VAVA: Strengthening our Community in Response to Crime

Mediation Works' Director of Restorative Justice Programs Cara Walsh asks:

Are you interested in participating in a collaborative and inclusive justice process? Would you like to respond to harm in your community in a way that builds understanding, encourages accountability, and provides an opportunity for healing?

The Victim Assistance, Youth Accountability (VAYA) program is a locally-based, community response to crime that focuses on addressing and repairing the harm done to people and relationships.

VAYA is rooted in the principles of restorative justice - which recognizes that crime creates harm, and that in order to right that harm, it is our common responsibility to work toward addressing the needs of the victims, offenders, and the community. This innovative program is based on the values of respect, interconnectedness, responsibility, accountability, empowerment, listening, dialogue, curiosity, empowerment, and healing.

VAYA acts to address the individual needs of victims, encourages and expects youth to be accountable for their actions, and helps youth connect with a community support system that will reduce recidivism, encourage personal responsibility, and integrate them into the community as positive, contributing citizens. In partnership with the Juvenile Division of Jackson County Community Justice, Mediation Works executes VAYA once a month, year round, through the delivery of a 6 day curriculum for youth offenders, structured support, and when appropriate, a dialogue between the youth and their victims.

For more information contact Cara Walsh at 541-770-2468 x305, caraw@mediation-works.org.

United Way's 15th Annual Day of Caring

United Way Campaign Cabinet Prepares for the Day of Caring

300 volunteers grabbed shovels, paint brushes, ladders and gardening shears to clean up various community buildings in the Rogue Valley for United Way's 15th annual Day of Caring.

The work sites and volunteer groups included:
• Ashland Supportive Housing, 1610 Clark Ave., Ashland, where volunteers from the Southern Oregon Society of CPAs and St. Mary's School stained a fence.

• Easter Seals, 809 W. McAndrews St., Medford, where Rogue Federal Credit Union volunteers provided landscaping work and painting.

• Head Start, 409 Fourth St., Phoenix, where John L. Scott Real Estate, Earth Angels and the United Way's Women's Leadership Council painted the exterior of the Head Start building.

• Living Opportunities, 808 Bennett St., Medford, where landscaping was done by US Bank and Providence Medford Medical Center volunteers.

• OnTrack, 1107 Stevens St., Medford, where volunteers from Providence Medford Medical Center and Wells Fargo built and stained fences.

• Siskiyou Challenge multi-sport relay in Ashland, a benefit for Rogue Valley Farm to School, where volunteers from the Medford Active 20/30 Club and Target were on the scene, monitoring intersections for runners, preparing food and providing first aid.

• Roots and Wings Child Development, 1801 E. Jackson St., Medford, where volunteers from After 5 Rotary and the Rogue Creamery did painting and landscaping work.

The Day of Caring, Jackson County's busiest volunteer day, coincides with the kickoff of the fall United Way fundraising drive. The organization hopes to collect $875,000.

For more information about volunteer opportunities and to make a donation contact the United Way at www.unitedwayofjacksoncounty.org

Locavores THRIVE with the Eat Local Challenge 2010

Take Thrive's 2010 Eat Local Challenge September 10 - 19! Sign the pledge on the Thrive website to become a Locavore and enjoy the delicious bounty of locally-grown food in the Rogue Valley.

Your Eat Local Challenge choices include:

Locavore Supreme- All foods that you consume during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles (you even agree to give up coffee, chocolate and non-local spices)

Locavore- All foods that you consume during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles (but you’ll still want your coffee, chocolate and non-local spices)

Taster- All foods that you consume during one meal per day throughout the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles

Sampler- All foods that you consume during two meals throughout the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles

All Participants will receive the following:
• Comprehensive Local Food Directory
• Weekly Local Food Menu Plan
• Local Food Recipes
• Eat Local Week Calendar of Events
• 2010-11 Rogue Flavor Guide
• You will be entered in a Drawing for a Rogue Flavor local food basket


To take the Pledge visit http://www.buylocalrogue.org/

September is BIKE COMMUTE CHALLENGE Month

The BTA's 2010 Bike Commute Challenge begins this Wednesday! Are you ready to join the competition of thousands of individuals and workplaces competing to see who can bike to work the most? While the challenge is run out of fellow Oregon city Portland, there are some groups from Ashland and Medford who compete locally. Join them!

