23 minute read
Flossin Magazine: Build Black Better_ Vol 23_#1
RAIMORE CONSTRUCTION
President and Managing Partner
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JEFF MORELAND SR.
Organization: Established in 2004, Raimore Construction is one of the most accomplished General Contractor companies in Oregon. Black-owned and operated, over 80% of their staff, from management to field operations, are people of color and/or women. Specializing in heavy civil construction, their portfolio of work is next level, and includes some of the biggest public and private projects in the State. In 2018, Raimore Construction won the 80-million-dollar bid for the TriMet Division Transit Project. At the time, it was the largest contract ever awarded to a certified minority firm in the State. Then they shattered their own record in 2020, landing the Prime contractor position as part of a joint venture with Hamilton/Sundt, for the now billion-dollar-plus I-5 Rose Quarter Project (I-5RQ).
Leadership: Jeff Moreland Sr., is the President and Managing Partner of Raimore Construction. If you have had even a brief conversation with Moreland, you quickly
understand that he feels deeply responsible for the people he leads.
“I am a man of faith and it drives everything I do. I look at my company as a hospital, especially because 70% of our management and 50% of our field staff are people of color, specifically Black people. My whole focus is how do I now take what has been given to me and give that to others. I see employing people as a blessing and a ministry. It’s an opportunity to help them grow and become the best versions of themselves, to help them get free of their traumas, because it is amazing how much trauma our people have,” shared Moreland.
Staff: With a staff of nearly 100, Raimore Construction has employed more people of color to work on construction sites than any other firm in the state. For Moreland, that’s restorative justice. Where other firms struggle to find skilled Black labor, Raimore excels. Moreland says this is because he seeks talent above and beyond the parameters set within an industry historically owned and dominated by white men.
“If you have a willingness to work, then that’s all you need for me. I am able to see the diamonds in the rough, because I look for talent, and Black people are the most talented people on the planet. That’s why we shape the culture for the world,” stated Moreland.
He also doesn’t want the lack of a formal education and other barriers to be a reason for young people to succeed. “A lot of our people don’t come in as engineers because our kids aren’t being afforded those opportunities to go to engineering school. So I bring a kid in whether they have a degree or not and if they have the aptitude, we work with them, hold them accountable and help them strive for excellence, because we are excellent.”
Getting the Gold: With all of the success Raimore Construction has been able to amass, its foundation was built on the simple willingness to begin. “I started with a truck. One truck.”, laughed Moreland, who has traveled a long road on the rise to where he is today. He went to college because he was told he needed to “get one of them good jobs,” and then did the corporate dance for a while as an executive. However, he always had a side hustle, like buying and fixing up houses. He finally spun out of the corporate world to start his own consulting firm where, coincidentally, many of his clients were contractors.
“That’s when I realized construction was a gold mine of opportunity. People don’t realize that of the top 50 companies in Oregon, 26 of them are construction companies,” revealed Moreland.
So he launched his own construction firm and took the time to grow it. For 15 years, he
laid bricks, poured concrete and tied rebar by day, then in the evening, he was in the office doing the paperwork. “You can’t manage or run anything if you don’t know how to do it yourself,” states Moreland.
Eventually, his company started to grow, at first hiring people from his network of peers and then later, from a network of youngsters who grew up watching him and his partners. Today, his team is fully resourced. “We win these jobs because we are competent and we don’t need you to tell us how to do our jobs. Give us the plans and we will go build it,” stated Moreland confidently.
Philanthropy: Building Black Better
Raimore’s footprint in the Black community is deep and so is the love he has for his people.
“We’ve been taught to have this ‘only one’ syndrome, but for me, if I win, everybody’s got to win, otherwise we don’t win.” One of the unique things that drew Moreland’s firm to bid for the I5 Rose Quarter project was its potential to change the entire landscape of his people and his community.
