Latest News

Whew. There is so much going on over here at Nurture; I feel like the my brain is riding the Tilt-a-Whirl. Here is a mini-update for anyone who has been missing our posts:

The Family Wellness Lending Library has almost 200 items. We are searching for the perfect shelves to house this fabulous collection. The inventory list should be up next week. Keep an eye out for it!

The NE Homegoods Library is almost ready to launch too! We have 1/2 of the inventory from the designated grant funds and way, way, more than I ever expected from generous donations! I met with Tom over at the NE Portland Tool Library today, and he had many words of wisdom and a check-out system program to share. Thank you, Tom and NEPTL!

Our website is finally making the BIG migration to a new host. There have been a few bumps in this transition, but everything should be smooth by next week (fingers crossed, feel free to join in the finger crossing!). In the meantime, the almost complete new site is up at www.nurturepdx.org Thank you for your support and patience as we move everything over. If you have sent an e-mail to one of the Nurture addresses and have not received a reply, try the same address with .org at the end.

Some other exciting news is that we just registered with Supportland and are eagerly awaiting cards to hand out to you! If you haven't heard about Supportland yet, you should check out their website for all of the fabulous details and get yourself pre-registered soon!

There is more up our *crafty*resourceful*community-minded* sleeves coming soon, but that is enough for now. I do not want to Tilt-a-Whirl your brain.

For the Love of Technology

I am ever so grateful to live in an age of technological connections. The ability to connect with others so far away, known so long ago, or who just would not have crossed my path otherwise, has been a blessing personally and professionally.

So much of Nurture has been built by way of connecting and communicating with others through the wonderful world wide web. Amazing networks promoting community and sustainability have been formed and continue to form in our hip and adventurous city (I am thinking specifically of the Timebank and Supportland, but there are so many others). Nurture's e-Village has been growing steadily and providing an e-space for connection as well as organization for future plans, and we have only scratched the surface of that site.

Technology, like everything else, has limitations and matters that need to be attended to. My family recently found ourselves in need of a serious technology upgrade, which has proved to be an, ahem, adventure to say the least. You may or may not have noticed and you may or may not continue to notice that Nurture's web-presence will be shifting to meet the ever-advancing progression of technology. Stay tuned, send good thoughts, and please be patient as we make some much needed changes.

We have so many exciting new programs and projects being created right now; I am really looking forward to sharing them with you, through our updated and fancy web structures, of course!

How appropriate that this just happens to be the 300th Nurture blog post. Cheers!

Buy Local and Help Haiti

More Buying-Local Goodness (or: As If I Needed Another Reason to Love Portland)...

The warm-hearted, community-spirited, globally-concerned Milagros family is donating 10% of all of their sales to the Mercy Corps' emergency response to the earthquake in Haiti. Jennifer and Tony have invited other local businesses to join them in this effort and the response has been huge. For a list of all (of the very many) participating local businesses and their commitments visit the Milagros "Wave of Support for Haiti From Local Businesses" post. The list will be updated as more businesses join in to support Haiti.

I also wanted to pass this along from Supportland's Katrina Scotto di Carlo:

Our friends, Josh + Kelly, are traveling to Haiti to provide midwifery and basic medical services. They are disaster relief specialists and any funds donated will 100% go towards supplies for the Haitian people. They are amazing, selfless people. Donate and/or send them some positive energy. US BANK Acct. name- Dragonfly routing # 1230002200 acct.# 153690811358

Supportland: Buying Local Just Got Better

My holiday shopping goal this year was to only buy local gifts, and I felt pretty good about reaching that goal. Supporting your local businesses is supporting your community, your neighbors, and your local economy. And as if that isn't enough incentive, Supportland comes on the scene and buying local gets even better...

Created by Katrina and Michael Scotto di Carlo (radical North Portland parents of two fabulous daughters), Supportland is a Portland based network that offers patrons rewards for frequenting local businesses. It works much like the little cafe stamp cards--after you get so many stamps you get a free latte--only better. With Supportland one card (or, if you prefer it can be on your iPhone) is used and points are tracked through the Supportland system. And it is FREE!

Of course, they do a much better job of explaining how it works in this video (if you can't see the video go here):

Supportland is starting out in North Portland and will be spreading throughout the city and beyond. I am excitedly awaiting my card's arrival. You can sign up to get one here.