Why We Want You to Give to The Next Door
By Bobby Cochran
Community health workers in Hood River take a hike as part of their training from The Next Door to lead other Latinos in their community on hikes for better health. The Next Door and Willamette Partnership helped create this program, LatinXplorers, as part of the broader Health and Outdoors Initiative. Photo credit: Ray Perkins Photography
There’s something special brewing in Oregon, and we’re so thankful for it! It’s a generation of leaders committed to creating healthy places, amplifying people’s voice, and working as hard as they possibly can to make the world a better place. On this Giving Tuesday, Willamette Partnership wants us all to be thinking about how we can help support others to do great work with their community.
In that spirit, we want to encourage you to think about our great partners in the Columbia Gorge: The Next Door. The Next Door, a social service nonprofit, changes over 3,500 lives a year and, in the process, builds stronger communities. They provide youth mentoring, family services, health promotion, and economic development as well as a wide range of other vital programs. They’re also working closely with Willamette Partnership on their new LatinXplorers program—an effort where The Next Door trained community health workers to lead people in the community on nature hikes and walks for better health. You can donate right here.
But for us, there’s something extra special about The Next Door. They are committed to developing Latino leadership. Supporting the Latino voice in positions where they can inform both the planning process of new transit routes that will connect Parkdale, Odell, and Hood River, and on the board of the Columbia Gorge Health Council. The Next Door also helped evaluate the Veggie Rx program, which strives to improve access to fresh food across the Gorge. In short, they do what the community says they need and want.
So, let’s not just think about Giving Tuesday as any other day. Let’s give differently. Here are three great ways to support our friends at The Next Door:
- Provide a contribution.
- Volunteer to serve as a mentor for Big Brothers/Big Sisters or Mentors for Success.
- Provide a workshop or skill-training to our teens.
- Assist us in the office with filing or sorting donations.
- If you are a business leader, mentor one of our Latino entrepreneurs.
