COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS MEDIA LIBRARY

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Please add your media to our archive by going to the Occupy Eugene Photos Facebook Page or email the Occupy Eugene Media Group (OEMG).  We also encourage you to add comments to these library pages.  Our hope is for the narrative that we create here to include input from everyone involved with Occupy Eugene as well as the Human Rights Movement that it inspired.

Inspired by the Occupy movement, there have been many efforts to address problems in our local community as well as global issues.  This library is a collaboration of media from numerous people who documented Occupy Eugene; from its early encampments to the ongoing activist efforts that have continued ever since.  Included is media from Occupy Eugene’s first General Assembly on September 29, 2011, the big rally and march on October 15, 2011 and the protest camps; beginning at the Park Blocks and going to Alton Baker Park, the University of Oregon Mill Race and Washington Jefferson Park.   Occupy Eugene occupied Washington Jefferson Park from November 5, 2011 to December 25, 2011.  It was there that many people were inspired to go forward with ideas for making things better and it is the honor of the Occupy Eugene Media Group (OEMG) to share the work done by so many Occupiers these past years.

With the help of a University of Oregon Wayne Morse Center Project Grant, OEMG has been able to collect and make available a large amount of media for this library.  Enjoy this raw and edited footage as a means to see what we are doing here in Eugene or even better, use it to create edited media to help in your community–wherever you are.  Please contribute to the library by adding media to our Occupy Eugene Photos Facebook Page or by emailing the Occupy Eugene Media Group.  The goal of this project is to share information that will assist communities near and far to have an increased understanding about the need to help each other and therefore ourselves.

We are beginning this library by populating it with the efforts that have been made in Eugene toward helping the unhoused.  Then we will be adding the many other subjects that are part of the community solutions we are working toward.

In Eugene, finding solutions for the unhoused has been one way caring people have worked very hard to make our community a better place for everyone.  In part because so many people came to the Occupy Eugene protest camp out of their desperate need for a legal place to create shelter and sleep, this was a problem that could not be ignored.  As the housed and unhoused began to know each other, one thing became clear–the suffering on our own city’s streets needed to stop!

Ongoing protest camps occupied Eugene’s Federal Courthouse after Washington Jefferson Park was shut down. One of those camps was set up in the yard of a house in foreclosure on Lawrence Street.  They occupied to protest the greediness of the banks and financial industry that played a part in wrecking our economy.  After the  eviction from Washington Jefferson Park, occupiers worked with the City of Eugene to create a Homeless Task Force to analyze and make recommendations on how to alleviate homelessness, but the city government was not progressing with even the previously promised funds to help.  For that reason and more, SLEEPS began protesting for Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep in November of 2012.  Made up mostly of activists at first, the camp was evicted from multiple public places after putting up tents to demonstrate the human need for sleep and the human right to shelter.  In July of 2013, James Chastain (an unhoused original member of SLEEPS) re-invigorated the SLEEPS movement with mostly unhoused individuals tired of struggling for their right to survive.  The unsanctioned camp of Whoville started in early September of 2013 and protested until Spring, when they were evicted from the Hilyard site they had occupied from November 2013 to April 4, 2014. The unsanctioned  OURS camp (Occupy the Universal Right to Survive) and Ninth Ward camp continued the protest at over twenty different sites throughout the winter of 2014/2015.  The Ninth Ward still continues to protest.  All these camps have occupied space to bring attention to the inhumane conditions that people all over America are forced to live in and the laws that criminalize homelessness.

After much pressure from protesters on the streets and hours of public testimony in the City Council chamber, several city sanctioned projects to help the unhoused now exist in Eugene.  Opportunity Village Eugene (OVE) is a Tiny House Village for 30, operating as a transitional community for unhoused people.  For those lucky enough to get a  spot in OVE, having a stable situation is immensely helpful in getting back on their feet. Rest Stops is another sanctioned project for unhioused people in Eugene. Community Supported Shelters began building small shelters called Conestoga Huts to help homeless.  They now sponsor several rest spots where up to 15 people per site can legally shelter themselves in huts and tents and get community support to improve their situations.  The Nightingale Health Sanctuary is also helping people with two rest spots which focus on healing through community, where residents support and help care for one another.

Occupy Medical (OM) is yet another amazing project that stemmed from Occupy Eugene.  Helping anyone that needs it, the OM team now has a bus that arrives with three canopies to give healthcare without proof of income to anyone in line at the park blocks on Sundays.  Herbal remedies are also available free of charge, people are given basic hygiene supplies and new socks when they need them.  Free haircuts are given by the Gorilla Hair Salon and it has been a place where many people have found the help they need.  Food Not Bombs sets up next to OM every week to feed people hot nutritious food. Included in this library is footage from Occupy Medical in various locations and stages since 2011.

These past years many people have been inspired to create additional projects to feed people–The Burrito Brigade, Bad Ass Feeding Frenzy, and Food Love. They are included in this library along with Eugene Avant Gardeners, who formed to take the next step in food security by sharing seeds and plant starts for people to grow in their own gardens.  Eugene Avant Gardeners forms work parties to help people start and maintain their gardens and the project has been a great success.  All these achievements have been the ripple effect of Occupy Eugene and as community efforts go, Eugene has been an excellent example of grassroots efforts really helping people.  In this library you will see many people doing many things to help their community and planet.  It is with great thanks that we share their work here.

Our library could not be complete without the Occupy Eugene Newsletter – The Occupier.  It has been informing our community about both local and global issues, and making the connections between the two since March of 2012. Your can access the current edition and the archives of The Occupier at http://occupyeugenemedia.org/newsletter.

The love and creativity born of the Occupy movement continues to grow and flourish. We are happy to have this opportunity to share our work in Eugene. We hope that others will be inspired to work in their communities. We know that another world is possible.

For more information about some of the above projects, go to their websites at:

http://www.opportunityvillageeugene.org             http://communitysupportedshelters.org            http://occupy-medical.org

Occupy TV and Occupy Radio have been part of the excellent work of Occupiers here in Eugene.  Occupy TV shows were produced by the Occupy Eugene Media Group (OEMG) from approximately March 2012 to May 2013.  Occupy TV still plays on Community Television of Lane County’s Channel 29.  Occupy Radio plays on KWVA FM 88.1 every Wednesday at 7pm.  It has been on the air since April 18, 2012 and has its own website at http://www.occupyradio.org.

Occupy TV Shows                                       Occupy Radio Shows

If you feel inspired by anything you see in this library, please use that energy to help in some way.  If each of us pitches in just a little, we can create the world we all wish to live in.

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