Portland State Magazine Fall 2021

24 // PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE After a tumultuous year, Portland officially kicked off “the post-pandemic era” with a Pink Martini concert in Pioneer Courthouse Square this summer. While the delta variant soon made clear that the optimismwas a bit premature, there’s no doubt downtown streets have started to pulse with music, art and life once again. (Clockwise from top left.) Dozens of entrepreneurs, makers, artists, culinary wizards and beverage crafters gathered to sell their goods at My People’s Market in the Park Blocks. Snowcones sweetened the start of the four-week Summer Bridge Scholars Program at a celebration for participating students and their families. Darrell Grant, music faculty, played at one of a series of “Soul Restoration Project” performances he organized to “renew and re-consecrate our civic space.” Student artists and volunteers painted street art to brighten a PSU pedestrian plaza. Rain couldn't dampen the spirits of Viks who came out for doughnuts, games, a silent disco and live music in the Urban Plaza on the first day of classes. (Photos by Patric Simon; Darrell Grant photo by Shawnte Sims.) Bringing joy back to downtown students learn to think analytically about business, while con- sidering issues around equity and sustainability. “As a group of MBA professionals, we said, ‘Let’s look at data and the market and see what’s possible.’” The School of Business is “at the forefront” of generating and maintaining relationships with the Portland business community, and participants in the project were able to hone their own consulting skills while meeting an immediate need. “We think it’s a nice benefit to the school alumni and local businesses,” Greenberg says. Current students have also helped with the effort.The Rose City Downtown Collective, a group dedicated to supporting downtown businesses, approached PSU for marketing advice. Their request became a project for 51 students of Jacob Suher, marketing faculty, who volunteered to form 10 teams to create marketing plans for seven downtown Portland businesses. Each team prepared a video presentation and a written marketing plan to guide companies’ strategies. A key element of that was enhancing their ability to employ social media.That’s where tech-savvy students such as Idee Contreras Itehua could offer especially valuable advice. She says she learned that “a lot of these businesses are needing tons of help understanding social media in connection to their business. Either they lack social media presence or are com- pletely lost trying to navigate through.” This fall, Suher’s teams will lend a hand again, and they’re expecting to help up to 12 additional enterprises. Making the streets safer Portland State also is helping create positive solutions to overlapping problems such as those related to shelter and safety. For example, PSU’s Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative has been working with several community partners to help develop and evaluate a new public safety program that provides an alternative to armed police. The group surveyed people experiencing homelessness to understand their needs, concerns and preferences for a safe and effective response. The results informed a city pilot program called Portland Street Response, which sends a firefighter paramedic, mental health crisis clinician and two com- munity health workers to non-violent 911 calls involv- ing mental health, substance use or people experiencing homelessness. “Not only will the program help reduce the criminalization of homelessness and mental illness, but it will also help connect people to services, housing and other support they need to address the complex traumas they’ve experienced,” said Greg Townley, research director at Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative and the lead researcher for the survey and evaluation. “At a time when cities across the country are rethinking how public safety efforts are structured and funded, Portland Street Response can help lead the way for what a new public safety system can look like.” “Portland Street Response can help lead the way for what a new public safety system can look like.”