How it works:
1) Anyone interested in taking the Challenge looks to see if their workplace is already registered. If it isn't, they register themselves and their workplace team at the same time. They become the Team Captain, by default.

2) Their coworkers register and join that workplace team.

3) Everyone logs their bike trips during the month of September.

4) At the end of the month, the BTA tallies the bike trips and ranks all workplaces in size categories by the percentage of commutes achieved by bike.

5) On October 7th, the BTA announces the winning companies in each category at a big After Party.

Check out the Bike Commute Challenge website for commuter tips, links to bike maps, information about bikes and transit, and to sign up!

http://bikecommutechallenge.com/join/

Change the Channel to Raider TV this Fall

The student government at ASSOU tells us:

ASSOU's new television network -- headed by Executive Director Hayden Perkins and Vice President Curtis Bartlett -- is on schedule to be released on September 27th of this year. The project is the result of a cooperative student/community effort to bring easy-access news and entertainment to SOU students. It will include video content provided by students, as well as campus-, state-, nation-, and world-wide news, weather, and sports. The network will be available through our local cable TV system and will be publicly displayed in the Stevenson Union and Cascade Dining areas.

This new project is intended to provide not only governmental transparency, but also publicity to those clubs and organizations working to make SOU an even better place to be. Through our new network, student groups will be able to communicate their messages more easily and strengthen our campus community.

Please contact assoucommunications@sou.edu for more information.

Counseling from the Heart in Phoenix

The heartfelt people at Phoenix Counseling share their story:

There are counselors in a little house on Route 99 at the south end of Phoenix who save people’s lives. And they do it affordably, with a program of counseling from the heart.

With love, compassion, and encouragement, the experienced staff at the non-profit Phoenix Counseling Center treats the whole person using a wide range of holistic treatment modalities that strive to make a positive difference in the lives of their clients.

Their cozy home setting serves the community with a variety of counseling, support, and addiction recovery programs for women, men, and families, plus they also offer youth mentoring programs, programs in the schools, and programs in support of the Hispanic community.

To learn more, to volunteer or to get assistance for your self or for someone that you care about, call 541-535-4133, or go to: http://www.phoenixcounseling.org/

First Harvest provides Big Harvest for Jackson County

Tracy Goodrich tells us:

First Harvest, a project of Rotary District 5110, works to alleviate hunger by providing fresh food for families and individuals who are struggling. Food is acquired in two ways: 1. through volunteer driven community projects and 2. from corporate donors.

Community projects include a one acre production garden in Central Point that contributed 22,000 lbs of produce distributed to Jackson County Food pantries through ACCESS, Inc.in 2009. A smaller garden in Ashland contributed 3,200 lbs to the Ashland Emergency Food Bank serving Ashland and Talent in 2009. Rotary Clubs, many partners and even more volunteers work together to create a successful community. First Harvest Past President and Southern Oregon Regional Chair, Rotarian Carol Wythe, is emphatic when she states: "Without the help of the community we could not do projects like this."

The projects are incredible for building a sense of community and providing platforms for nutritional education. For example, the Job Council and Medford Opportunity High School have formed a unique partnership to teach at risk students by providing alternative education opportunities. This year, under the leadership of Kate Giles, the Internship Specialist and Crew Leader, students are being provided with a hands-on, practical learning opportunity by working in the First Harvest garden. First Harvest is also partnering with Experience Works and Job Council programs in the administrative environment to help increase FH's productivity while helping participant's become employable. Yet another way to address hunger in Jackson County.

The majority of our food contributions are from corporate partners such as growers, corporate wholesalers, retailers, and processors. It is food that will never make it onto the commercial market for several reasons. First Harvest works to salvage the viable produce from disposal and acts as a broker to connect the food with transporters and the food banks and pantries who serve families and individuals in need.

For more information http://firstharvestd5110.org,
email: admin@firstharvestd5110.org
and phone: (541)973-5431

Do You Want Peace?

Do you want peace? So asks Marta Gomez of Ashland. She tells us: The Southern Oregon community now has an opportunity to share as well as learn about various personal paths all leading to inner peace. The Ashland Daily Tidings Inner Peace Column began when Sally McKirgan submitted a letter to the editor called “In This Season of Love, give yourself the gift of inner peace.” The letter was published as a guest commentary on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2008.

