Q&A: The Women of Taking Ownership PDX
Meet the women of Taking Ownership PDX! In recent conversations, we gained valuable insights into their pivotal roles within our organization.
Emily Mendress:
What is the role you play with Taking Ownership PDX?
Fundraising support.
How has your role been instrumental in the success of Taking Ownership PDX and its transition into a nonprofit?
We have set up a new fundraising tracking system on Salesforce to better track, analyze, and project our revenue progress. Taking Ownership has had remarkable fundraising success to date and we’re looking to add systems and best practices that will help us go to the next level.
Why did you choose to get involved with Taking Ownership PDX?
I help run the Hormel Harris Foundation, a private family foundation working to invest in impactful organizations like Taking Ownership and add internal capacity that will help sustain their work long-term. We couldn’t ask for a better partner than Randal!
What do you hope to see in the future from the organization and for Black homeowners in Portland?
My hope for Taking Ownership is that more funders get behind this incredible team and model. The more sustainable funding we can secure upfront, the less time Randal needs to spend on fundraising and the more he can focus on having impact in the community. I’d love to see us grow enough to hire a team to support Randal and Jed (they are indeed superhumans, but deserve less on their plates!), and to make it through our waitlist so that all Black homeowners receive the repairs they need.
Who are women in history that you admire or look up to and why?
While not historical, I’d have to say my mom and my colleague, Maja. My mom raised three kids as a single mom working full time. She did it all with so much kindness and generosity – a truly amazing feat that I only now fully appreciate as a mom myself. I also admire my colleague Maja, and am deeply inspired by her commitment to Portland at Rose City Reform. Our new form of government is bringing historic shifts in power and Maja works tirelessly to ensure Portlanders can easily understand and engage with our new system.
Lily Copenagle:
What is the role you play with Taking Ownership PDX?
Assessment: data analytics, making graphs, building systems for collecting data, aligning data with organizational priorities.
How has your role been instrumental in the success of Taking Ownership PDX and its transition into a nonprofit?
I’m not sure I have yet! But I hope to be a useful part of the transition to the nonprofit. My skills will (hopefully!) provide transparency to the community, rally potential donors and funders, and show the world what is possible when we throw out the rulebook and start from the heart of a community.
Why did you choose to get involved with Taking Ownership PDX?
I am a child of greater Albina. I grew up in these neighborhoods and I have seen the ways in which racist laws, practices, and traditions have extracted wealth from Black homes, excluded Black Portlanders from opportunities to capitalize and build wealth, and how through predatory capitalist practices white folks like me have stolen Black homes and decimated neighborhoods where Black people live, over and over again.
Just as harm is cumulative, so is healing.
When I learned of Taking Ownership PDX, I thought hell yes - that’s exactly what it’s going to take. The system we are in is working perfectly to produce the situation we have now. And what we have now is not ok.
I want to be a part of healing my neighborhoods, bringing back some of the beauty, and addressing some of the harm.
What do you hope to see in the future from the organization and for Black homeowners in Portland?
I want to see every contractor out there who’s doing ok to proudly brag about how much labor and materials they’ve provided pro bono for Black Portlanders through Taking Ownership PDX.
I want to see teams of people - school groups, family reunions, wedding parties, and tourists - wearing Taking Ownership PDX T-shirts and doing landscaping, cleaning out garages every time I leave the house.
I want to see a world where everyone in town knows about Taking Ownership PDX and can tell a cool story about a project they were involved in.
I want to learn about Taking Ownership PDX sister organizations that will form in other cities and learn from them.
Who are women in history that you admire or look up to and why?
There are so many! I admire women like Ruth Bader Ginsberg who have a quiet power and tenacity that can not be stopped. She’s a person I think of when I get tired, frustrated, or discouraged and try to follow her example.
I admire the women whose names I don’t know who are out there now, dismantling the prison industrial complex, providing abortions, making art, reclaiming stolen land, and thriving in defiance of the systems that try to hold them down.
Shannon O’Malley:
What is the role you play with Taking Ownership PDX?
Board member and grant writer.
How has your role been instrumental in the success of Taking Ownership PDX and its transition into a nonprofit?
As a founding board member of Taking Ownership PDX, my contributions have been instrumental in our success and transition into a nonprofit organization. As a board member, we supported Randal in the process of establishing our 501c3 status. I also play a pivotal role in securing essential funding through grant writing efforts, crafting compelling proposals that garnered the necessary financial support for our operations and programs. These efforts have been crucial in laying the groundwork for our organization's sustainability and enabling us to make a meaningful impact in our community.
Why did you choose to get involved with Taking Ownership PDX?
I had been following the impactful work Randal was doing within the community. When I saw they needed grant writing support, it presented an opportunity for me to contribute. This fits within the realm of my consulting practice in social justice communications allowing me to leverage my expertise to make a difference.
The construction element of Taking Ownership's work particularly intrigued me. Growing up with a father in construction and a mother who is an architect, I've always been exposed to that world. Being able to engage more directly in this sector that has been a part of my life for so long has been both rewarding and fun!
