Portland Meet Portland

About Portland Meet Portland

Portland Meet Portland builds and leverages equitable relationships with immigrants and refugees to support them in creating tangible change in their lives, in their communities and in the dominant culture. We enrich the broader community through mutually beneficial mentoring opportunities and dialogue that promotes cross-cultural learning, enhances professional development, develops cultural capital and builds trust. PMP has 4 program areas. 1. Raising Diaspora Voices, 2. Community Building and Organizing, 3. Youth Leadership Development, 4. Civic Empowerment. PMP defines DEI as centering those who are impacted (historically oppressed and traumatized people) and advancing systems and culture change towards authoring new cross-cultural community. New community necessitates at least three things: 1. dominant white culture opens itself up to self-reflection, critique, humility, and vulnerability, resulting in a transformation, 2. resources and tools are put in the hands of those most impacted, and 3. all people involved feel a sense of agency, purpose, and value in the process. PMP’s DEI framework works to accomplish four key things in concert with immigrants and refugees: enhance immigrant and refugee VOICES, enhance their AGENCY and access to power in society, ADVOCACY through developing strong allies speaking in concert with them, and ACCOMPANIMENT through community members supporting immigrants and refugees in walking their own journey. By working toward DEI in this way, we hope for the transformation of dominant white culture and the emergence of ‘right relationship’ towards desegregating Portland, a city struggling with its own history of racism and oppression. Our programs facilitate this transformation and right relationship by creating experiential opportunities to cultivate trust, collaboration, and celebration which are crucial ingredients for equity and justice.

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