Tivnu Blog

The past few weeks have been really powerful and intense for me at Portland Homeless Family Solutions, where I intern every Monday. There’s a seven-year-old boy and his father who have timed out of the 8 family spots in the night shelter but have luckily been able to stick around the day shelter. Two weeks ago I was coloring with the boy and he leaned over as if to tell me a secret....

This was our first full week with our new construction trainer, Eric. Eric has worked in the Portland area for 20+ years as a trained carpenter and with Steve at Portland Youth Build, so he was a great candidate for the job. He's lived up to his billing so far as he's been patient, productive and understanding during our time at the work site....

It is good to be able to learn a new set of skills and be able to see a very specific project go from start to finish. I have seen that in the shed, in pickling with Marissa, and baking hamentchen with Baye....

Over the last few days I was able to revel in my love of soccer. On Wednesday we attended a Portland Timbers game. I was surprised to learn that the people of Portland are die hard soccer fans. ...

As we sat down with a group of high school students from Woodburn, Oregon, a predominately Hispanic town, we were asked an icebreaker question that I had never thought to be such a quintessential part of what makes us so distinct from one another. ...

Three weeks ago, I took on another internship. I really enjoyed the work on the worksite, but I found that I was struggling to see how the little tasks I was doing were essential to the bigger picture. I knew that they were important; I just couldn’t feel it....

On Wednesday, Tivnu decided to go to the Columbia River Gorge for a group hike to Angel's Rest, as part of the new hiking regime and in celebration of Tu B'shvat. It seemed like we had a real need for speed since we climbed the mountain really quickly, despite the high winds....

An interview with program participant Billy by Reuben Dreiblatt...

A few weekends ago we went on a little 3-day trip to one of the main Oregon mountains, Mount Hood. A little getaway is always nice, but I especially had a good time on this one....

I went to three holiday parties this week. At each one I served in a different capacity and at each one I had a vastly different experience....