A Community-Supported Platform to promote Nonviolence, Diversity, Economic Sustainability, and Justice

1. Peace House – Ashland, Oregon
A Community-Supported Platform
to promote
Nonviolence, Diversity, Economic Sustainability, and Justice

2. What we do:
• Promote nonviolent conflict resolution, socio-economic
justice, and the inherent dignity of all people
• Educate on relevant issues
• Organize for public advocacy and civic action
• Teach nonviolent communication
• Foster cooperation among organizations that share our values
and extend to them our resources as possible
• Serve as an incubator and sponsor for related grassroots
organizations

3. Roots in Peace Movement
• Began as a citizen’s group concerned about nuclear
war
• Aligned with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an
Interfaith national and international organization
• Grew with time to address systemic violence, social
issues and local community issues

4. Marjorie Kellogg, Peace Activist and Quaker
National Peace Maker Award
Marjorie Maybury Kellogg
1923 - 2008

5. Shared Space in Our Building:
A platform for social change: rentals available
Large Kitchen
Meetings in the round
Consultation and Library Space
The Blue RoomProjects and Small Group Room

6. Addressing structural violence in our national and
regional communities:
• Militarism and Endless war
• Nuclear waste, especially at Hanford Nuclear
Waste Dump in Oregon
• Food insufficiency
• Economic Justice
• Gay rights
• Hate Speech, Racism, Religious Intolerance
• Gun Violence

7. 25 Years of Uncle Food’s Diner
• We began a program to feed 15-25 homeless
and couch-surfing teens
• The hungry adults soon followed
• The program has grown over 25 years
• We partner with the Methodist Church,
using their parish hall and regulation kitchen

8. 6,000 Meals per year
• Serving a hot and nutritious meal between 85 and 150 people
each Tuesday 52 weeks per year
• Offering a platform for other services:
• La Clinica’s emergency Mobile Dental and Health care unit
• Free Clothing
• Shower and Laundry Truck
• Trained Listeners

9. Our Chef Coordinator,
Maren Faye
Maren makes magic happen every week,
using donated food and directing traffic in
the kitchen.
Our Facility Coordinator,
Rev. Dorita Betts - Borgenson

10. Volunteers
• Between thirty and forty volunteers prepare, serve and
clean up each week, in three shifts from 12:30 to 7 pm.

11. Thanksgiving at Uncle Food’s Diner

12. The Family Meal
• The Church has taken on a meal for families
to meet in a smaller room with children
able to use a play room nearby.

13. Empty Bowls: A Community Affair
Graphic design
by
Leslie Dwyer

14. Issues surrounding the project
• Since legalization of marijuana, many diners tend to
spill over into the neighborhood and some neighbors
are unhappy with their conduct
• A perfect storm for conflict resolution
• ACPC has been instrumental in helping us to contain
and address the problem

15. Building Bridges

16. Other Arenas
• Listening Projects on Abortion and LGBTQ Issues
• Nonviolent Communication
• Hate Speech in public places, including the local schools
• Nonviolent Communication
• Race Tool Kit Project
• Immigration
• Housing shortages and unusually high rental increases

17. Addressing Race and Hate Speech
• Collaboration with Resolve and several other groups to bring
Rabbi Deborah Kolodney here with a model to address hate
speech in public places
• Looking at how to introduce
Teaching Tolerance into the
local school systems

18. Collaboration with the Racial Equity Coalition to
help create and disseminate and facilitate the
Race Toolkit Conversations
Dr. Alma Rosa Alvarez, SOU Professor of English.
Racial Equity Coalition Leadership
Toolkit

19. Addressing Gun Violence: The Vision Quilt Project
• Vision Quilt is a Project we sponsored to increase gun violence
awareness

20. Honoring Fallen Heroes
Memorial in the Park for Taliesian Meche of Ashland

21. Ending War:
Remembering the victims
• Annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki Observances
in Lithia Park, Ashland.

22. • Annual Tax Day Education
Estelle Voelle distributing information with citizen
Mark Kellenbeck
Addressing the Structural Violence of Militarism

23. Our tax dollars at work:
The Latest Bomber Technology

24. Central American Solidarity and Accompaniment
Photo above left:
Lucy Edwards , left.
Rev. Paula Sohl, right
Photo center: Padre Ismael Moreno
with Lucy Edwards
Photo above right: Berta Caceres

25. Central American Solidarity and Accompaniment
• Daughter and friends mourning the
assassination of Berta Caceres
• Military surveillance in Honduras
• Delegation to Central America

26. Central American Solidarity and Accompaniment
• Lucy Edwards, left, Jim Phillips, right, son Noah
Edwards-Phillips, center
• Ashland delegation to the School of the Americas
Watch, annual vigil
• Delegation to Nicaragua

27. Peace Maker Awardees 2016
• Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
• Grandmother Agnes Taowhywee Pilgrim, Founder, 13 Grandmothers’ Council
• Peter Buckley, Oregon Congressional Representative and Legislator
• Dr. Alan Bates, Senator to State Of Oregon, Posthumous Award
• Rogue Valley Peace Choir

28. Dr. David West presents Grandma Agnes with her Award
• DSCF1463.JPG
Peace House Board Member Shaun Franks
with Grandmother Agnes Pilgrim

29. Dragon Flies are the spirits of our ancestors

30. Education about non-violent resistance
• On-Going relationship with SOU
helps us to reach younger folks
with speakers for large events

31. 93 Year old white Elder goes to Standing Rock
with Granddaughter
Elizabeth R. Hallett and Rachel Hallett-Ralston
Airport Take-off
At Standing Rock Camp

32. Incubator Groups that have grown under our
umbrella over time
• Southern Oregon Pride
• Southern Oregon Climate Change Network-
SOCAN
• Move to Amend
• Oregon Housing Authority
• Vision Quilt
• Jackson County Fuel Committee
• Ashland Citizen’s Peace Commission

33. Interface in the Community with:
• ACPC
• Veterans for Peace
• Health Care All Oregon
• UNETE – on Farmworkers rights and Immigration
Issues
• Jobs with Justice – for Equal Wage legislation
• Racial Equity Coalition
• Vision Quilt

34. Diffusion
• We publish an on-line Bi-Monthly Calendar of Events related to
activist issues as well as email subscription

35. Resources
• On-line Quarterly Publication
“Clear Actions”

36. Peace House Board and Staff
Top: Luis Ibanez, Shaun Franks, Connie Saldana, Maggie McCauley, Kathleen Gamer
Bottom: Linda Sturgeon, Maren Faye, Elizabeth Hallett, Andy Seles

37. Building Community

38. David West Drumming at
Our Peacemakers’ Awards Dinner
Local Peace Community still active after 35 Years!

39. Social Artistry in Action