The Latest

In December 2014, the Oregon Department of Education in partnership with Oregon’s Kitchen Table conducted an online consultation with key stakeholders across the state of Oregon. The consultation was conducted to help inform the efforts of the state’s Early Learning Hubs, which are working across the state to make resources and supports more available, more accessible and more effective for children and families that have historically been overrepresented in the opportunity gap and underrepresented in services.

Early Learning Kindergarten Assessment Results Consultation

In Spring 2015, ODE will hold a series of in-person deliberative events to discuss how the assessment can help parents, K-12 educators and child care providers improve coordination and partnership.

We’re heading into the third week of the Portland Public Schools Successful Schools Climate Survey – and nearly 3,000 parents and guardians have shared their school experiences through Oregon’s Kitchen Table!

Portland Public Schools has put together a Q and A document to clarify some questions that have come up. You can also view it below.

Because we’ve switched to a login system and we’ve made some adjustments over the past 3 years of conducting consultations, it’s time to review and update our privacy policy! We’ll be announcing updates / changes soon – both via the website and email.

And don’t forget to set up your login if you haven’t already!

Happy New Year from Oregon‘s Kitchen Table!

We’re excited to start 2015 with some improvements in how we engage with you! One of the first improvements – already up and running – is a new login system that allows you to create a username and password.  We’ve heard from a number of you that you want to simply be able to go to the site and take an available consultation, rather than have to dig through emails or try to find a link. We also want you to be able to let us know if you’ve moved to a new zip code so we can make sure we’re contacting you about consultations and other engagement opportunities specific to your community and region.  Make sure to head on over to http://consultations.oregonskitchentable.org/ and create your login. You’ll need to have a login to access consultations, so set yours up to take your seat at the table.  You’ll be asked to set up a log in and some demographic questions and then you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link to set up your password.

If you have any problems at all with the new system, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

We’ve got a few local and statewide consultations brewing (if you’re a Portland Public Schools parent or guardian, Oregon‘s Kitchen Table will be hosting PPS’s Successful Schools survey starting Jan 20th). And even more exciting, later this Spring we’ll be rolling out additional new features that we’re still developing, so stay tuned for more!

Set up your log in now by going to http://consultations.oregonskitchentable.org/

“We are a people capable of self-government,
and worthy of it.”
– Thomas Jefferson

So here we are:  Day 9 of a partial federal government shutdown.  5 days from a possible default on the national debt.  No solution in sight.  Plenty of finger-pointing and blame-slinging.  But no clear path forward.

It would be easy to think that the grand experiment of democracy has failed—that we are too divided as a people to govern ourselves, to guard the public good, to create a space where real problems are solved.

But despite all the handwringing and despair, around Oregon’s Kitchen Table we’ve had quite a different week.  We’ve had a week of tremendous hope and possibility.  Yesterday marked the end of the Build Gateway Green campaign, and it’s been quite a trip.  Just to remind you—Gateway Green is an unused parcel of land between two freeways in East Portland.  Two incredibly visionary Portlanders imagined it could be repurposed—recycled (excuse the pun)—into a world-class bike park with amenities for everyone, cyclist or not. Over the past eight years, those two people have gathered a group of supporters, partners, and volunteers.

And this summer, they brought it to Oregon Solutions and Oregon’s Kitchen Table.  529 Oregonians joined the movement and weighed in with their dreams and aspirations for this unused parcel of land through an Oregon’s Kitchen Table Consultation.  Then, in Oregon’s first major civic crowdfunding effort, 756 people contributed to the project, raising nearly $124,000.  Literally hundreds of people gave time, money, and good ideas to a project that benefits the whole community.  The project isn’t over.  Gateway Green still has a ways to go before there are shovels in the ground, but suddenly a huge team has emerged to work side by side with the founders and Friends of Gateway Green.

And throughout it all, no one was pointing fingers or slinging blame.  Everybody just pitched in, worked together, and did what they could to make a difference.  We’re proud of the Gateway Green team and our little corner of the Republic.  And it sure gives us hope that we have a thing or two to teach those in our nation’s capitol about governing ourselves.

– Wendy Willis

Over the past year, we’ve tackled tough issues throughout the state with the Governor’s budget priorities and the 2013 Oregon Values and Beliefs survey.  We did our first county-wide consultation in Curry County with residents weighing in on options to address their county’s budget.  Now the Kitchen Table is set for those of you in several counties (Clackamas, Columbia, Hood, Multnomah, and Washington) to help turn an overlooked parcel of land in East Portland into a vibrant, off-road bike park in a gateway to the region.

A hidden treasure sits in the hub of East Portland’s Gateway area: 38 acres of unused, partially wooded land.  Nestled between I-84 and I-205, this is a perfect spot for an off-road biking park! The City of Portland has already committed to operate the park once we all come together to build it, but now the Friends of Gateway Green needs grassroots input and support to continue to design the space based on the public’s dreams for Gateway Green.

Share your thoughts here at the Kitchen Table about features you want to see in Gateway Green.  The responses you and others provide will be compiled and presented to the park’s design team as they move onto the next round of design.  This is your opportunity to help shape a regional asset  that we can all enjoy for generations to come.

The consultation will be open until August 23rd.

Give your input into the next round of design work to make the most of this space for the whole region. To learn more about Gateway Green and the project  to date, visit the Friends of Gateway Green.

This is our birthday—well, not our exact birthday, but I guess our birth season.  As it turns out, we were so busy launching the Oregon Values and Beliefs Survey last month, we didn’t take time to blow out the candles!  But, where cake’s concerned, it’s always better late than never.  Since Oregon’s Kitchen Table was born a year—and a few days—ago, over 3,500 Oregonians have “taken a seat” and given their thoughtful opinions on everything from healthcare choices to county services.  We have made new friends across the state and have had a chance to take a peek at many of your kitchen tables through the photographs you’ve submitted.  We have made mistakes and made course corrections and even laughed at ourselves.  We have learned a lot and dreamed big dreams for the future.  Most of all, we have felt grateful to share this state with so many tremendous and generous Oregonians.

