” he said.

In addition, because the local school district is operating at a deficit for the next school year, families will have to purchase their own supplies. The Homie House plans to purchase $2,000 worth of school supplies for families in need. It will also spend $1,000 on recreational equipment for young people involved in its skate club, who cannot afford to purchase their equipment.

“We are beyond grateful,” Watkins said.

Large grants recipients were:

• Corvallis Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., dba DEVNW, Polk County, for building financial capability among Grand Ronde Youth, $50,000;
• Homeless Solutions Coalition of Clackamas County, for Care Place capital grant for integrated care, $100,000;
• LatinoBuilt, Multnomah County, for Latino entrepreneur technical assistance, $50,000;
• Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon, Inc., Multnomah County, rush wishes for children with critical illnesses, $50,000;
• National Wildlife Federation, Washington County, for Rivers of Learning, connecting classrooms, salmon and communities; $49,467;
• Neighbors For Kids, Lincoln County, for 2026 summer day camp, $46,000;
• Unidos Bridging Community, Yamhill County, for health and wellness grants, $50,000.

Small grant recipients were:

• City of Dayton, Yamhill County, for library book repair equipment, $1,113;
• NAMI-Clackamas, for community training for suicide and crisis intervention; $7,383;
• Returning Veterans Project, Multnomah County, for community supported health services for veterans, $7500;
• The Commons Law Center, Multnomah County, for TCLC and Rose Haven Collaborative, $7,500;
• The Homie House, Lincoln County, supplies for success: Empowering youth, $5,500;
• Yamhill County Public Health, for its suicide prevention coalition, $5,000.

The Community Fund raffled off gifts to the attendees, presenting beaded necklaces to representatives from the National Wildlife Foundation, the Make-a-Wish Foundation and The Homie House. It presented a Tribal blanket to the Returning Veterans Project of Multnomah County.