Sally followed up the letter in 2009 by suggesting a regular column that would feature people of varying paths sharing their practice for a peaceful life. Her goal: If the people of this planet practiced some form of inner peace it would alleviate wars and personal conflicts between neighbors and relatives.

Sally volunteers her time and continually seeks those who will write about their life lessons. When we share the whole community is enriched and lives are touched in ways seen and unseen. The column is printed every Saturday on the back page of the Daily Tidings. To see past articles: www.dailytidings.com or submit an article of 600 to 700 words to Sally at innerpeace@q.com . Find or share your path to peace today!

Marta Gomez
Ashland

Farmer Incubator = Good Food for Me+You

The Southern Oregon Farmer Incubator helps beginning and limited resource farmers start and sustain their businesses while providing needed fresh produce to area food pantries. Participants can opt to participate in one or both of two program tracks: hands-on farm business courses and access to new markets.

Track 1: Farm / Business Training consists of bi-monthly hands-on agricultural, business management and marketing education over a nine-month season. Participants will receive an on-farm consultation with a small farms instructor and be referred to other experts to address any specific issues arising during the program year.

Track 2: Market Access gives participants an opportunity to sell their produce to area food pantries, made possible by a generous grant from the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation. Participants in the second track will also sell product through Rogue Valley Local Foods, an online farmers market, and will gain experience by staffing the markets in rotation.

The program is a collaboration between the Oregon State University Small Farms program and Thrive in partnership with Friends of Family Farmers, Rogue Farm Corps and ACCESS. For more information contact Thrive at http://www.buylocalrogue.org/index.php

100 Trees for Talent

Diana Morley from Talent tells us:

Most residents want their city to look lovely, be ecologically sustainable and promote strong neighborhoods. When Talent’s centennial this year coincided with the work of local activists already promoting community building, we were in luck.

With the city's permission and help from Public Works and community volunteers, Sharon Anderson and Cynthia Care created the 100 Trees for Talent’s Centennial program. With the city’s Steve Olsen they planted 23 trees donated by Dan Bish at Plant Oregon, in the Chuck Roberts Park (more to be planted this fall) and invited the public to plant trees in their own yards. Program organizers also coordinated with American Cancer Society Relay for Life volunteers to plant over 200 donated seedling trees in a memorial grove along the Greenway. At City Hall is a map where residents pinpoint tree-planting addresses and receive a lapel button and centennial ID tags for the trees. The program’s next focus is to encourage the business community to plant trees on their sites.

My husband and I happily joined the program by planting a fuyu persimmon tree, which is flourishing. Through this program we’re all improving air quality, sprucing up our neighborhoods, and building good working relationships with others.

FOTAS - Our Best Friend's Friends

Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) and the Jackson County Animal Shelter are working together toward the day when every adoptable cat and dog finds a good home. They come a little closer to this goal with each new volunteer who shares their time, talent, and energy.

FOTAS volunteers help the Shelter search for qualified homes through several Shelter-based and offsite adoption programs. They also help keep the animals healthy until a good home can be found.

FOTAS also recruits foster parents who provide a temporary sanctuary and help find the perfect permanent home for a cat, kitten, dog or puppy.

Contact Information:
Web: If you are interested in getting involved or learning more about general FOTAS programs visit them on the web at http://www.fotas.org/jcas.html

The Shelter hosts a Low Cost Dog and Cat Shot Clinic and nail trims August 21, 2010 from 11am to 2pm.

Lomakatsi is the Hopi word for ‘Life in Balance’

According to the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, a Rogue Valley organization dedicated to the regeneration and rehabilitation of watersheds within the bio-region of Southwestern Oregon, Nature does the real restoration work. Our job is to learn how to do things that help, without causing additional problems.

Here’s what they’ve learned so far:

• Act conservatively. Don’t change things too much at once.
• Respect what is already on site.
• Remember the wildlife.
• Remember the soil.
• Remember people.
• Learn.

Lomakatsi uses the historic and scientific support of Native American traditional ecological knowledge as a reference point to indicate the ultimate conditions for restoring fire to its place in the natural cycle of balanced ecosystem functions. Through their many programs and projects, Lomakatsi is beginning the process of restoring watershed health and fire resiliency to the landscape, for the benefit of people, communities, forests, wildlife, and the next seven generations to come.

