Unite Oregon (Center for Intercultural Organizing)
Unite Oregon, also known as the Center for Intercultural Organizing, 1 is a local membership organization that claims to advocate for the creation of a “multicultural movement for immigrant and refugee rights.” 1 The group also claims to support left-of-center policies within the state of Oregon that would promote “climate justice,” “housing justice,” “community safety,” “education equity,” “economic justice,” and “health equity.” 2
Unite Oregon’s environmentalist projects include a Climate Justice Listening Tour, and the East Portland Community Garden, which is meant to “promote food sovereignty” and “provide opportunities for immigrants/refugees to grow, produce, and sell food to generate income.” 3
Unite Oregon advocates for housing justice through its own initiatives and collaborative projects, such as the Anti-Displacement PDX (ADPDX) Coalition that focuses on communities of color affected by gentrification or “displacement.” Unite Oregon claims that its initiatives have directly led to policy change, including the Oregon Tenant Protections Act. 4
Unite Oregon advocates for defunding the police in Oregon and across the United States, arguing instead that investment should be made toward the “Well-being of our communities.” 5
Since 2015, Unite Oregon has partnered with Portland Public Schools to implement their Building Undergraduates through Inclusive Leadership Development (BUILD) College Bound Families Program. This program seeks to address “systemic barriers” for educational attainment for racial minority students. 6
Unite Oregon’s economic justice initiatives consist of helping “systematically and institutionally excluded” communities with wealth retainment and entrepreneurship. 7
Unite Oregon’s health equity initiatives include working to pass Measure 110, Oregon’s Drug Treatment and Recovery Act. This measure decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs and established addiction centers across the state. 8
People
As of 2025, Nuhamin Eiden is the executive director of Unite Oregon. 9
Kahn Le was the former executive director of Unite Oregon. Le also worked as Oregon state director at Main Street Alliance and sat on the board of directors at Common Cause Oregon. 10
Funding
In 2022, Unite Oregon, as the Center for Intercultural Organizing, received a $59,675 grant (outlaid of an obligated $75,000) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the latter’s “Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program” to provide assistance to “residents of underserved communities understand and address local environmental and public health issues.” 11 The purpose of the 1-year grant was to “mitigate the negative health impacts of air and water pollution” caused by a 2020 wildfire that impacted the towns of Phoenix and Talent, Oregon. 11 In 2024, the EPA donated a $498,000 two-year grant to the organization, the funding provided through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as part of the agency’s “Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program” to assist indigenous and immigrant communities within the state. 11
From 2017 through 2023, Unite Oregon received $594,500 from Borealis Philanthropy, a prominent left-leaning philanthropic intermediary. 121314151617
From 2015 through 2023, Unite Oregon received 1,102,500 from the Oregon Community Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the United States. 2223242526272829
For general operating support of this organization which brings immigrants, refugees and communities of color together to build cross-cultural movements across the state
Unite Oregon is a statewide racial and social justice nonprofit working to eliminate systemic inequities and fight for a more just and equitable society for immigrants, refugees, Black, Indigenous, people of color, rural communities, and low-income Oregonians. We are the only intercultural movement-building nonprofit in the state with four chapters in northern and southern Oregon, serving 22,000+ members/supporters and organizing communities across the urban-rural divide. Led by immigrants, refugees, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, Unite Oregon focuses on four program areas that, when combined, catalyze systemic change: Civic Engagement, Policy Advocacy, Community Organizing, and Leadership Development. We request a two-year $250,000 general operating grant from the Northwest Area Foundation to support us in these program areas.A continued partnership with NWAF will further contribute to Unite Oregon’s Southeast Portland economic prosperity initiatives, for which our initial NWAF grant laid the foundation while expanding our efforts across Oregon. We serve our communities through six priority pillars– Climate Justice, Housing Justice, Equitable Economic Development, Reimagining Community Safety, Health Equity, and Education Equity. These pillars originate from our community and leadership development spaces to center those historically excluded in decision-making. A general operating grant from NWAF would contribute to our organization's viability in these priority pillars and help us respond to our community’s needs on a grassroots level.;;Unite Oregon was formed in 2016 through the merger of two strong nonprofit organizations, the Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO) and Oregon Action (OA), which individually had decades of experience organizing immigrants, refugees, people of color, and low-income Oregonians to address racial justice and human rights issues. CIO, initially founded by Portland-area Muslims in response to harmful racial stereotypes post-9/11, worked to build a multiracial, multicultural movement for immigrant and refugee rights. Oregon Action, formed in 1980, focused on addressing economic and racial justice issues statewide. Today, Unite Oregon operates over 30 programs annually, convenes city-wide and regional anti-displacement and equitable development coalitions, and partners with abolitionist organizations across the state on policy advocacy. Our work is rooted in an intercultural framework, using a strengths-based approach that honors the community's deep wisdom, unique circumstances, and expertise.Unite Oregon appreciates the opportunity to partner again with the Northwest Area Foundation over the next two years. This collaboration would elevate our work across our six priority pillars and make Oregon a more just and equitable home;for our community members.;
For collaborative support of the SW Equity Coalition and SW leadership Cohort as they work to empower, stabilize and build capacity among communities in Portland's Southwest corridor
Scaling Our Work: Our 2- Year Vision for a diverse, economically prosperous East Multnomah County and Rural Oregon. Unite Oregon is eager to continue our partnership with NWAF and build on the successes of our initial funding year . We are pooling resources within the organization to create a regional Community Development Team that houses economic prosperity, residential and commercial anti – displacement, climate resiliency, land use and transportation planning, providing us with a platform to scale our initiative to East Multnomah County and to our rural communities in Clackamas County and the Rogue Valley. As with all of Unite Oregon’s work, this next phase will continue to be community-led, and will center IR-bIPOC communities. This project expansion will leverage existing Climate Justice Committees in Clackamas County and the Rogue Valley, as well as Leadership Councils in those regions and Multnomah County.
$250,000
2021
Heatherington Foundation for Innovation and Education in Health Care
TO HELP BIPOC COMMUNITIES PROVIDE ACCESS TO CULTURALLY COMPETENT MENTAL HEALTH CARE SERVICES
To establish the SW Equity Coalition Steering Committee, a collaboration between the Community Alliance of Tenants, Metro and Unite Oregon that will build capacity among communities in the Southwest corridor of Portland and oversee implementation of the SW Corridor Equitable Development Strategy
To collaborate with Keep Growing Seeds, The BIPOC Rise Moor Healing Center and The Black Economic Collective to plan for a Black wellness center in East Portland
To support a coalition amplifying the voices of immigrants, refugees, communities of color and youth in key housing policy discussions in Washington County
