PGE Foundation gives basic needs and education top priority
in grant funding for first quarter 2009
Nonprofits receive 45 grants totaling nearly $500,000

April 30, 2009, Portland, Ore. — The PGE Foundation gave top priority to basic needs — food, shelter and healthcare — while continuing its longstanding support of arts and education programs in the first quarter of 2009. The PGE Foundation — Portland General Electric’s corporate foundation — awarded 45 grants totaling $477,475 to nonprofits across the state.

The PGE Foundation funds programs in three categories: strengthening and delivering quality education, promoting healthy families and individuals, and helping to make arts and culture accessible to all Oregonians, especially children. Over the past 12 years, the PGE Foundation has distributed more than $12.4 million to Oregon nonprofits.

“While we focus a large percentage of our funding on basic needs and education during tough economic times, the foundation continues to place a high value on supporting arts and culture, especially important in times of distress,” said Gwyneth Gamble Booth, chair of the PGE Foundation.

The foundation made 23 grants totaling $168,975 to support the physical and emotional health of Oregon families and individuals; 11 grants totaling $222,500 to enhance education across the state; and 11 grants totaling $86,000 for arts and culture programs.

Of the 23 grants for basic needs, eight of them target domestic violence, five help with homelessness and five address hunger:

• Oregon Food Bank: $50,000 for emergency food in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.
• Human Solutions: $15,000 for emergency shelter and services for homeless and domestic violence victims.
• Sisters of the Road: $10,000 to support the hot meals barter program.
• East County One Stop: $7,500 for services to underserved populations with barriers to employment.
• Domestic Violence Services (Pendleton): $7,500 to The Awakening House (Pendleton Shelter) and Casa de Esperanza (Hermiston Shelter) to provide lodging/skills development to abused women and children.
• Children’s Relief Nursery: $7,500 for the Parenting Education Project to support giving parents the basic skills they need to build healthy families.
• Camp Fire USA: $7,500 to provide learning, leadership, confidence and respect skills to at-risk students at Mill Park Elementary in the David Douglas School District.
• Store to Door: $5,000 for a shopping assistance program that provides seniors and people with disabilities access to food, prescriptions and household items.
• Southwest Community Health Center: $5,000 to provide health care to low-income uninsured people.
• ShelterCare (Eugene): $5,000 to support bi-weekly parenting skills classes.
• Returning Veterans Project: $5,000 to help recruit and train licensed therapists to provide free mental health counseling and other health services to veterans.
• Portland Rescue Mission: $5,000 for the Shepherd’s Door Homeless Women and Children’s Shelter.
• Lincoln County Children’s Advocacy Center, Inc. (Newport): $5,000 for healing program for child abuse victims.
• Lifeways Inc. (Ontario): $5,000 for Lifespan Respite stipends for autistic children.
• Kinship House: $5,000 for counseling foster children in transition from child abuse and neglect to stable caring homes.
• Estacada Area Food Bank: $5,000 for food for families and homeless in Estacada, Eagle Creek and Colton.
• Community Warehouse Northwest: $5,000 to collect and redistribute donated reusable household items to low-income local families recovering from homelessness or domestic violence.
• Tillamook County Women’s Resource Center (Tillamook): $2,500 for the first domestic violence shelter in Tillamook County.
• Rebuilding Together Washington County (Beaverton): $2,500 for building materials for low-income families.
• Portland Women’s Crisis Line: $2,500 for education and outreach to survivors of sexual assault.
• My Sisters House, Inc. (Troutdale): $2,500 for improvement to shelter space for women and their children.
• Maybelle Clark Macdonald Center: $2,500 for a continuum of care for low-income people.
• Douglas County Public Health (Roseburg): $1,475 for public health educational outreach.

• Community 101: $110,000 for the 12 year-old student grantmaking program which is in its first year of statewide expansion with The Oregon Community Foundation. $110,000 will fund 53 programs in schools across Oregon, and cover program costs.
• Oregon Independent College Foundation: $75,000 to fund 30 PGE Foundation scholarships for students attending Concordia, George Fox, Lewis & Clark, Linfield, Marylhurst, Pacific, Reed, University of Portland, Warner Pacific and Willamette.
• Architecture Foundation of Oregon (Portland): $5,000 to support a school program that pairs architects with classroom teachers for grades 3-5.
• Black Parent Initiative at Concordia University: $5,000 for Moses Harris Math and Science Summer Academy, which helps Portland Public School students with math and science skills.
• Girls Inc. of Northwest Oregon: $5,000 to support at-risk girls with one-on-one mentoring, advocacy and life skills.
• Latino Network: $5,000 to the Juntos Aprendemos program which gives Latino children readiness skills necessary for success in school.
• Oregon Council for the Humanities: $5,000 for the Humanities in Perspective course for low-income and homeless adults in Salem.
• Wallowa School Foundation (Lostine): $5,000 to the Wallowa School Library Program.
• Portland YouthBuilders: $2,500 to the Green Build Initiative which provides students with vocational training in green construction practices in homes for low-income home buyers.
• Serendipity Center, Inc.: $2,500 to the Primary Colors art therapy program for severely disabled students.
• Tillamook Bay Child Care Center: $2,500 to help increase the level of certified staff to meet state-required teacher-to-child ratios.

• Oregon Symphony Association: $20,000 for the 2009 “Happy Birthday Oregon – 150” concerts for young audiences in Portland, Salem and Tillamook.
• Portland Art Museum: $20,000 for educational programming for the museum’s 2009/10 Exhibition Series.
• Oregon Children’s Theatre Company: $10,000 to The Big Leap Campaign to move performances to better venues, expand season to five plays, and create original scripts.
• Broadway Rose Theatre Company (Tigard): $5,000 for the Summer Youth Outreach Program, which provides low-income youth scholarships for drama camps/workshops, and discount performance tickets.
• Children’s Healing Art Project: $5,000 for art services in Portland children’s hospitals, which aids children in crisis and their families with a mobile team of teaching artists.
• Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center: $5,000 to provide youth with diverse arts experiences with emerging and experienced artists.
• PlayWrite, Inc.: $5,000 to provide at-risk youth the opportunity to work one-on-one with a coach to write a play in a three-week class.
• Portland Actors Conservatory: $5,000 for the 2009 Conservatory Season of plays, which is part of a two-year actor training curriculum.
• Portland Chamber Orchestra Association (Hillsboro): $5,000 to bring a PCO concert to Hillsboro for the first time ever.
• Third Rail Repertory Theatre: $5,000 to provide discounted tickets, study packets, panel and post-show discussions to Portland area students for “Fabuloso,” the third show of the season.
• Calyx (Corvallis): $1,000 to The CALYX Journal to help celebrate its 33rd anniversary as a publisher of fine literature and art by women with an expanded journal and a statewide author reading tour.

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