CBEL Awarded $30,000 Grant for Neighborhood Resiliency
Written by Tim Buckley, May 2025
CBEL received notice last week from the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) that it was among those awarded grants for their Spring 2025 Community Grants cycle.
Specifically, the award was made from two funds within OCF: the Erica and Peter Goodwin Fund and the Louise Minty Discretionary Fund. The $30,000 will support the expanding work of Neighborhood Family Councils (NFCs) in Salem and Keizer’s most economically challenged areas, according to Eduardo Angulo, a CBEL board member and Director of the Neighborhood Family Councils.
“A key difference in CBEL’s methods is that it puts decision-making in the hands of volunteer Neighborhood Family Councils. These are the people with lived experience, and CBEL’s job is to amplify their voices. Each NFC receives $13,200 every year; they prioritize their needs and decide how that money will be spent,” Angulo added. “Our staff is there to help train, advise, and assist them in executing their plans effectively.”
Stephanie Jenkins of Hallman-Northgate NFC welcomes neighbors to the 2024 Hallman Fun Friday.
OCF’s website says: “In Oregon, we know well that the heroes of our communities reside within them. When communities focus on strengths and recognize their own capacity to mobilize resources and solve problems, they reveal powerful potential for positive change.” In 2023, OCF sent $225 million to communities throughout the state. “Together, we're delivering promising solutions for some of the state's most pressing challenges,” OCF said.
CBEL’s work began five years ago with one neighborhood and continued to grow through the COVID years. Becoming its own nonprofit in late 2024, CBEL began as a philanthropic vision held by Mountain West Investment’s Center for Community Excellence. “Their continued support helped us increase our reach – now in five diverse neighborhoods - and to connect with more than 50 community resource partners,” said Jim Seymour, CBEL’s Director. “Our goal is to expand eventually into all 20 of the neighborhoods in which there are Title 1 elementary schools.”
CBEL’s mission, one adopted by each NFC, is to build community resilience—one neighborhood at a time—that strengthens families and supports world-class education in Salem-Keizer. That’s done by focusing on five protective factors:
positive social connections
concrete support in times of need
knowledge of parenting and child development
parental resilience and
social emotional competence in children
Kennedy neighborhood kids play games with Keizer PD at the 2024 Kennedy Fun Friday event.
“The NFCs are the heart of fulfilling this mission as self-organized groups of residents in low-income high needs neighborhoods,” Angulo continued. “Every council conducts semi-annual Family Needs Assessments at their major events, where, collectively, more than 2,000 people and 600 families come to share a meal, relax, have fun and celebrate together.”
The questionnaires ask residents (anonymously) about their greatest needs, whether in housing, affordable childcare and preschool programs, stress management, mental and emotional health, economic stability, money management, immigration, legal advice, or learning more about available community resources.
“Consistently, people have said that learning about low-cost available resources has been a priority (47%+), so at each event, we bring in 40 or more of those organizations to provide information and services,” he continued.
Another example is affordable housing, consistently listed as a high need. With CBEL at the table, a pilot home ownership program and two new affordable housing complexes have been completed, focused on three of the neighborhoods in the CBEL network.
A third example is how the Hallman-Northgate Council used its voice and CBEL’s amplification to secure $1 million for modern bathroom facilities at a park which, three years before, was too unsafe for neighbors to even frequent. “Neighborhood safety was listed as a priority the first year,” Angulo added, “and this year, the park is now listed as one of the neighborhood’s greatest assets.”
To learn more about how you can also be involved in expanding the work of CBEL and the NFCs, click the button below:
Families enjoy a free meal at the 2024 Kennedy Fun Friday event