Program date: June 14, 2024
Air date: June 17, 2024
From the City Club of Eugene:
Constructing a Brighter Future (CBF) is a collaborative project that creates single-room transitional shelters for the unhoused. This project builds from an existing network of Lane County educators/school districts, local transitional housing organizations, community-based organizations, industry, and workforce to align and support local housing with the construction of temporary shelters. Constructing a Brighter Future not only supports a prioritized community need but is a workforce initiative that introduces young people to the multiple career pathways in high wage/high demand construction trades work and provides them with hands on, work-based learning opportunities to demonstrate and refine these new skills for possible future employment.
CBF provides training to Career and Technical Educators from all Lane County School Districts to construct finished single-room shelters. Once trained, CTE instructors lead their students in the construction process, providing them with hands-on education, training, and work-based learning opportunities that help them develop valuable employment skills, credentials, credits, and certifications.
Everyone Village is a transitional housing program that serves previously unhoused individuals and utilizes the CBF shelters. The Village consists of a 3.5-acre parcel in West Eugene with over 50 individual dwelling-style homes, a Welcome Center, Resource Center, Workshop and Recycling Center where Villagers re-learn how to live within a community in a healthy way. Everyone Village provides the basic amenities villagers need to stabilize their situation and rebuild their lives. Features of the site include individual shelters with electricity, a kitchen for villagers to prepare meals as well as bathrooms, a showering station, a “free store” where villagers can get donated clothes and toiletries, a welcoming center for community gatherings and educational opportunities, and a computer work station with internet access. All features of the site are ADA accessible.
Speakers:
Jesse Quinn is the Community Engagement Director at Lane Workforce Partnership; he has over 10 years of leadership experience in nonprofit management and higher education. Prior to joining Lane Workforce Partnership, he served as Director of Annual Giving at United Way of Lane County. His other leadership roles have included serving as Development Manager of HIV Alliance and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Oregon. Jesse graduated from the University of Oregon’s school of Planning, Public Policy and Management with a masters in Nonprofit Management. He currently serves as a Board Member and Community Service Committee Co-Chair for the Rotary Club of Eugene and actively contributes as an HIV Alliance Board Member.
Gabe Piechowicz began the work of Everyone Village in the summer of 2021 as he pioneered creative and effective solutions for the City of Eugene’s response to the worsening homelessness crisis. Out of this effort he built a robust network of partnerships including government agencies, faith-based organizations, and private businesses that continues to grow and leverage toward the community’s response to homelessness. Prior to founding Everyone Village, Gabe worked for a short time helping a Eugene nonprofit, SquareOne Villages, manage their transitional shelter micro-sites. This was preceded by a fifteen- year career as a professional logger. Gabe graduated from Bushnell University with a bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Ministry in 2019.
Wheylin Niehus is a Career and Technical Education teacher in Eugene School District 4J. He oversees the groups of students participating in FutureBuild and projects at the LCC’s Building 12 location. He has been a member of the CBF team since its beginning. A special satisfaction of his work is seeing the true sense of pride and value that students receive from participating in these real world, socially conscious projects that positively impact their community, in addition to the technical training and the employability skills they receive.
About the City Club of Eugene:
The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry. The Club explores a wide range of significant local, state, and national issues and helps to formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of concern with elected officials and other policy makers. The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website is cityclubofeugene.org.
Video and Broadcast
This program will be live streamed, and the videotape will be made available on the City Club of Eugene’s Facebook page and You Tube Channel, in addition to our website. It will be broadcast on Monday, June 14 at 7:00 p.m., on KLCC 89.7 FM.
Contact: For more information, visit CityClubOfEugene.org.