Community Housing Resource Center

From the Executive Director

Hello,

Thank you to everyone who came to our first-ever Board Member House Party.  Your generosity exceeded all of our expectations.  I especially want to thank our hosts, Chrissy and Andy Cole, our Board of Directors, Mayor Leavitt, Clark County Board Chair Steve Stuart, Columbia Credit Union, Sweet Valley Wines and the Clark College Choir Department for helping to make the evening such a tremendous success.

I was grateful for the chance to celebrate our recent successes and reflect on the last year because this is shaping up to be one of the busiest falls in my five years as Executive Director.  As such, this might be one of my longest updates to you yet.

First and foremost, our Board of Directors are set to begin a strategic planning process to evaluate the direction of our organization.  Mike Bacon of Score is facilitating the process, and we hope to complete it by the end of the year.

Mike isn’t the only new face we’ll be seeing around the office in the coming months.  Last week, a Washington State Service Corps volunteer joined our staff as Clark County's Asset Building Coalition Project Coordinator.  We’re pleased to welcome Lisa Konopinski to the team.   She is fluent in Spanish and will be helping us to further broaden our ability to serve the Latino community, something you can read about in more detail below.

Lisa won’t have much time to settle into her office.  Next month, we will be moving across town to share space with the Building Industry Association of Clark County.  The new location has a spacious classroom that will allow us to comfortably accommodate much larger groups for our classes.  Our phone numbers will remain the same, but our new address will be 103 E 29th Street, Vancouver, WA 98663.

With much thanks,

Teri Duffy, Executive Director

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Spanish Services Grow at the Center

From left: Renee Turner, Neal McKeever and Lisa Konopinski

We saw a need, and we acted. 

We had long recognized that the Latino community needed our services and that language was a very real barrier for some of them.  In the past, we coordinated with our volunteers and partners to arrange translation services whenever we counseled a Spanish-speaking client.  Still, we knew we could do more. 

Our Executive Director came to the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette with an idea, and they got behind it with tremendous enthusiasm.  Clark County quickly joined the effort, and in August 2009, we hired a bilingual financial counselor – a first for the Center.  Today, Neal McKeever sees an average of ten new Latino clients a month.  It’s a figure that’s rising and that we expect will continue to rise.

Recently, we took another big step forward in our commitment to the Latino community.  Lisa Konopinski joined our team on September 16^th as part of a 10 ½ month volunteer term with the Washington State Service Corps.  Like Neal, Lisa is fluent in Spanish.  During her appointment, she will be recruiting Latino financial services professionals to deliver bilingual financial education classes at the Center.

With the addition of Renee Turner to our front desk staff, we now have three people in our small office who are fluent in Spanish.  It’s a big change from just over a year ago, and we expect it will make a real difference.  For our current Spanish-speaking clients who don’t have to face foreclosure on their own or are attending financial education classes or counseling for the first time, it already is.

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Good Food and a Good Cause

On July 31^st, the Central Park Burgerville commemorated its 25^th anniversary with an all day celebration.  As a way of saying thanks to the community, they donated 10% of the evening’s sales to us. 

We are proud of the work we’ve done over the years, including with some Burgerville employees.  Thanks to all of you who came out and took a few moments to chat with us.  We appreciated the kind words so many of you extended over a burger or a side of onion rings.

In addition to Burgerville, we would like to recognize the organizations and individuals who supported our efforts since our last e-newsletter went out. 

Corporations, Foundations and Public Agencies

City of Portland, Clark County, Clark County Title, Columbia Credit Union, Evergreen Home Loans, HomeStreet Bank, Marketing Matters, Met Life, New Tradition Homes, Pacific Lifestyle Homes, Summit Mortgage, Sweet Valley Wines, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, Washington State Attorney General’s Office, Washington State Housing Finance Commission

Individuals

Kristina Aitchison, Linda Aronsohn, Joan and Darrell Badertscher, Pam Baker, Richard Biggs, Brad Bognuda, Juan Campos, Kelli Christian, Chrissy and Andy Cole, Sherry and Doug Davis, Dave Dumas, April Duvic, Brad Eriksen, Dave Frank, Russell Garrow, Ellen Hartzell, Leah Higgins, Lena and Don Houston, Jaima Johnson, Diane Kinkade, Verlee Mason, Karl Millar, Lisa Miller, Teresa Munn, Deborah Oester and Oscar Cerrillo, Kimberly Blake Pincheira and Mauricio Pincheira, Dennis and Jennifer Rugg, Steve Stuart, Jim Temple, Jennifer Weber

Thanks to each of you.  We simply couldn’t do it without you. For a list of past donors, please visit our Partners page.

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Latino Summer Resource Fair a Hit

Above: Dancers delighted the crowd at the Latino Summer Resource Fair.

Despite intermittent rain, approximately four hundred people stopped by Esther Short Park on a Sunday afternoon for the first ever Latino Summer Resource Fair.  The event was organized by the Latino Community Resource Group of Clark County.  For one day, they brought together a wide array of resources in one easy-to-access location. 

The Community Housing Resource Center served as the fiscal agent for the event and staffed one of the resource booths ringing the central pavilion.  Over the past year, the LCRG has emerged as one of our most important partners in the community. 

In 2009, the Center began offering counseling in Spanish. Through the LCRG and other partners, we’ve worked to spread the word about our service.  Month after month we are seeing a steady increase in the number of Latinos we serve.

As encouraging as the early results have been, there are still many people who don’t know about the Center.  “We need to do as much outreach as possible,” said Neal McKeever, CHRC’s bilingual financial counselor.  Through events such as the Latino Summer Resource Fair, we are doing just that.

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