Hi there! My name is Torie Tonelli. I am a Senior psychology/sociology major at UP and one day I hope to go to med school and be a doctor. This summer I have had the privilege of working at the Maybelle Center in downtown Portland.
It is difficult to put into words exactly what the Maybelle Center means to the community. Less a physical location and more a collective of people working together to create a place of support, connection, and mutual aid, Maybelle is built on the idea that people have inherent dignity, worth, and beauty, and that those people are deserving of love and affection from others.
The physical community room, where I spend the majority of my time, is always a hub. On a given day, people wait outside the doors until community time starts. I have never seen the community room empty. From the moment doors open to the time that community hours end, there are people, dogs, and cats bustling around inside.
What do we do in the community room? It depends. Some people are meeting with staff to connect with health resources. Some people are talking with outreach coordinators about how to best engage other members of the community, or get into contact with people that haven’t been in for a while. Often, members come in just to talk about what’s going on in their lives. Something I have learned from my time at Maybelle is that often when programs are set up to help meet the needs of a given community, the first targets are physical needs— food, water, basic healthcare, etc. These are critical, absolutely, but often it means that the need for companionship, understanding, and human connection are pushed aside. Maybelle seeks to provide a space for those often-underserved needs, and as a result it is alive and thriving.