“It is a billion dollar contract that has the potential to infuse millions and millions into our community in terms of living wage jobs,” he shared proudly. “When those that come in as an apprentice go on to being a journeyman, they will be making $60,000-$70,000 a year, enough income to buy a house. Foremans make $70,000.00-$90,000.00 a year and superintendents make over $100,000.00. The opportunity to give these kinds of jobs to our people is very critical for me because that is how you change and build wealth in a community. We keep these dollars amongst ourselves like Black Wall Street and Greenwood because you have to have the dollars first in order to get it going.” His approach to supporting community based events and programs is similar. “We need to be the first dollars that go in instead of always looking for White benevolence, because our first dollars need to be ours. Especially to support the things that are upwardly mobile and that are going to change our conditions. We don’t just want to say we love each other, we need to show that we love each other by our actions,” Moreland concludes.
BUILDING BLACK BETTER
Executive Director
KYMBERLY HORNER
Organization: The Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives Inc. (PCRI), was established in 1992 and has grown to become one of the largest Black owned and led nonprofit development organizations in Oregon. Their real estate portfolio consists of over $500 million dollars worth of property assets, primarily residential. Their ongoing mission is to promote housing justice through advocacy and education. PCRI was formed much to the credit of Attorney Ernest Warren who clawed back 350 single family homes, mostly Black occupied, that were being unjustly foreclosed on by a predatory lender in the early 1990s. The value of those homes at the time were about $32,000, three decades later they are worth about $450,000.
Leadership: Kymberly Horner is the Executive Director of PCRI. Hired
in July 2019, she is only the second person to serve in this position since PCRI’s formation. Her predecessor and community icon, Maxine Fitzpatrick, held the title for 25 years before retiring in 2019. Both women are a testament to the grit needed to lead a complex organization that requires a deep knowledge in, and commitment to, both human and real estate habilitation.
“When I come to work every day, I sit in my car in the parking lot and meditate, reflecting on the people we are serving,” shared Horner. “Most of them are lowincome, Black families. I say a prayer that I am making the right decisions for them and the portfolio we manage. I show up for the staff doing this work alongside me, I can’t do it without them, or without a good strong Board of Directors. We are all in it together and very rooted to the mission of making sure that people who have been systematically disenfranchised and left out of opportunity for growth and development have our representation.”
Horner, attributes her parents and grandparents for instilling in her strong leadership values. Her father served 16 ½ years on Thousand Oaks City Council and was the City’s first and only Black Mayor serving 4 non-consecutive terms.
Staff: Their staff is 35 strong, consisting of a diverse, culturally responsive team who specialize in communicating and serving thousands of vulnerable families. They offer a suite of services focused on stability, self-sufficiency, and wealth creation. Their property management and maintenance team are tasked with keeping the “brick & mortar” of their portfolio in safe and healthy working order. Some of their properties date back as far as the late 1800s, so upkeep is critical. Other staff focus on programs and residential services, including robust homeownership education classes.
“We look at the holistic spectrum of a person getting into housing, staying in housing and moving into homeownership opportunities,” shares Horner. “We hold your hand through the process from start to finish.”PCRI’s development team analyzes ways to redevelop existing properties or expand into new ones as part of the response to Portland’s housing crisis and need for more affordable inventory. “The Governor has set a lofty goal to create 36,000 units of affordable housing. It will take all of us willing to step up to the challenge,” states Horner.
Getting Big Wins
PCRI has amassed significant victories
for the organization and the people they serve including 1) The creation of the Pathway 1000 Displacement Mitigation Plan. This will bring 1000 displaced African Americans back into N/NE Portland through affordable housing and homeownership over a span of 10 years. 2) They shaped what is now Portland’s groundbreaking “preference policy” giving first rights to return to occupy newly constructed housing units in N/NE Portland to Black Oregonians unethically displaced. 3) Awarded the affordable housing development contract for the Williams & Russell Project honoring Portland’s Black community.
Philanthropy: Building Black Better
Looking to the future, Horner is focused on the continued implementation of Pathway 1000, knowing that building these homes would pump about $460 million into the local economy over a 10-year time span. With inflation on the rise, this type of cash infusion is just what vulnerable communities need. She would also like to see PCRI take the Pathway 1000 strategic plan and launch it nation-wide.
