Want to be a uniter, not a divider? To build relationships, strengthen collaboration skills and explore different views, all while working together to address issues related to housing and homelessness?

Urban Rural Action, a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization that strives to bring Americans together across divides to tackle the nation’s most urgent challenges, is looking for 28 volunteer participants from four Southern Oregon Counties — Jackson, Douglas, Josephine and Klamath — to take part in a seven-month project to make a meaningful impact on housing and homelessness in Southern Oregon, all while building relationships and engagement in the community.

Signups for the program, which offers a $500 stipend for participants — described as “Uniters” — to cover the costs of travel to gatherings and other expenses, are due by March 31, followed by a kick-off program on April 12 in Medford.

Helping Urban Rural Action pull together a team for the project is Ashland resident Marla Estes, who created the nonprofit Building Bridgers in 2017 to address the political polarization in our country.

Estes has something in common with Urban Rural Action founder Joe Bubman, who had previously worked for Mercy Corps, an organization which helps foreign countries with conflict management. When Bubman he saw that the polarization in the United States really needed some attention, he brought in some of the tenets that he learned as a facilitator in war-torn places.

In an interview, Estes describe how essential it can be to get people talking together.

“Studies … have shown something called ‘contact theory,’ that if you put people together, not around a top election, but rather a project that people have some passion for, doing it together, (then) we don’t label the people politically,” she said. “There’s something to show for us. And that can be very healing across any kind of divide. There’s so many things that are not political.”

Her focus is on finding potential volunteers.

“I would like to inspire people to volunteer. You come away with learning something, meeting people you never would have met before, working across the four counties. You’re meeting people with concerns that are different, and they make it fun, and, very lively. I came away with learning a whole lot, even though I thought I knew how to be with people, but I learned more things. I really took satisfaction. I felt so much personally enriched; I expanded my world.”

Urban Rural Action currently operates in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona, in addition to Oregon.

“Bubman developed a system where he could bring groups of diverse people and diverse meaning in all ways, not the ways that it’s typically talked about, but politically, urban, rural, socioeconomic as well as age, race, gender, all of those things, etc. to problem solve together across differences,” Estes said. “Learning these roles; it’s really beautiful. We are doing a pretty good job, getting more inclusive diversity. As a part of the program, there is there are communication trainings, but also how to problem solve together across differences. So one of the things that people get out of this experience is learning those skills and. Some people, depending on their roles, grow into like a leadership”

Urban Rural Action’s 2024 projects included reconstituting the community gardens in Butte Falls, one of the poorest towns in Oregon, with a tiny population of 500.

“They have a high homeless rate, too, even with just a few people,” Estes said. “With our $5,000 (budget) we bought soil, we bought fencing, we bought pan our beds, we even got had enough money for a little greenhouse. The cool thing about this program is not only does it do trainings and bring people together and build relationships across differences, but we get stuff done.”

And in Douglass county, she said, “(we) did a fabulous program to help rural families and kids with fewer means, to help with drivers’ ed and pay for their driving licenses. … When you find a project that you have some passion for, when they do something together, that can be very healing.”

More info:
To go to the Urban Rural Action website, click here
To watch a video about a recent Urban Rural Action project in Butte Falls, click here
For more information or to signup, email Marla Estes at marla@uraction.org, Maree Beers at maree@uraction.org or Jenny Seward at jenny@uraction.org, or visit uraction.org/oregon. (Note: As of March 18, applications are now closed for Klamath and Jackson counties, but are still open through March 31 for Josephine and Douglas counties.)

Bridging Divides
Marla Estes will present one in a series of session on “Bridging Divides” about depolarizing relationships at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, at the Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library at 1757 Ashland St., Ashland. The video “Poverty, Inc.” will be followed by discussion. The series continues on the third Wednesdays of April, May, June and July. For more information, go to the Building Bridgers website by clicking here and click on the “Events” tab.

Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and non-violence activist who moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Email her at debora.ashlandnews@gmail.com.