Voices of Change 2015 -- Highlights & Takeaways

Thank you a-hundred-fold to all our sponsors, donors, attendees, Board of Directors, performers, speakers, volunteers, and staff who helped to make this year’s Voices of Change Celebration a resounding success!

We raised over $37,000, exceeding our goal of $25,000. Over 275 guests attended the sold out evening, an increase from 200 in 2014. Our gala inaugurated our newly acquired Jade/APANO Multicultural Space (aka JAMS) located across from PCC Southeast Campus. With sweat and elbow grease, we transformed the old furniture store into a multiuse center with areas for games, performance and meetings. Over the new two years, we’ll be operating the space for the benefit of all our communities.

Highlights:

• 275 attendees
• 38 event sponsors
• $4,500 from in-kind donations

What an adventure it has been, taking a long-vacant furniture warehouse and turning it into a community multicultural space fit for an event as grand and as delightful as our annual Voices of Change Celebration. Other highlights from this year’s event include: first-use of our new community game room ping-pong tables, a beautiful “Community Is…” art wall by Shannon Paine, a fun SelfiePod photobooth from Cultural Xchange Productions, help from eleven wonderfully dedicated volunteers, and finally the implementation and presentation of two new annual awards: the Youth Voices of Change Award and the Minoru Yasui Voices of Change Award.

Thank you to all who attended, and especially to those who contributed, both monetarily and with their precious time.

Media hits:

Metro Dives Into Affordable Housing, Portland Tribune May 14, 2015

East Portland Opens New Multicultural Center, GoLocalPDX May 6, 2015