This summer I am excited to be interning with the Rosewood Initiative, a nonprofit organization located in far East Portland that focuses on community engagement. The Rosewood neighborhood is significantly underserved, and its community members face many issues including systemic racism and poverty. As an organization, Rosewood seeks to address some of those injustices by working with the neighborhood and supporting them in various ways. What attracted me to Rosewood is what a wide range of programs and support they offer. In the past year, Rosewood has done everything from hold weekly COVID-19 vaccine clinics to successfully advocate for a new bus line that was needed in the Rosewood area.
I have been interning with Rosewood for the past month, and it has been a blast! The project that I am focusing on this summer involves checking in with the local businesses to see what support they might need as we are coming out of lockdown and COVID-19 restrictions. This project, that I have been able to work on mostly independently, has been fun for me because it is unlike anything I’ve worked on before. While learning about how businesses and nonprofits interact, I am also getting to know the neighborhood very well as I research all of these local businesses.
Apart from my primary project, I’ve also been able to be involved in Rosewood in other ways. My work has been a combination of virtual and in-person, and I’ve gotten to go into the Rosewood center at least once a week. This means that I’ve had the opportunity to really get to know some of the other folks on the Rosewood team and learn about the different work that they do. Through talking with other team members and sitting in on meetings, I am getting a very up-close look at how nonprofits like Rosewood are run. Additionally, I’ve been helping Rosewood reorganize their center as they prepare to open back up to the public and have helped other team members on various small projects. This experience has been truly one of a kind as I’ve been able to learn so much about Rosewood, community outreach, and myself.
I am very grateful for the IFJ program and all the folks at Rosewood for allowing this opportunity to happen, and I’m excited to spend the rest of the summer working with such an incredible organization!