CareOregon has made significant investments in the Rockwood area, a community in Portland that faces high rates of poverty, food insecurity and barriers to health care access. It also has one of the highest concentrations of Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members in the region.
Those investments increased dramatically in 2021 when CareOregon made a 10-year commitment to the Boys & Girls Club of Portland Metropolitan Area, which led to the CareOregon Boys & Girls Club at Rockwood. The CareOregon Club provides after-school and summer enrichment programming for students in the Reynolds and Centennial school districts.
CareOregon has also made multi-year investments in the other community-based organizations co-located with CareOregon Boys & Girls Club, including Latino Network, Open School and New Avenues for Youth. Together with our Rockwood partners, we are tackling some of those critical issues that impact the overall health of the community.
“Our strategic partnership with CareOregon bolsters our efforts to address systemic disparities in the communities we serve,” said Terry Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Portland. “Since we joined forces in 2021, we’ve been able to significantly ramp up quality programming. This partnership is game-changing, and the impact translates directly to our Club members and their families.”
Since the start, we’ve worked together to help co-create and support programs and services to address Club families’ needs such as education and food and nutrition support, including a partnership with Mudbone Grown to increase access to healthy foods and a $125,000 investment to help support the Club Café food program.
We also worked to get more families connected to information and support through OHP to better help them navigate the health care system. We've embraced our role as campus partners and have given staff time, resources and hundreds of volunteer hours to clean up the campus and surrounding neighborhood.
Now, as our partnership continues to grow, we are looking forward to what’s next—including partnering to address youth mental health through a mural project in the CareOregon Club’s teen center. The mural, conceptualized and created by Club youth and local Portland artist Daren Todd of Art Larger Than Me, illustrates the power of friendship and community in supporting the health and well-being of young adults.
“This partnership with the Girls & Boys Club of Rockwood is a remarkable one, allowing us to scale our impact through the years,” said Eric C. Hunter, CareOregon President and CEO. “Together, we tackle barriers to health by expanding access to resources that support youth, families and the Rockwood neighborhood. We are focused on continuing to bring systemic-level change through this work, and our hope is that we can improve the health of our community now, and for many years into the future.”
For more on this partnership, explore the 2023 CareOregon Boys & Girls Club at Rockwood Annual Report.
