Rosewood Initiative; High crime rate, drugs, gangs and violence unite a community

Max rider, 162nd & Burnside

Neighbors helping neighbors The Rosewood Initiative is a non-profit organization launched in 2009 dedicated to making the Rosewood area a safe and desirable place to live, work, and play.

Working Together
To accomplish this goal, they are partnering with residents, apartment managers and owners, businesses, churches, government agencies, social services, neighborhood associations, and public safety agencies.

Rosewood is a roughly 15-block area around the intersection of NE 162nd & E. Burnside. The neighborhood is most commonly defined as SE 157th to SE 165th and NE Holiday to SE Alder. About 70 percent of the area’s 6,500 residents live in 46 apartment complexes.

Unfortunately, many residents in the Rosewood area are at risk due to the influence of gangs, drugs, and human trafficking activities in and around the community. For that reason, the Rosewood Initiative is developing an outreach program called RISE (Rosewood Initiative Sisters Empowered) to help identify at-risk youth and connect them to appropriate mentorship and service programs.

In an effort to help solve these and other problems plaguing the area the Rosewood Initiative is working to create a community center for positive, community-based activities with a full-time community developer; instill a self-policing attitude in the community, residents, property and business owners; document what works to prevent crime, improve quality of life, and increase property values.

Two years later, their efforts are working!
The Rosewood Initiative and its partners were instrumental in having classical music installed at the 162nd MAX station. The music's calming influence has proved to be an effective way to deter loitering by young people and reducing crime on the train station platforms.

Rosewood Café Opening soon, the cafe will serve the combined purposes of a community center, non-profit coffee shop, and police contact office. More than 100 volunteers have worked over 650 hours to renovate and design the new café space located at 162nd & SE Stark in the Village Square Shopping Center.

Rose Cafe, 162nd & Stark Click to enlarge

More info
Building an empowered community takes time, effort, and resources. Everyone who lives or works in or around the Rosewood area will benefit from the success of the Rosewood Initiative.

For more information contact Shea Marshman 503-459-7195, visit online at rosewoodinitiative.org, or Facebook "Rosewood Initiative".

Related Links

• Rosewood Initiative's Blog
• Rosewood Initiative seeks to build community pride Gresham Outlook website
• Music takes calming influence to the MAX Portland Tribune website
• Rosewood Initiative East Portland Neighborhood Associations website