CLACKAMAS COUNTY

Kellogg Community Advisory Team 

• In downtown Milwaukie, Unite Oregon is working with North Clackamas Watershed Council, the city of Milwaukie, Oregon Department of Transportation, and a host of other agencies, organizations and entities to remove a defunct dam blocking Kellogg Creek. The removal of this dam and the rebuilding of the bridge on top of it will restore access to the creek for salmon and lamprey, make Milwaukie more flood and earthquake resistant by improving the access bridge and the lowering of the water will restore this ecosystem for countless fish, birds and mammals. Unite’s role in this project is recruiting for and helping run the Kellogg Community Advisory Team.

• This team has been meeting once a month since March 2025 in support of the Kellogg Dam Removal and Restoration in Milwaukie The CAT has been learning about the ecology and science of the site, discussing possible trail locations in the new public natural area and how to best balance the needs of community members and the natural environment. The team will wrap up meetings at the end of 2025 and construction will begin 2028. 

3 Creeks Leadership Council

• In northern Clackamas right behind the North Clackamas Aquatic Center, there is a protected area called 3 Creeks. This is where Mt. Scott, Phillips and Dean Creeks all converge on their way to the Willamette and eventually the ocean. Due to increased pavement in the highly suburban and commercial areas around it, the creek has cut into the bank significantly enough to disconnect the creek from its ancestral floodplain. Clackamas Water Environmental Services, in partnership with North Clackamas Watershed Council, are starting a construction project to address this.

• The reconnecting of 3 Creeks with its floodplain will prevent flooding downstream in a residential area and make the entire area more flood resistant as well as making the water safer for juvenile salmon as they eat and grow before reaching the ocean. Unite Oregon has been brought in to form a Leadership Council of environmental stewards for the site. This small team has been meeting once a month since May 2025 and has been learning about the ecological importance of the site and discussing how the site can be best used or developed to serve the community, further scientific research and protect the ecosystem. This will be developed into a Recommendation Document to be presented to decision makers of the site. Construction at 3 Creeks will begin September 2025 and the Leadership Council is set to conclude at the end of 2025.

• Disaster Resilience Leadership Council

• Metro is partnering with Unite Oregon for the 3rd year to host another leadership council. This year, we will be focusing on disaster resilience skills. We will create a climate resilience handbook and will be offering certification in Community Emergency Response training. Our leadership council will then help us in sharing the skills and knowledge with other community members, creating more climate resilient families and neighborhoods. This team is scheduled to start meeting September 2025 and will conclude in the middle of 2026.

82nd Ave Coalition 

• Unite Oregon Clackamas is a core member of the 82nd Ave Coalition, along with Oregon Walks, Verde and APANO. These four agencies have worked to gather community feedback on the biggest issues facing this diverse section of Portland and Northern Clackamas. This feedback was compiled into a Development Plan which was refined with the advice of local government officials. This finalized document is currently being presented to Portland City Council Members, in search of a champion and plan on how to implement its teaching. The Development Plan is broken up into six sections: workforce development, climate resiliency, childcare, business stabilization, housing and community development. These are the focus areas our communities continued to stress throughout our base building and so are the areas the coalition is fighting for. With this plan, we feel we can develop the 82nd Ave Corridor equitably and without high rates of displacement or gentrification.

Policy Initiatives 

• Reinstating Ethnic Studies in Lake Oswego School District 

• In Late June 2025, a passionate recent Lake Oswego High School Graduate reached out to the Clackamas chapter. She informed us that Lake Oswego High School had offered AP Ethnic Studies for a couple years without doing anything to inform their students of this class. They then quietly removed the class from their course selection. This student was highly concerned about this and reached out to us and Respond to Racism to aid in fighting to not only reinstate this foundational class, but to make its content mandatory for all students. We believe this will instill compassion, critical thinking and empathy in students of all races. We are scheduling meetings with relevant city and state officials as we prepare to present our letter to the school board. If you wish to aid in these efforts, attend the information session hosted by Responding to Racism on October 11th. 

Success stories 

• CDC 

• Throughout 2023, we worked with other community based organizations and the CDC Group to learn about vaccine hesitancy in IR-BIPOC, low income and rural communities. Here in Clackamas, we decided to do this through a series of informational listening sessions. We created a presentation on frequently asked vaccine questions to dispel misinformation. In the course of learning from community members what they, their families and communities believed about vaccines, we spoke with a single mother. She had not gotten her children vaccinated against COVID due to fears and myths she had learned. Through our conversations, she discovered that the vaccines were safe and effective in preventing severe cases of COVID and reducing the risk of hospitalization. She decided to get her children and herself vaccinated in order to protect themselves and their greater community. 

• Community member rec

• “I have had a great experience working with Unite Oregon, and I believe their work in bringing in people of diverse backgrounds to create a welcoming, inclusive, and productive environment should be recognized. The project can have profound impacts in this community, and that impact can take many different forms for different people, depending on their background and current relationship with the site. This is why I think the decision-making process on how the site should be used needs to include many different stakeholders so as to make sure that no one is disproportionally preferred over others and that the existing injustices are being addressed. As a queer, neurodivergent, ESOL, POC, immigrant, I unfortunately had too many experiences where I did not feel I was welcomed as part of the public life or civic discourse. Unite Oregon made sure that I feel included and comfortable in speaking up, and that my opinions are valued in the discussion. I feel that my lived experiences and the unique impacts of potential public policies and projects are now being understood and taken seriously. My experience, and the fact that Unite Oregon and other leaders’ active efforts in including the most vulnerable and historically marginalized people, including indigenous communities, people of color, and people who depend on the site for shelter, in the decision-making process, is why I highly appreciate their work in climate justice.” - Recommendation from a 3 Creeks Leadership Council member 

• 82nd Ave feedback 

• “Just wanted to quickly say how impressed I was with your willingness to speak up and speak out about the work today. [... Other CBO Representative] did a wonderful job facilitating, but being only one of two CBO partners in the room must have been tough.  Your ability to call out the important questions and force them to answer was so critical to getting us moving in a positive direction.  Thanks so much for showing up for [the] community and this project!” -Metro Employee

Events: here

During the emergence of COVID-19 and the Clackamas County Complex Fires, Unite Oregon's Clackamas County Chapter was officially established in the summer of 2020. Through community organizing and political advocacy, we are working in Clackamas County to build a unified intercultural movement for justice.

Unite Oregon's Clackamas County Chapter focuses on community organizing and engagement primarily around the intersections of housing, public health, environmental, and climate justice issues. Focus groups, listening sessions, and workshops are typically conducted on a monthly basis for immigrants, refugees, and communities of color who reside in Clackamas County.

Programs within the Clackamas County Chapter include:

• Clackamas County Climate Justice Committee, our leadership development program that builds immigrant, refugee, Black, Indigenous, and IR-BIPOC capacity to inform decisions across Metro's garbage and recycling system.

Clackamas County Leadership Council

Unite Oregon, Clackamas County is led locally by a leadership council of 5-10 members who live in our community. We prioritize immigrants, refugees, and people of color for leadership council positions. 2-4 members of our leadership council are elected to Unite Oregon's statewide Board of Directors.

For more information and questions about getting involved, please contact Annessa, Clackamas County Chapter Director, at annessa@uniteoregon.org.

Unite Oregon Clackamas County Chapter

P.O. Box 653

Clackamas, OR 97015