
Brown Hope has a wild dream to serve as a community anchor and inspiring beacon that reminds us all of the importance of Home. It’s the place we return for community, care, and safety.

Home is where we always belong.

Our Homecoming theme is Unconditional Love. At Brown Hope, we know that the best solutions to all of the challenges of today are through the power of people. No matter who you are: your background, your identities, your deepest nightmares, or your greatest dreams–– Brown Hope is here for all of us, to inspire a more beautiful and connected community.

At our Homecoming, there will be song, food sharing, storytelling, organizational updates, interactive healing activities, and a collective call to action to inspire a future of love and abundance.
We’ll also be celebrating the official 5 year anniversary of Brown Hope! Our event agenda will cover the past, present, and future of Brown Hope, and our speakers list will include current and former staff, volunteers, program participants, and community members. We are especially excited to announce that our emcee of the night will be Salomé Chimuku, Co-Founder of the Black Resilience Fund!
We believe that Love is always the answer. Join us for our official Homecoming event at Village Ballroom on November 4th and feel all the love our community has to offer!

Welcome home to Brown Hope!


Brown Hope has a wild dream to serve as a community anchor and inspiring beacon that reminds us all of the importance of Home. It’s the place we return for community, care, and safety. 

Home is where we always belong.

Homecoming: Our Future Begins


Join us on February 21st for Brown Hope's Homecoming: Black Soirée at The Village Ballroom from 6pm-9pm

This is an opportunity to connect with community in celebration of Black History month, while also extending gratitude to Brown Hope’s continuous work towards healing and racial justice.

You don't want to miss our kick-off event of 2024!

**Event Details**:
Attire (BEST ALL BLACK)
Adult Event for all folks! (*No children allowed*)
Appetizers & Drinks will be served
DJ (get ready to dance!)


**Get Involved With Brown Hope**:
[Volunteer Form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdszsFPwMqnx21RO15NK7FXG-qvckbx4PZsOH1LAqy1zpToqA/viewform)
[Host a Brown Hope Party!](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfoPr8onJ0WO4BQEZiEx2fCJLAhHRoC23HdHquIxm6U3SmClA/viewform)


Homecoming: Black Soirée

We Are The Bridge: Rise for Racial Justice is a week of action between May 15 — May 24 in recognition of George Floyd’s murder five years ago. This week of action features a series of community gatherings, culminating in a historic rally on May 24th at Revolution Hall and a peaceful march through downtown Portland and the Burnside Bridge.

We march for George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Quanice Hayes. Kendra James. Eric Garner. Mike Brown. And so many others. We march because this injustice and suffering should never happen again.

In 2020, Portland became a beacon of hope for the whole nation and the entire world thanks to 100 days of sustained action in solidarity with Black lives. This year, We Are The Bridge: Rise For Racial Justice is a collective antidote to the disease of moral bankruptcy currently plaguing our country. By participating in this week of action, we can make 2025 a defining year for Portland and our commitment to justice. 

Here’s the complete list of events organized for our week of action:

Nonviolence and De-escalation Training: 6pm on Thursday, May 15 at openHAUS (5020 NE MLK Blvd). Facilitated by the Portland Peace Team, this training teaches how to foster peace during moments of conflict using the CLARA de-escalation method.

Community Grief Circle: 12:30pm on Saturday, May 17 at Alberta Park (1905 NE Killingsworth St). Experienced facilitators will lead activities that help attendees release emotional wounds connected to George Floyd’s murder and racial violence. Concludes with an optional community potluck.

Know Your Rights Training: 6pm on Thursday, May 22nd, Online. Facilitated by the National Lawyers Guild, the workshop covers constitutional rights related to activism and police interactions at first amendment events.

We Are The Bridge Rally and March: noon on Saturday, May 24th at Revolution Hall (1300 SE Stark St). A rally featuring Black and Indigenous leaders, followed by a peaceful march through downtown Portland with a moment of silence on Burnside Bridge.

We are the heartbeat of this movement. Let’s work together to inspire a lasting movement of change.


We Are The Bridge: Rise For Racial Justice

Brown Hope is currently accepting applications for our Board of Directors. The Board comprises of individuals who collectively assume responsibility for nonprofit governance and leadership.

Learn More

Apply to the Board of Directors

A wild dream for justice & healing.

Events

Volunteers are at the heart of our organization—no matter how much or how little you can give, all talents and efforts are appreciated here. 
Together, we are working to find justice through our collective healing, and that will make an enormous difference for all of our futures. 

Volunteer

We are always looking for passionate people to join our team. See our available job openings down below. We look forward to having you serve with us.

Join Our Team

Careers

Get Involved

Daylight is dwindling, Portland’s cold, gloomy days are setting in, and the desire to hunker down indoors is becoming harder to resist. But in many cases, the winter also comes with isolation and loneliness. Instead of succumbing to the pull of your couch, consider getting out of the house to serve the people around you: Our city is home to tens of thousands of local nonprofits that serve a broad spectrum of causes and communities, and volunteers are often the heartbeat of their work. Whether you’re stocking shelves at the local food pantry, serving hot meals to those in need, harvesting vegetables at a community garden, or removing litter from the Willamette River, you are transforming the lives of those around you, including your own. Overwhelming research has proven that volunteering is not only important for the well-being of our communities, but ours too. And it’s not selfish to want both. Here’s how to lend a hand at organizations across Portland, and not just this winter, either.

