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GO Kids Program

All Children in Oregon Deserve the Opportunity to Succeed

We are excited to announce the 2021-2023 GO Kids grantees! Over the next two years, we will be partnering with these grantees to share their stories, highlight their communities and bring awareness to the opportunity gap in Oregon. 

2022 GO Kids Updates 

2021 GO Kids Updates

The GO Kids initiative aims to overcome Oregon’s opportunity gap – disparities experienced by children because of where they live, their race or family circumstance – by working with volunteers throughout Oregon.

Goals

  • Spotlight the toxic effects of the opportunity gap on children, families and the prosperity of our communities, state and country.
  • Trigger ideas for local solutions, and motivate and catalyze action.
  • Engage volunteers, partners and civic leaders in innovative and effective place-based efforts to close the opportunity gap.

Principles

  • Kids who experience systemic racism and marginalization, lack of resources in low-income families, and an underinvestment in rural and isolated communities are disproportionately deprived of opportunities to learn and thrive.
  • Impactful, creative and sustainable solutions for kids come from local community members with lived experience of opportunity gaps and are implemented by organizations trusted by the community.
  • Resources for education and the arts create possibilities for kids and families’ futures.
  • We value Oregon’s diverse regions and populations, and we seek to advance equity, diversity and inclusion through our funding.
  • We are committed to funding across Oregon with grant dollars reaching every region of our state.
  • Raising local awareness of opportunity gaps with community leaders and members is an important step toward change.
  • Social capital, defined as community relationships and networks, is a powerful resource to complement funding.
  • All children in Oregon deserve the opportunity to succeed regardless of their economic status, race, region or other circumstances of birth.

Investment

OCF is investing $3 million from 2019 to 2022, mainly from the Fred Fields Fund. In addition to project management and administration, this investment includes:

  • Roughly $480,000 in small grants for research, education, convening and promotion.
  • Up to $2 million for larger competitive grants.

 

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OCF's Efforts to Address the Opportunity Gap

The circumstances a child is born into, coupled with longstanding patterns of discrimination, largely determine the life that child can achieve.

Learn More

GO Kids Steering Committees

Central Oregon
Eastern Oregon
Metropolitan Portland
North Coast
Northern Willamette Valley
South Coast
Southern Oregon
Southern Willamette Valley

Click here to see the map of OCF regions.

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For further reading, download our initiative overview, GO Kids: Engaging Communities to Close the Opportunity Gap.

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Lifelong Passion for Community Service

Anne Schuster is one of our amazing volunteers, serving as a member of the OCF Southern Willamette Valley GO Kids steering committee and the OCF Southern Willamette Valley Leadership Council.

Read Story
Southern Willamette Valley
Education
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In 2017, OCF published Toward a Thriving Future: Closing the Opportunity Gap for Oregon’s Kids. This report provided Oregon-specific opportunity gap data organized into three domains: neighborhoods and communities, family stability and supports, and education.

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