World We Dare to Imagine Part 3: The HL Foundation

The HL Foundation: Sustainable Living for All

Our mission is to be a leader in developing green living solutions through providing self-sustaining housing for the homeless population in Portland, Oregon.

Our society today faces two major problems: a population unable to provide basic needs (including shelter) for themselves, and climate change. I grew up in Portland, Oregon in a family of avid outdoor-goers. The majority of my childhood was spent exploring forests, waterways, and mountains in Oregon. Many of the places I am most fond of visiting when I was younger are at risk due to environmental destruction. Many of the forests I have explored have vanished from increased wildfires resulting from global warming. 

Additionally, I have spent a lot of time in the metropolitan area of Portland. For a number of years, the city has faced a growing homeless population. In recent years the city's homeless population has grown to the point where our city parks have been turned into homeless camps. Over time, I have developed a dedication to solving both climate change and the homeless population. I created the HL Foundation as a remedy for both issues.

There are many foundations out there that address either climate change or homeless populations. However, there are few groups out there with the mission to solve both. At the HL foundation, we want to build sustainable living for the homeless population in Portland, Oregon. Through the use of organic gardens, solar power, and environmentally friendly construction means, we will provide living programs for the homeless population in Portland. Since Portland is currently one of the fastest growing cities in America, it is important the city expands while also being conscious of the environment. HL Foundation will be an example for how to do so effectively. We plan to have 6 month programs where homeless people are provided shelter while being exposed to seminars on personal finances, substance abuse, job skills, and sustainable living. 

We ask for the support of the Anima Mundi Development Partners because of our unique opportunity to rapidly expand, reach many, and impact our environment. Due to our means of constructing these homes, they have minimal operating costs due to their self-sustaining design. Our model will allow us to immediately move on and invest the majority of our time and resources into developing further spaces after completing one. We look to begin operations in Portland and eventually grow to impact the rest of the world. Your organization would be supporting a foundation that has not one, but two initiatives. Thank you for your time and consideration and we look forward to hearing from you!

Predatory Behavior in the Work Place Seminar (Extra Credit)

I recently attended a "Predatory Behavior in the workplace" seminar at USC. This discussion was led by Dr. Debbie Dougherty from the University of Missouri. Overall, this seminar really opened my eyes to how common and dark this issue really is in our society. Dr. Dougherty defined what inappropriate behavior in the work place is and used key examples to emphasize how recurring this issue is. She started off the presentation by defining predatory behavior as a disease and listed out notable known organizations today infected. It was shocking how long that list truly is. What Dr. Dougherty highlighted was that she made that list in "under 5 minutes."

Dr. Dougherty then went into the traditional approach our society commonly takes when addressing sexual harassment. She spoke about how this approach is overly simplistic and focuses only on the perpetrator and the target. She talked about how our society has normalized sexual harassment by thinking that it is just a problem between two people when in reality it is a multilevel phenomenon. Dr. Daugherty spoke about how this issue is tremendously overlooked and predators often hide in the background. To highlight how overlooked this issue is, she had us all point out everything in the room that was red and then write down everything that was green.

In addition to how in the background the predators are, Dr. Daugherty also pointed out other common traits including heroic qualities. All in all, I really learned a lot from this seminar. I truly had no idea how common and mistreated this problem is. It gave me a clear understanding for what to look for as I enter the work place in the near future.

A World We Dare to Imagine: Part 1

After reading the excerpt from The Blue Sweater, the ending line is what resonated with me: "We have only one world for all of us on earth, and the future really is ours to create, in a world we dare to imagine together." In order to make the world a better place, we must all first work to provide the fundamental needs of food, water, and shelter to all beings on earth. As one inhabiting a society where the majority of people have too much of these needs, I know it is often overlooked that a large part of the world struggles to provide these needs for themselves everyday. In my opinion, if we are all unanimously going to work together to make the future bright for our planet, we must all unanimously be able to take care of ourselves first.

Ultimately, the first step to making the world a better place and providing a brighter future for ourselves is creating long-term solutions for all human beings to be provided their basic needs. That being said, this is a very complex step. As mentioned earlier, a lot of us attain these needs through unsustainable measures. We need to reevaluate the ways in which we produce and consume energy, harvest food, and provide clean water.

A lot of ways in which we create and consume energy, such as utilizing fossil fuels, have proven to be harmful to our environment. Additionally, a lot of countries do not have the infrastructures to support these methods. With the emergence of wind and solar energy generators recently, we need to invest resources into improving these alternatives. We need to find ways to provide solar and wind energy globally in a convenient and economic manner. If we can switch to purely not only powering our homes - but also our cars and gadgets - with sustainable energy, we will vastly improve the we inhabit environment for the future.

Famine continues to persist as an issue in many areas of the world while in places like the United States we take many times our share. The ways in which we harvest our food is beginning to impact the physical environment we inhabit as well. We are seeing species going extinct and habitat food chains being exhausted all over the globe. Instead of investing in food markets which target keystone species in ecosystems, we must seek alternative methods globally. One controversial solution is increasing GMO crop production. Many people believe this "unnatural" way of producing food will cause problems. However, it has already proven to be almost no risk and cure famine in various locations. By focusing on GMO production, while also researching more sustainable food-producing practices, we need to have the goal of sustainably producing enough food for our entire globe.

Random Blog Post #2: Stop Moving to Portland

Historically, when people have referenced the Pacific Northwest, they have thought of Seattle or San Francisco - not Portland. The city of roses was a forgotten gem on the West Coast for some time - and us locals were perfectly okay with that. We kept to ourselves, building a culture like no other. Those who visited us often acknowledged the luscious greenery that surrounds the city and the beautiful Willamette River that cuts through the heart of downtown. But only few knew what this city truly embodied... until recently. The residents of our metropolitan area over time have branded themselves with the slogan "Keep Portland Weird" through their unique trends of clothing, food, and personalities.

However, our quirky city has recently been brought to the limelight in many ways. With the emergence of shows like Portlandia and expansions of local food chains like Salt and Straw, Portland culture has spread like wildfire throughout the United States. We have accidentally caught the curiosity of the rest of the country, who are now wanting to find out where the ideas like putting bacon on maple bars or forming moped gangs came from. Now, we find ourselves overrun with intruders and are one of the fastest growing cities in America. It sucks.

You could argue that the majority of America has already been ruined with overpopulation, so people have been forced to finally adopt our culture while moving to do the same to our city. I know many of you reading this probably come from busy cities with traffic. Therefore, you might not know what it would be like to have consistently clear freeways at any time of the day and be able to get anywhere in a maximum of 15 minutes. Well, at one point this was our reality. However, thanks to all of our intruders, our freeways have been overrun and we no longer have this luxury. 

Not only has our physical infrastructure been impacted by these transplants, but so has our culture. Many residents of our city have began to abandon the genuine, overly friendly, and weird traits and conform to those brought from other places. I know what you might be thinking right now: this is a little bit dramatic. I'm aware, but trust me I could say a lot more. In conclusion, stop moving to Portland - our weather sucks.