Dedicated to breaking cycles of racial trauma and fostering collective healing for Black, brown, and Indigenous Portlanders, Brown Hope launched in 2018 with initiatives like its Black Resilience Fund. Volunteering at Brown Hope occurs through its Action Team, a collaborative space for community members to support its mission of racial healing. Those interested in volunteering can participate in three different action groups: the Solidarity Squad’s mutual-aid network, the Healing and Spirituality group, and community social events. The Action Team meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday of each month, from 6:30–8:30pm on Zoom.

[Read the Full Article Here](https://www.pdxmonthly.com/news-and-city-life/volunteering-opportunities-portland-oregon)


20 Ways to Make a Difference in Portland

**PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) -** Around 100 Portlanders, including the Portland protest frogs, filled The Old Church’s sanctuary Tuesday night for a forum on political civility.

The event, titled Restoring Civility in Chaotic Times, was organized by a coalition of Oregon civic groups, including The Art of Living, Oregon Peace Builders, and Senior Advocates for Generational Equity (SAGE).

Cameron Whitten, founder and CEO of the racial justice nonprofit Brown Hope, led the organizing effort. Whitten said the goal of the event was to ease political anxiety and promote solutions to polarization.

Grammy-nominated musician and community leader Julianne Johnson moderated a panel of local experts on “conflict de-escalation and crossing political divides.”

Panelists included Dimitra Giannakoulias, co-chair of the Oregon Chapter of Braver Angels; Bill Howe, board member of SAGE and founder of the Citizen Project; Wajdi Said, co-founder and president of the Muslim Educational Trust; and Anthony Jackson, a volunteer with the Portland Peace Team.

“It is very important, my dearly beloved sisters and brothers. We need to manage bigotry and hate inside ourselves, to be able to manage bigotry and hate on the national level or the local level,” Said told the audience.

Organizers said the conversation was a timely one. The U.S. has seen alarming acts of political violence this year, including the assassinations of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and political figure Charlie Kirk.

Reactions to the incidents varied, but all speakers condemned the violence. Giannakoulias admitted that hearing such news left her emotionally drained.


“You could say I had detached sadness because I don’t want to hear about any murder of any kind anywhere,” Giannakoulias said. “But without a personal connection to these people, it’s news—and frankly, I’m exhausted by the news. I detach from the news and I have to take care of myself.”

She added that while these instances of political violence receive wide attention, they remain rare, and most Americans condemn them, which gives her hope.

According to a September 2025 report by the Polarization Research Lab, fewer than 1% of Americans support explicitly violent acts such as partisan murder, and 93–97% of all partisans view political violence as a major problem.

Guests at the event also had their say. On a poster display, attendees responded to two questions:

“What’s your greatest fear about the polarization and political violence currently happening in America?”

Answers included “Civil war,” “That it will take too long to restore what has been lost,” and “That we are becoming less tolerant of one another.”

The second question was, “What makes you hopeful that we can ever find civility in our collective society?”

Responses included “It’s easier to be kind than mean” and “We are very creative beings, especially our youth.”

In small breakout sessions, attendees also shared ideas about what they believe can help create a healthy, thriving democracy.

“It was nice to sit and listen to people have differing perspectives on the same issues, but come to an agreement on humanity and dignity,” said attendee Sare Campbell.


Read Full Article

Portlanders fill pews of The Old Church for political civility forum

Happy International Day of Peace! This holiday is celebrated September 21 every year as an effort to promote nonviolence, ceasefire, and human rights.

The United Nations declared the Theme for 2025’s International Day of Peace is Act Now For a Peaceful World. Brown Hope is taking action on this important day by making our Code of Peace publically available, a document we first created for the We Are The Bridge week of action back in May in memory of George Floyd.

**The Brown Hope Code of Peace**

Brown Hope’s code of peace is built upon the understanding of universal love. We are all connected to each other, and recognize that all beings are deserving of respect, acceptance, and appreciation. We promote peace by:

* Actively celebrating the collective diversity of our backgrounds and identities.
* Fostering a culture of open-mindedness, compassion, and inclusion for all beings.
* Creating opportunities to learn and develop awareness around intersectionality, privilege, and power.
* Committing to the spirit of restorative justice during situations of conflict. 
* Sharing news about major advancements in peace locally and globally.

**Nonviolence Philosophy**

We embrace principles of nonviolence. We resist any conduct that a reasonable person under the circumstances would consider unwelcome, intimidating, hostile, threatening, violent, abusive, or offensive. Examples of violent conduct include:
 
* Causing physical injury to another person.
* Threats or hostile behavior that creates a reasonable fear of injury to another person.
* Intentionally damaging public and private property.
* Possession of a firearm.

We strive for a world where all beings are free from disrespect, harassment, abuse, and violence. Our nonviolence interventions are designed to be a proactive solution to prevent and resolve incidents of violence and harm.

**Restorative Justice Philosophy**

Our restorative justice philosophy provides an intentional response to incidents of conflict and harm that happen within the community. With so much division and distrust between people, we need alternatives to the types of behaviors that exacerbate conflict. Restorative justice is a pathway to breaking this cycle of harm and achieving collective liberation. We promote restorative justice by:

* Emphasizing how individual conflicts directly impact the broader community.
* Creating spaces for every person and perspective to be heard, with neutral third parties to help facilitate healthy communication.
* Acknowledging the whole impacts of harm and conflict, while also understanding the learning, wisdom, and growth that comes with healing and reconciliation.
* Exploring and implementing the reparative actions that need to happen after harm has occurred.
* Advocating for redemption and pathways for those who have caused harm to be forgiven and reintegrated into community.

Ultimately, restorative justice can help repair the social fabric of our communities and create a culture where the humanity of all is embraced.
