Neighborhood Connections: PCRI’s Community Centers

Community, n: an interacting population of various individuals in a common location.

This definition of community describes well what PCRI offers at our three community centers in north and northeast Portland.  The common locations where PCRI residents can interact as well as learn, grow and seek community referrals are Park Terrace Community Center, Margaret Carter Community Employment Center and the Maya Angelou Community Center.  The resident service coordinator at each center strives to connect residents with the various programs PCRI offers, as well as provide information and referrals to community resources.

These community centers are available to all PCRI residents (though we often request advance reservations due to space limitations).  In fact, in 2009 we made noteworthy improvements and experienced great increases in utilization of our community centers:

• We remodeled Park Terrace Community Center where Amber provides a wide variety of program activities–from education programs and computer training to yoga and crochet classes.
• Lisa, a longtime contributor to PCRI, now heads up the Margaret Carter Employment Center, providing computer and employment related services.  The JOBS Plus Program helps make her assistance possible.
• We provide after school programs, tutoring and other program activities to residents living in Maya Angelou Apartment Complex.  Cassie, an AmeriCorps member, is our excellent Resident Services Coordinator at Maya Angelou.
• Volunteers help out at all three locations (and at our main office).  Want to get involved?  Check out our volunteer page!
• A list of activities is on our Facebook page.  Become a fan to keep up on the latest events!

In addition to the activities at our community centers, PCRI offers a variety of programs to support youth: paid internships, after school tutoring, dance and self-defense classes, art and craft lessons and a summer arts camp.  For fun, we’re even able to hold monthly birthday parties.  Thanks to our community partners, we achieved some great results for PCRI youth in 2009:

• 7 PCRI teens received paid internships working at PCRI Offices and other local businesses: 3 teens (pictured above with Amber, Park Terrace Resident Services Coordinator) received summer internships and 4 had winter break internships.
• 16 PCRI kids participated in our week-long Summer Arts Camp at Maya Angelou Community Center.
• Youth at Maya Angelou gained valuable skills from our financial fitness classes there.

We’re proud of the success we’ve achieved at our Community Centers and with PCRI youth.  Still, we couldn’t do it without the determined participation of PCRI residents.  Want to get involved?  Check out events on our Facebook page or read more about our Resident Services programs and volunteer opportunities.