The Second Wednesday of Every Month

6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Join the social innovators in your community to learn, plan, and grow.

May 2009
Shelter: What kinds of physical spaces do we want to inhabit?

Tonight's forum is themed “Shelter Innovations.” What new processes, strategies, and ideas promote innovation around the theme of shelter? We discuss emerging local and national concepts and projects that are influencing the development of physical spaces and how we design and inhabit them.

During tonight’s forum, Portland-based social entrepreneurs will set the stage for learning and action. We’ll answer the following questions:

1. What kinds of spaces do we want that we don’t have now?
2. Who or what suffers as a result?
3. What ideas exist that will move us to solving these challenges and promoting new innovations?
4. What are the “toads in the road” that people here in the audience can help move off the road?
   
   - Download full description of the May Forum Program
   - Download the Forum Presenter Bios
   

PROGRAM
Panelists: Ideas on Shelter Innovation

• Sara Garrett, motiveSpace (Designing co-working spaces)
• Mary Bedard, Friends of Community Gardens (Outdoor shelter)
• Sterling Newberry, Daybreak Co-Housing (Sheltering together)
• Malora Golden, ReCode (Legalizing sustainable innovation)


Workshops:


• Co-Designing Work Spaces -  Sara Garrett, MotiveSpace.
  Get involved in the precedent-setting, co-development model for designing space that is more efficient, productive, and collaborative. How do people making a difference find space and use it efficiently together? What is the process, new economic models, and the results!
  
  
• Outdoor Spaces as Refuge – Mary Bedard, Landscape Architect.
  Learn what outdoor spaces provide, how to design your own for health and human connection, and what you need to know about the power of nature. What are the additional aspects of shelter – refuge from weather, refuge from emotional or physical trauma, refuge from environmental pollutants, and so on, that only nature can provide.
  
  
• Co-Housing: Daybreak’s Experience Sterling Newberry, Daybreak
  Learn about the benefits of a more socially and environmentally sustainable lifestyle based on co-housing.  More than 100 such communities can be found all across the U.S., with about a half dozen in the Portland area. Learn from the experience of developing Daybreak.
  
  
• Shelter and the Law Malora Golden, ReCode  
  How does the city and its legal codes promote or inhibit innovation and sustainability as it pertains to shelters, indoor and out? Malora Golden will talk about ReCode’s efforts, progress, and provide an update on what you should know and what you can do.

Chances are, you’ll have some good answers of your own. Tonight is your chance to talk about them with others in the community who share your concern. And if you have an idea ready to turn into action, you’ll find experts ready to help you get started.