We chose the metaphor of the Kitchen Table for all of those reasons—because the kitchen table is a place where we gather to talk over the hard stuff and sort out our differences.  Because the table is where we laugh together but also where we decide how to spend our money and where to send the five-year-old to school.  We set priorities, check in, and change our mind if we need to.  So, we are glad to have spent this year at the Kitchen Table with you.

The current consultation – the 2013 Oregon Values and Beliefs Survey—is a doozy!  It is a follow-on from the Values and Beliefs surveys from 1992 and 2002 and will be critical in informing decision-makers for at least the next ten years.  Because the Kitchen Table is open to all Oregonians, everyone who wants to can participate.  That is new, and it is awesome!  So, I hope everyone will take advantage of the opportunity.

Today is my actual birthday.  And to celebrate my state and its dedicated, quirky, creative citizens, I’m going to do two things. First, I’m going to send a reminder to my friends and family to sign up for Oregon’s Kitchen Table and to take the 2013 Oregon Values and Beliefs Survey.  Second, I am going to make a donation to Oregon’s Kitchen Table so we can keep serving Oregon and Oregonians for years to come.  I wonder if you’ll join me in doing something to celebrate all these birthdays—encourage your friends to join and complete the V&B survey, post a picture of your kitchen table on our Facebook page, make a contribution to the Table.   Thanks for anything you can do to support our virtual gathering place.

So, when I blow out my candles tonight, I’ll be thinking of all of you and wishing for another great year around Oregon’s Kitchen Table.  Happy Birthday to and from the Table!

Wendy Willis

We’ve teamed up with the sponsors of the Oregon’s Values and Beliefs Survey to invite all Oregonians to share their vision for the future of Oregon. The Oregon Community Foundation, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon State University, Oregon Health and Sciences University and DHM Research have joined forces and resources to create a comprehensive survey to take a deep look at the values, beliefs, and opinions of Oregonians on issues as diverse as government, public services and taxation; economic development and jobs; education; health and health care; the environment; and energy.

While the project sponsors are conducting a scientific survey to assure valid and statistically reliable results for five regions of the state, Oregon’s Kitchen Table is giving all Oregonians the chance to weigh in on the state’s future.  The information that you provide will be reported back to policy-makers and the public in an impartial and non-partisan way and will be part of the state’s decision-making landscape for years to come.

If you’ve already joined, soon you’ll receive an email with a link to take you to the survey.  If you haven’t joined yet, go sign up for Oregon’s Kitchen Table, and then you will be asked to share your opinion about some of Oregon’s most pressing decisions. Oregonians will have until June 30, 2013 to submit input but can sign up at the website at any time.

We want to hear from you!

Happy New Year from Oregon’s Kitchen Table!

In 2012, we brought you this experiment to set a table for all Oregonians to weigh in on our most urgent public policy issues.  The premise for this experiment? That our elected officials wanted to hear from you and that we have interesting and imaginative things to tell them!  It’s been an exciting year as we’ve all begun using Oregon’s Kitchen Table and exercising our muscles as citizens.

When the experiment first launched, Governor Kitzhaber asked for your input on the state’s budget priorities, and a couple thousand of you took a seat at the Table to do just that. We’d like to close out 2012 and begin 2013 here at Oregon’s Kitchen table with a message from the Governor on that consultation:

“Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts, ideas, and priorities for the future of Oregon through Oregon’s Kitchen Table.  Your input was very valuable to me as I prepared my proposed 2013-15 budget and worked to develop the 10 Year Plan for Oregon.  I look forward to hearing from you again and working with all of you to achieve prosperity for all of Oregon.” – Governor Kitzhaber

You can check out the results of the consultation with Oregon’s Kitchen Table here and view the Governor’s proposed budget here.

Today, there are already 2,073 Oregonians around the Kitchen Table.  We’re up for adding on another leaf or two or three (as many as we need) to make room for more seats and more Oregonians! And we hope you’ll join with us in resolving to continue this experiment that brings us together in making decisions for our state.

We’ll bring you the results from our most recent consultation with Curry County residents in a few weeks, and stay tuned for what’s up next for us all at Oregon’s Kitchen Table.

So much has happened over here at the Kitchen Table that we haven’t had a chance to catch our breath and catch up with you!

First, we’ve posted the third and final set of results for the pilot consultation.  Check the results for the Economy and Jobs and Healthy Environment Outcome Areas Findings as well as comments from tablemates in response to those results.

Second, a group of dedicated citizens and community leaders have been working closely with Oregon’s Kitchen Table and public opinion researchers to create a consultation that will gather input from Curry County residents about the county services and county funding.  That consultation will go live for Curry County residents next week, so keep watching The Latest to follow our first regional consultation.

And, finally, we hope you got a chance to hear yesterday’s Think Out Loud on Oregon Public Broadcasting on navigating political divisions. We loved hearing the stories from Oregonians about how they have (or don’t have!) discussions about political issues with friends, family, colleagues and neighbors whose political views may differ from theirs.  The discussion touched on how we can create spaces that allow us to come together to actually address issues that impact each of us, despite those political differences. It made me think of how Phil Keisling, the Director of the Center For Public Service at PSU, has described Oregon’s Kitchen Table providing such a space: “The essence of the Kitchen Table project is that it’s neither left-wing, nor right wing. Rather, it’s fundamentally “Oregonian” — a sincere effort to engage as many diverse voices as we have in this state to share their thoughts and opinions on issues important to all of us.”

Sarah