Executive Director Reflections on 2023
Dear SVP Community,
In reflecting upon 2023, I’m struck by the severity and ubiquity of social challenges and division, globally and locally. It can feel discouraging and exhausting. So I ask myself, how can we make the progress needed toward a world with much more compassion, connection, and belonging?
At SVP Portland, we show compassion for our community by recognizing inequities in preschool education and addressing the gaps to create a prosperous future for all. We create connection and belonging by collaborating with organizations that already effectively serve the communities most impacted by inequitable systems, expanding on the solutions created by and for these communities. I hold onto hope because I see what’s possible when people from across sectors, with varied skills yet diverse backgrounds, come together around a common goal: ensuring that all of our county’s children access quality preschool.
Throughout the past year, I was continually inspired by changemakers in SVP Portland’s network:
Ashley Rollins and Erica Battles, founders of our newest Community Partner Learning Train Academy, who are social entrepreneurs creating an innovative, play-based child development center that narrows the racial achievement gap for BIPOC children from working-class and historically-excluded families;
The visionary Partners who instigated research to inform SVP’s incubator role for the Childcare Facilities Initiative, driving towards scalable solutions for providers facing barriers to opening or expanding their early care and pre-k classrooms;
Lily Yang, one of 36 Encore Fellows we matched at local nonprofits, doing her Fellowship at the Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities, where she has played a leadership role in upgrading and managing their mental health 1-800 warmline system, leveraging her exceptional skills to enable exponential growth;
Black United Fund’s eagerness to collaborate around our shared goal of equity in early learning by establishing a new grant initiative that amplifies our giving.
And these are just a few. The progress we’re making through deep partnership is truly remarkable, and a reason to be optimistic.
I’m also motivated by the growth in requests from nonprofit leaders for capacity building support from SVP Portland. Awareness of our culturally-responsive resources has grown, as has our credibility as a trusted partner. This interest in our transformative support informed our new Three-Year Strategy, grounded in our commitment to advancing social justice and racial equity.
While we have substantial work ahead of us, I believe it’s important to pause and celebrate the significant progress we’ve made collectively over the past year, as well as the fact we’ve done it thoughtfully, strategically, and in alignment with our values. Because of your generosity and unique combination of skills, dollars, and influence, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The multiplicative effect we achieve through the collective investment of SVP Investor and Community Partners, alongside SVP’s staff, is remarkable. It gives me hope that there indeed is a way to work together across differences, toward a world with much more compassion, connection, and belonging.
Lauren