I believe in the work we do and our impact within the community, and when I was asked to join the board it was an easy yes.
What do you hope to see in the future from the organization and for Black homeowners in Portland?
I think the model Taking Ownership PDX has created can only continue to grow. I’m excited to see this replicated in communities beyond Portland and across the country.
Who are women in history that you admire or look up to and why?
While there are so many women who paved the way for us throughout history, I am reminded daily of the incredible women in my life working to change in their communities. I admire my friends leading organizations, shifting culture, and working to make the world a better place for women and girls.
I’ve had the privilege of working with some truly badass women in the field I am in, and so much of the groundwork was laid by the OG’s like Loretta Ross and Dazon Diallo Dixon who fought - and are still fighting for - intersectional feminism and reproductive justice.
Maria “Alexis” Bailey:
What is the role you play with Taking Ownership PDX?
A content researcher and document developer for Taking Ownership PDX.
How has your role been instrumental in the success of Taking Ownership PDX and its transition into a nonprofit?
I have helped Taking Ownership in varying capacities, including helping to communicate with families who are on the waiting list, helping with business research and creating document templates. However, I am most proud of creating Taking Ownership PDX’s official policy and procedures manual. I am currently updating the entire operations manual to reflect Taking Ownership’s growth and new official nonprofit status. The goal with the way we are building the operations manual is that it will one day be a blueprint for others around the country to build their own version of Taking Ownership in their community.
Why did you choose to get involved with Taking Ownership PDX?
I have been good friends with Executive Director; Randal Wyatt for over 20 years, and when he first started talking about the idea in the summer of 2020, I knew I wanted to be involved in some capacity. I believed that my skills around research, consultation and document creation could be very useful at the time as so much of Randal’s vision was not yet to be on paper. I was unemployed and knew I had the time and energy to dedicate myself to such a great cause and I told Randal I wanted to help.
What do you hope to see in the future from the organization and for Black homeowners in Portland?
Taking Ownership PDX, I believe is a remedy for the harm that gentrification has brought to the city, especially to Portland’s Black community which has been most affected by it. I hope that Taking Ownership PDX is able to continue to use its position to not only help the individuals and families keep their homes but to create a platform for the Black homeowners to speak up and against the harm being done to their community. I also hope that Taking Ownership PDX is able to inspire other communities to start their own versions as a way to preserve Black neighborhoods & communities around the nation.
Who are women in history that you admire or look up to and why?
I admire a lot of women for various reasons, but I believe that two specific women due to their place in history, their drive, their passion and their kind souls have had the biggest impact on me. The first is; Dolores Huerta; the 1960's civil rights and labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers. She inspired me to get into protesting and organizing in college. She really taught me how important it is to stand up for yourself, for others and for what is right. I met her once in passing in 2005, and she had this magical way of making you feel seen just by introducing herself & saying “Hello, I’m Dolores” as if you didn’t know. The second is: local legend & retired Oregon State Senator Avel Gordley. In 1996 she was the first African-American woman to be elected to the Senate and while serving in 2004 started an internship program for BIPOC students at Portland State. While serving as her intern, she taught me how to take my organizing roots and apply them to systemic change. She also taught me how to be unapologetic about taking up space in spaces that were never intended for me. Their lessons will continue to guide me for the rest of my life in everything I do.
Lauren Goché:
What is the role you play with Taking Ownership PDX?
I was a driving force around Taking Ownership’s initial fundraising push in the summer of 2020. I also did my very best to get the word out to fellow realtors to make sure they were 1. Aware of the organization, 2. Donating to the cause, 3. Signal boosting.
How has your role been instrumental in the success of Taking Ownership PDX and its transition into a nonprofit?
I continue to donate and tell anyone I can think of to donate and volunteer. Since Randal was not well known in the real estate community when Taking Ownership first started, lending my reputation in the real estate industry and on social media helped people feel confident with donating.
Why did you choose to get involved with Taking Ownership PDX?
As a realtor, it is a pretty weird place to continue to perpetuate gentrification and I’d been looking for a way to get involved in some shape or form to be the smallest drop in the ocean in Portland’s history of displacement and redlining. Taking Ownership feels like the most tangible way I could get involved to move the needle in the right direction in a small way. I had been looking for a direct action to take to counter balance gentrification in Portland and Taking Ownership was the perfect fit.
What do you hope to see in the future from the organization and for Black homeowners in Portland?
I want to see so many more Black and Indigenous homeowners in Portland. I want to see more funding to help make that happen. Down payment assistance and equity gifting, for instance. I want more Black and Indigenous homeowners to stay in their homes in a safe and stable way.
Who are women in history that you admire or look up to and why?
I don’t think I have one specific woman or women. I’m inspired by women across place and time that have pushed against limitations that have been put on them by culture. No matter how big or small the fight, the women who move society as a whole forward throughout history are the ones I feel the most solidarity with.