“The vision I have for the organization is to become that beacon as to how homeownership opportunities for lower income communities, specifically Black communities, can be a form of reparations,” states Horner. “Building these homes and providing generational wealth opportunities for those who have had it either stripped away, or never taught the true value of home ownership to begin with, then that is building the Black community better,” Horner concludes.
BUILDING BLACK BETTER
PORTLAND COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT INITIATIVES INC
TEACHING WITH PURPOSE
Executive
Director
KARANJA CREWS
Organization: Teaching with Purpose (TWP) was established in 2001 in response to the lack of relevant multicultural education and proficiencybased teaching and learning practices within Oregon’s educational system, despite State equity laws put in place to integrate it into curriculum.
Karanja Crews, TWP Executive Director, was just 23 years old when he conceived the idea for the organization. He was an undergraduate at Portland State University and part of the NAACP’s education committee. It was the late 1990s, and Portland was in the thick of gang violence issues.
“It was definitely divine. I felt like God put it on my heart, the name and everything. I saw the vision,” recalls Crews. “At the time I was part of a crisis team protesting against the school board regarding the achievement gap within students of color. We were inspired by
Black education activists Ron Herndon and Senator Avel Gordly.”
A series of meetings ensued and Crews recalls a voice from the crowd crying out, “We need to know about our history.” Senator Gordly took this to heart, succeeding in passing multicultural education bills and policies.
“They pretty much still sit on the shelf,” Crews reminisces. “Alot of districts don’t really implement them.TWP works to activate these bills, putting a little more teeth and accountability to them.”
Team Building: In 2001, Crews facilitated the first TWP Conference and convened a network of educators, parents, and community advocates to take a deep dive into their individual and their districts current equity policies, and explore innovative culturally responsive pedagogy practices. He organized a list of guest speakers representing the upper echelons of innovative pedagogical methods including Bob Moses, professor, author and civil rights leader who directed a historic student voter registration in Mississippi, and created the “Algebra Project.” Also representing was Harriet Ball, educator and creator of the teaching method “Rap, Rhythm & Rhyme.”
“She taught math in a rhythm way because, in a sense, we’re rhythm people. We’re souls, right? She was able to put that into a teaching method/ pedagogy and get great results with our kids. The method was picked up by her student teachers who founded the KIPP Academy Charter schools in the early 2000s. It’s still around today,” shared Karanja Crews.
Leadership: From 2002 to 2010 Crews became an elementary school teacher, and taught at the Jefferson High School’s Young Men’s Academy. “I put the TWP conference on hold because I had to start to teach with purpose, be in the classroom, in the trenches,” shared Crews. Over the course of the decade he grew frustrated that inequitable education practices with Black students continued to persist.
“One of my favorite books is, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door.” I felt like I was that. I was in the system now, learning the inner workings. I noticed that everything trickles down to what happens in the classroom. I wanted to make my classroom the best. But I began to understand that just me, being in the classroom, wasn’t going to make a great enough impact. I was pouring into these young people, giving them information
they might not be receiving anywhere else, but it was being undone because of the way the system is structured. That’s when I got the epiphany to bring the TWP conference back,” Crews shared.
Philanthropy: Building Better Education for Black Students
14 consecutive years later, the TWP conference is going strong. This year’s conference will be held on October 14, 2023 and the line up is impressive. It includes; political activist, scholar, author, and icon Angela Davis; Dr Sandy Wolmack, Area Superintendent in Columbus City, Ohio known for turning minority achievement in entire districts around; and “Principal Kafele” from New Jersey, one of most sought-after school leadership and classroom equity presenters in America,
State of Black Education in Oregon: According to Crews, statistics for Black students still showing that the disparities in discipline data and achievement proficiency data hasn’t changed. “If you look at the education stats and the prison system stats, you can see a direct correlation,” stated Crews. However,he does see a silver lining in terms of the intentionality changing. “We have a Center of Black Student Excellence and all kinds of initiatives that are focusing more on the Black student, but we have a long way to go in terms of connecting that to the classrooms, accountability, and results. That’s why I continue to bring the TWP conference.”
