Workforce Development
Gaining skills and growing confidence for pathways to employment
Through our Workforce Development initiative, we are creating opportunities for our community members to reenter the workforce. This initiative includes Community Beautification, the Intern Program, Property Stewardship, and Showers & Hygiene. Most people involved in this initiative have been unemployed and unhoused for an extended period. These are people who want to give back to their community - to give to the people who helped them and give to those they know are still hurting. We are thrilled to support them by offering short-term and long-term work opportunities and a wide variety of support. Through these opportunities, individuals acquire new skills and build confidence in their work.
Community Beautification
A safe and clean environment for all
Clean and safe neighborhoods
Compassionate Garbage Removal
Long-term Supportive Employment
Our hard-working Cultivate Initiatives Community Beautification team offers compassionate garbage removal services throughout East Portland and East Multnomah County, providing a benefit to the entire community. We collaborate with housed and unhoused neighbors to ensure safety, livability, and dignity. Graduates of our Intern Program have the opportunity to secure employment within our Community Beautification team. Contact us if you have an area you would like us to beautify!
Intern Program
Our Intern Program is dedicated to providing low-barrier, accessible day work for anyone interested. Interns work hard and earn cash payments, enjoy meals, get assistance with work readiness, and participate in a supportive community. After completing the program, we help interns find employment and other resources.
This past year marked the start of valuable workforce partnerships, hosting classes and training opportunities at our Workforce Hub, where community members can learn essential job readiness skills, enhancing confidence, communication and other critical employment skills.
Pathways to Employment
Property Stewardship
Putting great skills to use
Garbage Removal
Landscaping
Property Maintenance
Our team loves using our skills to meet our community’s needs. Many of our houseless neighbors are extremely skilled workers. Through Property Stewardship, our workforce members provide contracted services such as landscaping, maintenance, and garbage removal to various businesses, organizations, and municipalities, in addition to property maintenance at our Hub and village. This year we’ve helped our neighbors maintain thriving properties including Kaiser Permanente, East Portland Community Investment Trust, and Hacienda CDC, just to name a few!
Showers & Hygiene
Bridging the gap
How Showers
Laundry Services
Hygiene and Health
Part of our Workforce Development initiative focuses on addressing the effects of houselessness on individuals' health and hygiene. We provide mobile showers, hygiene supplies, peer support, and health services to support under-resourced neighbors. Our Showers & Hygiene team offers free showers, hygiene supplies, and clothing six days a week in various locations throughout East Portland and East Multnomah County. These services are operated by individuals who were previously or are currently experiencing homelessness, offering them employment and a way to reintegrate into the workforce.
We are proud to continue partnering with Nursing students through Sumner College and Concordia University, giving neighbors access to basic wound care, health resource referrals, health assessments and screenings - both on-site and at our mobile locations.
Learn more
Watch Nadine’s story and see for the positive impact our Workforce Development Initiative is making in the community.
“Cultivate Initiatives stirred in me a passion that I thought I’d lost. Helping me regain humanity I had forgotten existed, giving me a sense of community I know I belong to.”
Nadine - Beautification Lead
How Join in the Change
Are you an employer who would like to hire people who have completed these programs?
Are you a volunteer or donor who would like to support this work through your time and resources?
Click to become part of making this change happen.