Contact Information:
Web: http://www.lomakatsi.org/

LOCAL GROWING at Ashland-Talent Growers CSA

The Ashland-Talent Growers CSA* is a new and exciting collaboration of small-scale local farmers and food producers in the communities of Ashland and Talent who have combined their resources in order to provide all of us fresh local organic food lovers with an increased variety of local products.

The Farms:

The three main farms – Happy Dirt Veggie Patch, Meadowlark Family Farm, and Village Farm – encompass ten acres on five different sites in the Bear Creek Region. Within their cooperative effort, individual farmers can specialize and grow what is best suited to the micro-climate and soil type of their location. And the group as a whole can take advantage of the diverse skill set of the individual farmers: organic farming, ranching, permaculture, mycology, food preservation, distribution, wildland ecology, and value-added food production.

*CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture

FAM JAM is FAM-TASTIC!

On the last Monday of each month, Tease Restaurant hosts the Rogue Fam Jam. This monthly musician's jam session is like no other musical experience in the Valley - it's music with a mission! The music is provided by artists like Vida Girls, Lost Maven, Alcyon Massive, Marko, Frankie Hernandez, Andy Casad, Aaron Reed, Mathew Michael, Ras Cricket, and more.

The mission is provided by local non-profits in need of your support. Rogue Fam Jam is packed to the rafters with musical genius and financial generosity and definitely one of the best nights of music all month

The Fam Jam is the opportunity for guests to 'band together' and support a local cause. This month's cause? Saving local farms, forests, and trails! All proceeds from door admissions, food sales and raffle items will benefit the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy.

Contact Information:
Web: http://www.teaseashland.com/

THE BACKPACK PROJECT

Cindy Darnell tells us:

Sad but true fact....Finding ways to make a difference in people's lives is getting easier and easier as times get tougher. Here's one for you. A few years back a friend and I were brainstorming ways that we could make a difference with a hands-on project when we came up with an idea of providing school backpacks for poor children in our community. We asked friends and family for donations. I buy the backpacks for $5.25 ea. from a wholesaler and we fill them with basic school supplies, hand soap, toothbrushes,granola bars and other basic supplies, depending on how much money we collect.

The first year we did 25 backpacks, the second we did 50 the third 60, last year we did 60 again. This year there is a greater need then ever. We are adding the Maslow project and they need 500 bags for homeless youth in Jackson County. I doubt if we will get enough money to get those numbers but who knows. Miracles... if you expect them, they will come.

We are not an official non-profit agency. If you want a tax deduction for your contribution you can donate directly to the Maslow Project. Thanks in advance for anything you can do to help.

Contact Information:
You have a choice of three places to send your money. Please make your check out to:
Arlene Aron 1684 Humbug Creek Road Jacksonville OR 97530
Cindy Darnell 13503 Duggan Rd Central Point OR 97502
Ronit Gibb PO BOX 298 Jacksonville OR 97530

A Gifting Tree Grows in Ashland

The Gifting Tree Wellness Center is part of a "gift-economy," which represents a shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance and isolation to community. Our Wellness Center was conceived and created in the spirit of giving, to empower individuals to create optimal health and wellness by providing integrative health care services and education via sustainable partnerships with clients, practitioners, community, and environment.

The Gifting Tree Wellness Center is an opportunity for practitioners and clients alike to engage in sharing our gifts. The practitioner offers their gift, at the request of the client, in a way that supports their healing. The client is then given the opportunity to give a gift to the practitioner, the Gifting Tree and/or to the community, in the direction and proportion their guidance dictates. Through these acts of giving, the client, the practitioner, the clinic and the community all benefit with the flow of mutual generosity.

We invite you to explore, in your own way, the true art of giving and receiving.

Contact Information:
Web: http://www.giftingtree.net

Go CarLite with Ashland CarShare

Ashland CarShare is a not for profit membership organization that provides neighborhood-based fuel efficient hybrid vehicles for personal use without the hassles and expenses of car ownership. Mission driven, not profit driven, their aim is to promote car-sharing as a means to reduce automobile dependence and to enhance the environmental and social integrity of our urban neighborhoods and planet. Carsharing offers an opportunity to be more conscious about the transportation choices you make every day in our community by providing: short term rentals; neighborhood based vehicles; self-accessing; different vehicles for different uses (coming soon); and full turnkey service.

