Mission
The purpose of the Coalition for a Livable Future is to protect, restore, and maintain healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities, both human and natural, for the benefit of present and future residents of the greater metropolitan region.
Vision: Creating a Livable Future
The Coalition for a Livable Future unites a diverse array of organizations and individuals to promote healthy, equitable and sustainable communities in the Portland-Vancouver region. By connecting issues, people and organizations, CLF empowers communities to take action together to shape the big decisions affecting the region’s future.
Through research, policy advocacy, and public education, CLF and our members work to create and preserve affordable housing; ensure clean water; protect open space, wildlife habitat and farmland; create living wage jobs; provide real transportation choices; and end hunger in our community.
CLF emphasizes connections between the issues and between the cities, towns and counties that make up our region. We recognize that the communities within our urban area are interdependent and that cooperation will improve the economic, social, and environmental health of the metropolitan region as a whole.
A One Year Strategic Plan
CLF is releasing the Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 in June 2013. Atlas 2.0 is a groundbreaking project, several years in the making, and will be a signature project for CLF for years to come. In light of this major release and subsequent work immediately following, as well as recent staff transition, CLF is focusing its strategic plan on fiscal year 2013-2014. CLF will develop a three year strategic plan in 2014.
2013-2014 Priorities
Goal 1: Regional Equity Atlas 2.0:
CLF will provide high quality data and analysis for the public, stakeholders, and policy makers to support changes in policy, planning, and investment decisions.
Objective 1: Educate public about Atlas findings
Strategy 1: Conduct workshops throughout four-county region to introduce interested groups to the Atlas and to engage them in using it to explore equity issues from the perspective of their own communities and constituencies.
Strategy 2: Provide technical assistance to support stakeholder organizations and governments in using the Atlas mapping tool to inform their decision-making.
Strategy 3: Provide customized training to support stakeholder organizations and governments in analyzing maps for key findings relevant to local decision-making.
Objective 2: Provide in depth research on Atlas findings
Strategy 1: Facilitate the development of a series of white papers to more deeply investigate Atlas findings of particular relevance to CLF members and stakeholders.
Objective 3: Make the Atlas more accessible through storytelling, while developing the leadership of communities involved in the work
Strategy 1: Partner with community organizations to help residents from historically disenfranchised communities learn about the Atlas findings and tell stories that highlight their experiences.
Strategy 2: Develop and share videos and photographs of residents’ stories to highlight disparities and solutions.
Goal 2: Institutionalize Equity:
Informed by the Regional Equity Atlas and other equity tools, CLF will advocate to institutionalize equity in government policy, process and practice in order to create the systemic change needed to ensure that everyone in our region benefits from the opportunities the region provides so that we are all able to thrive.
Objective 1: Serve as a partner in the development of tools and initiatives geared toward institutionalizing equity in government policy, process and practice
Strategy 1: Work with partner organizations to analyze the disparities revealed by the Atlas maps and develop policy recommendations.
Strategy 2: Work with Metro and other interested government agencies to develop an equity framework that enables the agencies to more effectively operationalize the concept of equity in their planning and decision-making.
Strategy 3: Work with health institutions and government agencies to use the Atlas data and analytical capabilities to integrate an equity lens into their decision-making and to inform planning and investment decisions to address health disparities and promote regional equity.
Goal 3: Transportation:
Create a more sustainable and equitable transportation system in which everyone is able to access daily needs safely and affordably.
Objective 1: Promote policies and investments that support good planning and address historical disinvestment for underserved communities.
Strategy 1: Advocate for regional planning that meets community needs, including Climate Smart Communities, the Regional Transportation Plan, and Regional Flexible Funds.
Objective 2: Prevent funding for the multi-billion dollar freeway expansion at the Columbia River Crossing, and instead promote effective, economically and environmentally responsible transportation investments that meet the needs of local communities and fit the area’s urban context
Strategy 1: Litigate to require the project to meet federal environmental laws.
Strategy 2: Advocate for public decisions supportive of our position.
Strategy 3: Maintain a public presence through media, expanding the coalition of partners and supporters, and supporting grassroots actions by partners.
Objective 3: Connect partners for more effective advocacy
Strategy 1: Support local campaigns that advance transportation equity and community empowerment.
Strategy 2: Foster an intersectional vision grounded in a shared analysis of transportation, housing, climate, and air quality.
Goal 4: Connect Partners:
Support and connect member organizations and other partners to work effectively across sectors.
Objective 1: Hold events that bring partners together to create opportunities to collaborate and share plans and successes
Strategy 1: Hold the Regional Livability Summit in October 2013, with a focus on highlighting the findings of Atlas 2.0 and opportunities for changes to policy and practice to address regional disparities.
Strategy 2: Hold CLF meetings to connect and educate members, including an Annual Meeting and a meeting on Oregon legislative agendas.
Objective 2: Support priorities of members and partners
Strategy 1: Share action alerts, events, and news via the News and Network Listserv, CLF Website, Facebook, and Twitter.
Strategy 2: Take positions and support Member initiatives.
Strategy 3: Experiment with new ways to engage members.
Goal 5: Strong And Effective Organization:
Build organizational capacity and direction.
Objective/ Strategy 1: Hire permanent Executive Director
CLF’s former Policy Director is currently acting as Interim Director, maintaining continuity after the last Executive Director left in early 2013, and allowing for a thoughtful decision on a permanent hire.
Objective 2: Increase revenue
Strategy 1: In order to strengthen and diversify funding sources, CLF will develop and begin implementing a fundraising plan that will increase revenue and financial stability.
Strategy 2: Hold a gala to celebrate CLF’s 20th Anniversary in spring 2014.
Objective 3: Board development
Strategy 1: Bring new members onto the Board of Directors to grow the size of the board, increase Member representation, and bring new perspectives.
Objective 4: Develop Strategic Plan for 2014-2017
Strategy 1: Consider and implement changes in our organizational and programmatic structure to reflect our current and future work.
Three Year Plan
As CLF approaches its 20th Anniversary in 2014, it is time to celebrate our achievements and reflect on where we want to go as an organization.
Since its beginning, CLF has been successful in supporting the development of sustainable communities through smart planning and policy. CLF has also helped prevent the kind of cross-issue infighting among progressive groups that has plagued many other regions. We have succeeded in fostering work across sectors, and nonprofits in the region now work extensively in coalitions. In addition, the concept of equity, highlighted by CLF’s Regional Equity Atlas and our subsequent education and advocacy, has become part of the mainstream dialogue in Portland area decision-making.
CLF’s strategies have evolved significantly over time. The issues and priorities of members initially drove the work of CLF, and CLF maintained a small staff to facilitate the membership. Over the last decade, our focus shifted as our membership asked us to take more of a leading role. As part of this shift, CLF created the Regional Equity Atlas, a major effort to document unequal access to opportunity, communicate and educate the results, and work to address a range of equity issues. CLF also filled a gap in regional leadership on long range transportation planning and the Columbia River Crossing highway expansion.
The structures guiding CLF were largely developed early in our history, and came from the needs of an organization in a different phase of its development than we are in today. We now focus largely on policy, research, and education, with an increased focus on equity, and our structures need to be updated to meet current needs.
In short, CLF is hitting a turning point. It is time for CLF to consider how to build on our strengths to be as effective an organization for the next 20 years as we were in our first 20. This may involve changes in our organizational and programmatic structure to reflect our current and future work. CLF has always been at the cutting edge of social change in the Portland metro region, ready to lead and support innovations. Early in 2014, once the Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 has been launched and education is underway, CLF will begin an inclusive, thoughtful process to ask and answer these questions.