Portland Youth and Elders Council

Strengthening community

The Portland Youth and Elders Council began as part of a regional effort to reduce poverty in urban Indian communities. The Portland Urban Native American community used community-based research and inclusive input to develop greater community ties and advocate for improving the quality of life for Native Americans in urban areas.

Through the practice of traditional values, the Youth and Elders Council continues to address poverty and other community issues by focusing on community solutions to housing, employment, education, health, and racism while building on community strengths.

Our Mission

…Strengthen the quality of life for the Portland American Indian and Alaska Native Community by encouraging local leadership, community development, and the practice of culture, values, and traditions.

Our Purpose

Unity: Bring Native American community, families, and organizations together.

Cross-generational conversation: strengthen ties between youth, adults, and Elders.

Advocacy: Making Native American issues a priority in our community.

Learning: Sharing and passing on tradition and history.

Council core values

• Balance.
• Pride.
• Giving.
• Community.
• Tradition.
• Kindness.
• Accountability.
• Diversity.
• Leadership.

Meeting Together To Shape Our Own Future

2nd Tuesday of each month:

6:00-8:00p

Council meetings are open to the general public

Click here to view the Portland Youth & Elders Council's current monthly update

Upcoming Event

Here is your opportunity to learn broad based, grassroots, relational community organizing at its finest!

Portland Youth and Elders Council is recruiting a broad cross-section of community members and social justice activists to participate in a common experience from which to align our efforts in advancing community issues.

This training is adapted from the Phoenix Rising Transition curriculum taught in Columbia River Correctional Institute and facilitated in part by Kelly Fitzpatrick and Dick Harmon (AIF national community organizing). The training is open to community members, and organizations that serve Native people – but also have social capital outside of the Native community.

There are many areas of interest and need that collective advocacy efforts would benefit. If we can come from common ground in how to advance and strategically align our work, then we could be a powerful force to recon with! We may be missing opportunities to do this. This workshop will provide that common ground where we can learn about our shared interests, introduce language that we can use to strengthen and unify our voice, and discover how our stories highlight the history and resiliency of Native American people.

Click here for printable flyer.

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