Listen to the interview in its entirety on Flossin Media TV YouTube Build Black Better- Karanja Crews. Teaching With Purpose.
WORLD STAGE THEATRE
Executive Director
SHALANDA SIMS
Organization: The World Stage Theatre (WST) is fundamentally the strongest multicultural and multigenerational art education performance organization on the West coast. It was established in 2006 and over the course of nearly two decades, has raised up thousands of predominantly Black aspiring artists across the spectrums of acting, singing, dancing and other talent positions in front and behind the curtain. The organization’s curriculum is steeped in Black History, teaching critical race subject matters long before the term was newsworthy. WST is also the curator of the annual Black History Festival NW, a celebration of culture and heritage held through the month of February.
Leadership: Shalanda Sims is the Founder, Executive Director and Artistic Director of WST. She manages all aspects creative and administrative for the company. She is a powerhouse of talent in her own right as a highly skilled singer, actor, author/ playwright, director and producer. Just ask
her to sing a rendition from one of her favorite artists, Mahalia Jackson, and you will get a glimpse of the depth and breadth of her gifts.
Under her leadership the organization has produced thousands of performances held in venues across Oregon, including packing out the auditoriums at one of Portland’s Centers for the Arts and the Portland Center Stage at the Armory. Accomplishing these goals for Sims hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
“It is hard being a Black woman in leadership, because you have so many hurdles that you have to jump over, especially in the arts world here in Oregon, and I think across the globe. Like having to prove to others that you are, and your work is, as good as the next person.”
Despite barriers of elitism that can sometime proliferate within the Art society, Sims is quick to point out that some of their greatest work has been done in the classrooms and community rooms, melding together talent from people ages from 2- 82.
“I love bringing generations together because I value the wisdom of our elders and I think kids really benefit from the wisdom of our elders. Also, our elders benefit from the energy and the life of our young people,” shared Sims. “I created WST in part as a tool of communication that allows our history to be passed down, because somewhere along the way we lost that communication as a people.”
Whether you are an amateur or a seasoned veteran, WST is a place where you can grow your skills and confidence in performing arts work with dignity and respect. For Sims it is important that there be an atmosphere that feels like family.
“You don’t know where someone is coming from or what their home life is like, so the experience can be emotional,” shares Sims. “That’s why we sing, dance, laugh hard, and even cry.”
Breakthrough moment
One of WST biggest accomplishments as been a 17- year run of the play “Who I am Celebrating Me.” Written and directed by Sims, the play highlights a montage of African American figures and movements of past and present. Her passion for bringing history to the stage in the context of current experience and events affecting the Black community is rooted in a background largely devoid of knowledge surrounding true American history.
“In a nutshell, I didn’t get it growing up.,” she admitted. “I didn’t know much about American history that had been hidden, things that happened on this soil that we didn’t get to learn about. Your perspective as a young Black person changes when you
see Black doctors, scientists and others who did amazing things and you begin to realize you can do these things yourself because we can mirror what we see.”
Bringing “Who I am Celebrating Me” to the World Stage Theater was a watershed moment for Sims. “We started with Africa, because our history didn’t begin when we arrived in America. We go from there to modern day, to present day so you are getting the whole historical journey from a factual perspective. I did a lot of research before I wrote it, constantly asking myself, ‘Is this just for me or is it for a wider audience?’ I felt this needed to be shared with students and other community members because we live in the Pacific Northwest so we are definitely not being taught all this information.”
Philanthropy
One of the biggest gifts the WST gives to the Black community is access. “We don’t charge to be a part of our program. We removed those barriers,” shares Sims, Which is huge, considering some programs can cost thousands of dollars to give out the kind of arts education technical support and structure that WST offers for free.
“We reach out to kids in remote areas, give space to promote organizations who aren’t as well-known as ours and to artists who want to get on stage but don’t have the experience.”
