Historic Partnership with Albina Vision Trust

Seeking to nurture educational and economic empowerment, Lewis & Clark and Albina Vision Trust (AVT) have partnered to build a hub for accessible postsecondary education in the historically Black northeast Portland neighborhood of Lower Albina. Lewis & Clark president Robin H. Holmes-Sullivan hopes it will be a model for other cities nationwide in which residents, students, educators, and community members will be able to access postsecondary education through L&C, including the School of Law.

(L to R) Arietta Ward, Sunshine Dixon, Kayin Talton Davis, Mujidat Saaka at AVT's second annual Sunday Dinner.
Credit: Albina Vision Trust The collaboration builds on what AVT calls the “restorative redevelopment” of Lower Albina. It creates permanent infrastructure with programming for residents, students, educators, and community members of this inner Northeast Portland neighborhood to learn together.

“As a first step in this historic collaboration, we are looking at locating some of our clinics in the AVT development, particularly the Small Business Legal Clinic and the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic” noted Law School Jordan D. Schnitzer Dean Alicia Ouellette. “Both of them provide needed services to individuals resulting in economic empowerment.”

Albina Vision Trust is a nonprofit that was created to buy back land, rebuild community, and reroot Black legacies and futures in Portland.

For decades, urban renewal policies decimated Lower Albina.
Credit: Albina Vision Trust

 

A color rendering of the revitalized community, as envisioned by the new AVT-L&C partnership.
Credit: Albina Vision Trust