Your participation and support of carsharing helps:
• reduce carbon emissions, traffic and congestion
• promote transit and alternative transportation choices
• reduce your costs for transportation
• reduce land needed for parking

How does it work? You pay a one time joining fee and then an annual fee based on the plan you choose. You can reserve a car anywhere from up to three months in advance to just hours before. You pay only for time and distance, Ashland CarShare pays for everything else.

Carsharing offers a practical, tangible way to improve the environment, promote community and build local economy.

Feel good, not guilty about your transportation choices!

FARM to FORK to You!

FARM to FORK, a traveling farm-to-table restaurant, local food fundraiser, and community celebration, will change your relationship with food! These unique dinners are designed to reconnect people to the source of their food, and to honor the talented farmers, food artisans, winemakers, and chefs that contribute to the growing culinary reputation and local food community of Southern Oregon.

Experience a remarkable artisan meal in the company of friends, neighbors, and fellow supporters of our local food and wine community. Proceeds from the dinners will be contributed directly to local farmers, wineries and organizations that support small farms, food security, and greater accessibility to healthy, local food.

An essential part of the FARM to FORK mission is to directly support local farmers and organizations that support small farms, food security, community resiliency, and greater accessibility to healthy, local food.

Summer FARM to FORK events in the Rogue Valley are sold out, so (get yourself on the waiting list!) and sign up for the Sept, Oct and Nov events!

Contact Information:

Web: FARM to FORK 2010 Schedule

Image: By S Baker. Wikimedia Commons.

Rogue Valley Farm to School (Jamie Oliver would be proud)

Rogue Valley Farm to School’s mission is to educate children about their food system through hands-on farm and garden programs, and by increasing local foods in school meals. The organization works to inspire an appreciation of local agriculture that improves the economy and environment of the community, and the health of its members.

• The Farm Education Program teaches students about local organic agriculture and nutrition through hands on activities that incorporate math, science, art and writing as well as practical life skills such as cooking, gardening, problem solving, and working together.
• The School Garden Program helps local schools establish and sustain their own gardening projects, and develop educational activities in the school gardens.
• The Farm to Cafeteria Program creates connections between local growers and the school lunchroom. Rogue Valley Farm to School works with school food service staff to evaluate annual produce needs that in turn assist farmers in planning their seasonal planting. Rogue Valley Farm to School also keeps track of local and regional product availability to facilitate ordering, receiving, storage and distribution of fresh, local produce according to school menus.

Contact Information:
Web: Rogue Valley Farm To School

Image: By Frank Wouters. Wikimedia Commons.

Did You Know? City Of Ashland & Phoenix Biofuels

By switching to B5 biodiesel in June 2009, the City of Ashland became Southern Oregon's largest municipal fleet running on domestic biodiesel blends.

By replacing 5% of their 38,000-gallon annual diesel usage with a domestic biodegradable fuel, they save 30,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses from Rogue Valley skies. In a year, that's like taking 3 of their cars off the road, or importing 45 less barrels of foreign oil.

Contact Information:
Web: Rising Phoenix

Image: By Shizhao and Wilfredor. Wikimedia Commons.

Get Your Farm ON! OSU Small Farms Program

The Oregon State University Small Farms Program is the go-to educational resource for small farms in Jackson County. The program provides one on one consulting for commercial producers and small acreage landowners, and resources and classes for new and beginning farmers and ranchers.

Class topics include:

• business planning for small farms
• pasture management
• small-scale grain production
• integrated pest management
• marketing
• and much more

Contact Information:
Web: Oregon Small Farms
Phone: (541) 776-7371
Email: maud.powell@oregonstate.edu
melissa.matthewson@oregonstate.edu
Staff: Instructors Melissa Matthewson and Maud Powell; program assistants Tracy Harding, Shelley Elkovich and Julia Pederson.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Local Food Thrives With The Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative

The Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative (SSC) is an agricultural marketing cooperative with nine member farms in the Applegate and Williams valleys.

SSC markets primarily through a Community Supported Agriculture program, which provides weekly boxes of fresh produce, meat, cheese, eggs, bread, honey and coffee to 135 families in the Rogue valley. SSC farmers are passionate about providing organic, fresh, and seasonal produce to community members as a way to build a thriving local economy.

SSC accepts the Oregon Trail card. Tom and Maud Powell coordinate the CSA program.

Contact Information:
Web: Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative
Phone: Maude at (541) 899-9668
Email: maud@siskiyoucoop.com

Image: By edibleoffice. Wikimedia Commons.