In The Community
Ainsworth Community Ministries
The AMA is a historic ecumenical group of churches serving the African-American community; they include multiracial congregations and have developed the AMA Coalition for Police Reform. Annually the AMA organizes a City-Wide MLK Service in which our choir sometimes sings, and the Balm in Gilead event held in March.
Contact Member: Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez
Website: http://www.albinaministerialcoalition.org
Ceasefire Oregon works to prevent gun violence by advocating reasonable, effective gun laws, educates the public and legislators about gun violence, lobbies on behalf of bills to make our communities safer, and works to prevent the passage of bills that would make it easier for dangerous people to obtain and carry firearms.
Contact Member: Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez
Website: https://www.ceasefireoregon.org
CPC is one of 38 regional judicatory bodies of this denomination, and is in covenant with 32 congregations in Oregon, 9 in southern Idaho, and two in southern Washington; totaling 5,830 members. Of our 43 congregations, 35 are Open and Affirming, 23 are Just Peace, and 9 are Immigrant Welcoming. AUCC is among them as well as being a WISE congregation. AUCC nominates delegates to the Annual Gathering.
Contact Member: Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez and several others.
Website: www.cpcucc.org
Works to educate churches in the conference regarding the apartheid government of Israel, Palestinian loss of life, human rights, homes, land, water, work, orchards, and child detention of the Palestinians.
Contact Member: Rev. Catherine Alder
EMO brings together diverse communities of faith to learn, serve and advocate for justice, peace and the integrity of creation. The CPCUCC is one of the member organizations and AUCC, a member congregation. AUCC houses the Day Center and also participates in the Day Center luncheon and the North East Emergency Food Program breakfast.
Contact Member: Rev. Cecil Prescod serves on Board.
Website: www.emoregon.org
This Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon program offers free groceries and clothing to families as well as social community, job resources, access to gardening materials, community dinners. They help those experiencing houselessness and those who are undocumented offering a welcoming space and full basket of food. They do not have a geographic boundary. People come from across the tri-county region of northwest Oregon and southwest Washington.
Contact Members: David Hathaway
Website: https://emoregon.org/nefp
The mission of Enfoque Ixcan is to make vision and eye health care and eye health education accessible to the people of the Ixcan region of Guatemala.
Contact member: Scott Pike
Website: www.enfoqueixcan.org
Good in the Hood (GITH) is a non-profit organization founded in 1990. Their purpose is to be a creative medium by which Portland residents, businesses and organizations can engage in music, food and resources while connecting people with experiences that strengthen unity in the community.
Contact Member: Angie Harris
Website: https://www.goodnthehood.org
This is a statewide coalition of over 120 member and endorsing organizations working to achieve a comprehensive, affordable,
equitable, publicly funded, and high-quality health care system to serve all Oregon residents. Through grassroots activism, legislative efforts, and community education programs, HCAO aims to pass universal healthcare in Oregon and the United States.
Contact Member: Paul Perkins
Website: https://www.hcao.org/about-hcao
Four and a half days per week the HIV Day Center offers hot coffee, breakfast, and dinner to friends and staff of the Center. Housed in the Ainsworth UCC basement, clients may use telephones, computers, and WiFi, receive messages, participate in a variety of activities, do laundry, shower, receive counseling, and help with personal needs.
Contact Member: Ainsworth UCC volunteer, Ann Bryan Nelson
Website: https://emoregon.org/hiv-services/
In 2019, AUCC was able to begin offering a cold weather shelter when temperatures dip below 25 degrees, or there is snow or ice, as decided by Multnomah County. The shelter opens to 15 guests and referrals will be open to the HIV Day Center, CAP, HHSC, and Partnerships Project.
Contact Member: Lynn Soliday
This is an Ainsworth UCC initiative to review how we might use our church-owned properties to address the Portland community housing crisis and emergency.
Contact Member: Judi Pitre
Website: http://www.ainsworthucc.org
A growing network of Portland faith-based communities and civic partners working to bring help and hope to men, women, and children living in poverty, seeking to address the root causes of poverty, assisting families as they transition from generational poverty into lives of stability.
Contact Members: Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez, Erik, and Diane Anderson, Judi Pitre
Website: https://www.allianceonpoverty.org
Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice (IMIrJ), formerly the Oregon New Sanctuary Movement (ONSM), is an organization of individuals, faith leaders, and diverse faith communities called by their conscience to respond actively and publicly to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters in the U.S.
Contact Members: Kelly Childress, Beth Poteet, Pat Rumer
Website: http://imirj.org
Portland Jobs with Justice is a coalition of over 100 labor, faith, community, and student organizations taking action for workers’ rights and economic justice, especially with those most marginalized by our economic systems such as people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and women. Jobs With Justice believes that all workers should have collective bargaining rights, employment security, and a decent standard of living within an economy that works for everyone. We bring together labor, community, student, and faith voices at the national and local levels to win improvements in people’s lives and shape the public discourse on workers’ rights and the economy.
Contact Member: Rev. Cecil Prescod
Website: https://jwjpdx.org
This is a coalition of twelve churches in our region including Ainsworth UCC who are actively looking at ways to address the housing crisis in the community through a cohort process that includes meetings, education, advocacy and action to make a difference. The Ainsworth Housing Development Working Group participates in the coalition.
Contact Member: Judi Pitre
A grassroots coalition of faith-based communities; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and other volunteers of good will organizing for safer schools, houses of worship and communities from gun violence in Oregon and the nation.
Contact Member: Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez
Website: http://www.lifteveryvoiceoregon.com
Dedicated to the betterment of our society, and strives to achieve its purpose through education, cooperation, networking, and programs that benefit Muslims and non-Muslims in the greater Portland, Oregon.
Contact Member: Andrea Cano
Website: https://www.metpdx.org
This is used for local members of the community struggling to pay bills, get medical help, purchase food and other emergencies. It also may be used for a church need or project that has no budgeted funds or not enough funds. The pastor administers this fund.
Contact Member: Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez
Pride Northwest works to celebrate and support the Pacific Northwest’s LGBTQ+community. Ainsworth UCC’s participation in the Pride Parade is joyful, visible support for our LGBTQ+ family.
Contact Member: Chelyn and Grant Joseph
Website: pridenw.org
Leads journeys to the Holy Land to hear peacemakers on both sides of the Wall regarding the Palestinian struggle for human rights and freedom; runs annual Tree of Life Conferences with voices of conscience to enlighten the American people about Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people and seeking a way to peace through justice.
Contact Member: Rev. Catherine Alder
Website: https://tolef.org
A national network working for peace with justice between Palestine and Israel with Palestinian human rights, encouraging the use of the nonviolent tools of Boycott, Divest and Sanctions, and teaching about Israel’s detaining Palestinian children as young as 6 in their prisons.
Contact Member: Rev. Catherine Alder
Website: UCCPIN.org
