Confluence Environmental Center

🌷Spring member highlight time!

On Saturday, April 11th, Remi, a member serving as the Community Gardens and Food Security Coordinator at the Housing Authority of Clackamas County, hosted students from to volunteer for a morning of service. Together, they were able to distribute compost to all 50 of the resident's garden beds! The compost will provide a more nutrient dense and fluffy foundation for the gardeners to have a successful season growing their food and flowers.

Some volunteers also cleared out garden beds that had become overgrow with invasives such as blackberry and field grass in order to make space for more food production and native plants. They also moved some of the compost to a more accessible area, creating a station where gardeners have more autonomy and ability to move the compost where they need by themselves!

This month, we are highlighting our current member, Alexis, who is serving as the Community Gardens and Food Security Coordinator at the Housing Authority of Clackamas County's new Blossom & Community apartments!

Alexis graduated with a degree in Sustainability and spent two years teaching elementary school kids how to garden. Alexis enjoys seeing others learn about plants and how they grow, which led her to apply to be an AmeriCorps member with Confluence. As the Community Garden and Food Security Coordinator, Alexis engages housing residents in their new on-site community garden and free food market while also leading community education about healthy cooking and other wellness topics. Her favorite part of serving as a Confluence member is being able to get back in garden and seeing residents excited about their brand new plot.

In her free time, Alexis enjoys her little balcony garden and trying new foods around Portland. She enjoys reading, especially murder mystery books, and also has a cat named Butters!

Request for Proposals are due soon!

Confluence invites all eligible nonprofit organizations, public schools and government agencies to submit a proposal to host a Confluence AmeriCorps Member for the 2026-2027 cycle by April 10th.

Are you interested in what this might mean for your organization? You can view our Proposal Guidelines, Online Application, & Factsheets on our website. Please reach out to our Program Director, Ashlie Tainer, with any questions at [email protected].

We look forward to reading your proposals!

On Tuesday, Confluence members and staff gathered for our second National Service Event of the term to honor Dolores Huerta and her work in the labor movement. We spent the afternoon volunteering with at Gilbert Park Elementary School planting native plant starts, pulling blackberry, and repairing the walls on raised garden beds.

Each year Confluence amplifies the impact of service, education and community connection by joining thousands of AmeriCorps Members around the country to participate in National Service Day events. These days are planned and organized by Confluence Members to create a meaningful day of service that is aligned with the mission and intentions of the honoree, while also providing education and pathways to continuing their legacy.