POIC Honors FOT for Leadership Corps Partnership

By Logan Lauvray

Friends of Trees is honored that the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center honored us at its annual spring celebration for our “direct involvement in providing coaching and employment for Portland OIC work trainees.”

Friends of Trees has been excited to have POIC students from Rosemary Anderson High School involved in our project along the I-205 Multi-Use Path. To date we have planted more than 5,000 trees and shrubs along the path and engaged more than 1,800 community volunteers. We could not have done it all without the contributions of the POIC Leadership Corps.

The POIC Leadership Corps is a partnership between FOT and POIC with support from East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, Metro, the Portland Development Commission, and the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services. Eight paid students from Rosemary Anderson High School serve on the Corps, helping FOT at some of our Saturday tree plantings. Leadership Corps members attend FOT’s Crew Leader Training, assist FOT crew leaders and staff, and eventually lead their own crews at Saturday plantings.

This season FOT expanded the partnership with a planting project at Columbia Children’s Arboretum, where the students were involved holistically by assisting with site evaluation, volunteer recruitment, plant selection, and layout, and by leading volunteers at two plantings.

It has been great to see the students grow and become more engaged in their work. Friends of Trees looks forward to continuing the partnership with POIC into the future.

–Lauvray is Green Space Initiative Manager for Friends of Trees.