What is the VBC?
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The Village Building Convergence (VBC) began in Portland, Oregon with the desire to create change within our community. We recognized that modern life and the structure of our cities often don’t create opportunities to connect with our neighbors. In response, we created an annual event bringing people together to build elements of the village. We believe that the localization - of culture, of economy, of decision-making - is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community places, we plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empower our communities and support our local culture.
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Over the last 15 years we have built community throughout the Portland metro area by facilitating over 350 projects – like sculpted benches, cobb ovens; community gardens, mini-libraries, kiosks, and incredible intersection repairs and paintings. These projects have been accomplished by a strictly volunteer staff and thousands of neighborhood members. As a result of our work we have seen tremendous results within Portland - including lower crime rates, increased property values, and more neighborhood involvement.
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Now we have communities from all over the world looking for our support and experience. We have stretched our budget to its capacity and we need funding to allow us to continue this important work. By contributing to this campaign you will allow us to seek permanent funding opportunities, spread into other cities -regionally, nationally and globally, and continue building communities and connecting people.
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We have seen that by directing the building of neighborhood infrastructure we have contributed to Portland as a model of successful community development.
What our volunteers do:
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Each year our volunteers attend over 1100 meetings, organizing over 1220 specific tasks related to VBC. We also host over 120 workshops. In total, our volunteers contribute over 4500 hours each year in areas such as: Place Making, Permaculture, Publicity, Fund Raising and Venue Construction. And those volunteers have to be organized, requiring crews dedicated to the coordination and feeding of our volunteers. And thats just for the committees! Our projects require nearly 30,000 hours from our 160 project coordinators each year.
What We Need
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We need your help maintaining VBC’s existing structure and expanding into new, worthwhile communities.
We are at risk of losing our hard-won knowledge and experience as our operation expands and our unpaid volunteers are being asked to commit to ever more complicated and time intensive projects without proper financial resources or compensation.
We’ve been tracking this issue over the last year and are requesting the following.
Pictures, Stories and Documentation $1000
For site design and construction processes, venue photography, and archive development.
Grant Writing Seed Fund $1000
To sustain our ongoing grant funding efforts, and to explore new ones.
Seed Funding $2700
To help VBC get rolling each year, this amount is replenished at the end of each successful event
Core Leadership Compensation $8500
To help us ensure long-term continuity of leadership, safeguard institutional memory, and to provide a small stipend to those that make the VBC happen every year.
If we don't reach our goal, the most important aspects of our budget will be protected by any funds that we are able to raise.
Central Location for Evening Events $4000
During the Village Building Convergence evening events take place at a central location where all communities gather for food, speakers and friends. We need funds to pay for this space.
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Want to know more?
VBC is an organized group that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. VBC fosters artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that combine the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. VBC is one of the many projects of City Repair and has been accomplished by a mostly volunteer staff and thousands of volunteer citizen activists.
The City Repair Project was established to return these important places of communication and participation to our neighborhoods. At City Repair, we see that sustainable communities are built when people work together for their own mutual benefit. We create inspirational gathering spaces that can motivate any community to create their own gathering places.
Check us out at www.CityRepair.org
Other Ways You Can Help
Can't contribute financially? That's okay! You can help us in a few ways by either:
-Spreading the word about this campaign far and wide (using the Indiegogo share tools underneath the video)
-Come to this year's VBC and participate! We have numerous volunteer opportunities leading up to and during the event, and we'd love to hangout with you and build some community!