At the end of the day, Sims sees the vision for WST focused on three principles, Love, Learn and Heal. “We need to learn from our past and love one another so we can move forward and heal. Yes, we need to resist those things intended to harm us, but love is a form of resistance too,” Sims concludes.
BUILDING BLACK BETTER
displaced 171 families, 70% of which were African-American. At the time, PDC (now Prosper Portland) signed an agreement with the hospital committing to rebuild housing for the displaced. 40 years later, they finally made good on the deal when Dr. George Brown, CEO of Legacy, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Prosper Portland formalized their commitment to return this property back to the Black community and assist in helping them develop it.
WILLIAMS&RUSSELL
BRYSON DAVIS & ANYELEY HALLOVA
Organization: The Williams Russell CDC (WR) is a Black community organized 501c3 nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon. It was convened to help guide a restorative justice real estate development project in NE Portland, Oregon. The project has a long history which involves Legacy Health [Hospital] returning to the community a 1.7 acre undeveloped block on the corner of N. Williams and N. Russell. This was land that the City of Portland sold to the hospital group back in the 1970s by using eminent domain as a tool of urban renewal to raze homes and businesses in order to meet the hospital’s expansion needs. This action
Leadership: The WR construct is impressive in its deliberate intent to lead with Black community values and passion. A big part of upholding this integrity comes from its leadership. Bryson Davis, who is also a partner at the PNW Business Law firm, has been the committee’s Co-Chair since day one, working tirelessly alongside as many as 30 fellow committee members from the Black community to lead and shape what has been a lengthy process. Because of their commitment, two priorities were upheld.
“One, the community is deciding what is being built. Two, they get to partake in what actually gets built by using it and owning it,” shared Davis.
Those decisions ended up being entrepreneurial support for Black businesses, a community gathering space, affordable housing and homeownership and a Black-led development team. These values were rolled up into an RFP and in July of 2021, the committee selected the firm Adre to bring it all together.
The Team: Adre is a real estate development agency led by Anyeley Hallova who has 18 years’ experience developing housing and commercial properties. For her, the win was perfect timing.
“It came at a unique time in history and for me,” stated Hallova. “It was 2020 and there were communities across the US searching for answers to social justice issues. Specifically, people were looking to their own fields of work asking, what can we do? My field just happens to be real estate development.”
She had just finished developing a major lead-certified, green building for the Meyer Memorial Trust’s new headquarters as an associate with another firm and decided to launch out on her own.
“I wanted to start a company that is centered on thinking about Black folks and other folks who don’t traditionally get good design, sustainable buildings or equity,” shared Hallova.
Adre will partner with five other organizations to build 3 separate parcels on the site that includes a commercial office and retail building, an affordable housing apartment complex, and 20 properties for homeownership. Their partners are Lever Architects, Colas Construction, PCRI, CDP and Hood Design Studios.
“I am excited about all of our partners,” shared Hallova. “We are bringing some things that haven’t been in most black communities. Chandra Robinson with Lever Architects is an international, award-winning African American designer who grew up in the neighborhood and lived in affordable housing at one time. So you get great design work from someone who gets it.”
Hallova has been appointed the Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council, the body that makes the policy for lead certification, and is excited to also bring that lens to the project.
“The green building movement has not been very inclusive of the Black community up until this point. The number one benefits of living in green buildings is health. Think about the wildfires, people breathing in all that smoke. We need to build buildings that are resilient to these factors. Second, it’s more cost effective. If you put the money up front, you are going to be paying less on your bills.”
Philanthropy
Davis agrees with Hallova’s innovative approach, saying it is a great step in the right direction to repair the harm that’s been done. He also sees another value.
“One of the biggest visions for the WR project is that it can be a template for not just us to use here in Portland, but for other Cities to study and implement as well. Portland was not the only City where redlining happened, or where Black people were eminently domained out of their communities, or where gentrification is pushing people out. Having a template of how Cities can do development in a way to give back to those communities that they’ve harmed, that is what I am most proud of,” concluded Davis.
BUILDING BLACK BETTER
Board Chair, Developer
