2025 Friends & Allies Fall Summit

Skill-Building Circles

These two-hour workshops are focused on sharing and skill-building in a core area of practice identified by partners at previous summits, aimed at expanding your organization’s capacity and impact. Facilitators are local leaders with grounded experience and will work to provide a tool you can take directly into your work and advocacy. 

Attendees will select one Skill-Building Circle to attend during registration.

Accessibility vs Ability to Access (Useful Information)

Facilitators: Georgena Moran, Sharon Mitchell, Debbie Timmins of Access for All, LLC

This workshop will provide an understanding of what people with a broad range of abilities need to know before they go to a park or trail, regardless of its degree of accessibility.

Participants will:

  • understand what basic information is most useful to provide people with a broad range of abilities (and disabilities), so they can decide for themselves if a park or trail meets their needs and desired experience, or level of adventure

  • review online parks and trails that provide this useful information on park websites

  • learn and brainstorm ways to gather information at a park site with the use of staff or volunteers

  • practice the skills they learned

Georgena Moran

Georgena is an ICC certified Accessibility Specialist with over 25 years of experience. She is well versed in the ADA and ABA Accessibility Standards, and is certified as a Universal Trails Assessment Processor. Georgena is the founder and Project Manager of Access Recreation, in 2006, and the co-owner of Access for All, LLC, consulting, training and advocating for inclusive information for people with disabilities for access to outdoor recreation, particularly in parks and trails.

Sharon Mitchell

Sharon Mitchell is a media specialist.  She is a retired broadcast journalist with 25 years of experience as a radio and television reporter, anchor and story producer in the Portland market. She has been involved with Access Recreation since 2009 and serves as a member of the AR field team, as videographer, photographer, editor and co-producer of videos created for the AccessTrails project.   

Debbie Timmins 

Debbie Timmins has been part of Access Recreation since 2009.  She enjoys taking photos, writing descriptions for the AR webpages and managing the Facebook page. Her prior work was with Portland Parks and Recreation, for over 30 years as the supervisor of the Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation program and ADA coordinator.

Bridging Generations: Creating Meaningful Connections Between Youth and Elders

Facilitator: Pamela Slaughter, Executive Director, People of Color Outdoors

This interactive workshop explores ways that nonprofits and community groups can build meaningful intergenerational connections. Participants will learn about (and share about) the powerful benefits of bringing youth and elders together, from reducing isolation and ageism to increasing empathy, cultural knowledge, and expanding horizons. 

Through guided discussion, peer-sharing, and hands-on activities, each participant will walk away with a draft plan for an intergenerational program tailored to their community, and a guide to help them plan. Whether you're looking to launch a new program or deepen an existing one, you'll leave with renewed confidence, inspiration, and practical next steps.

Pamela Slaughter

Pamela Slaughter is a respected environmental advocate, TEDx speaker, author, and community leader based in Portland, Oregon. She is the founder and executive director of People of Color Outdoors (POCO), a nonprofit that creates safe, joyful, and culturally welcoming outdoor experiences for BIPOC communities and white parents of non-white children.

Pamela is the author of Hi! My Name is Robin!, a children’s book that introduces young readers to the American robin while encouraging a love for nature. In 2025, she delivered her TEDx talk titled "Our Children Need Hope AND Action," where she challenged audiences to move beyond awareness and actively reconnect children with the natural world.

Pamela was the first recipient of the Joey Pope Award from the Portland Parks Foundation (2022), selected for the adidas Community Lab Accelerator (2023), and featured on OPB’s Think Out Loud and Oregon Field Guide (2024). Her work continues to expand access to natural spaces and nurtures environmental leadership in children as well as adults.

Grantwriting for Community Impact

Facilitator: Rebecca Burrell, Strategist and Community Organizer

In 2025, grant funding is uniquely competitive. In order to win grants, organizations must clearly communicate why their work is necessary to the community, and inspire the funder to invest in their vision. In this highly interactive, hands-on session, we’ll talk about how to demonstrate the need for your project, and why your organization is the one to bring it to life. You will receive resources to help frame your project, and walk away with customized language you can use in an upcoming grant application. 

Rebecca Burrell

Rebecca Burrell (she/they) is a freelance strategist and community organizer who has supported Portland nonprofits for the past 20 years. From 2016-23, she built a fundraising program from scratch for the media arts center Open Signal, where she secured millions of dollars in funding from local and national sources, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. She has served on grant panels for funders like the Oregon Arts Commission, Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the Oregon Community Foundation. 

Rebecca is also an interdisciplinary artist and writer, and a 2024 graduate of Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she received an MFA, as well as an MA in Critical Studies. In all of her work, she is committed to empathy, justice, and adventure.