TLC Farm
11640 SW Boones Ferry Rd
Portland, OR 97219
Dear Education and Outreach Committees and To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter as a member of the academic community at Portland State University (PSU), and specifically as an educational partner with the Farm for a class I teach in Urban Studies. I offer my strongest support for the Farm and its mission.
I teach 4 sections of an Urban Studies Capstone course at PSU where I am fortunate to work with community partners like the Farm, in order to provide learning environments for undergraduate students in applied ?real life? settings. In our classes, students work with local non-profit organizations to gain an understanding of civic engagement, community development, and environmental ethics.
This past year, students reported some of the greatest learning experiences at the Farm. The unique urban and rural qualities of the location, and the ways that the Farm articulates its challenges into visionary models for social and environmental change is incredibly inspiring. Students were able to use their experiences at the Farm, helping in the construction of an earth masonry building, as a springboard to understanding broader issues of green building and environmental sustainability, embodied energies of building materials and ecological footprints, affordable housing, consensus decision making and community development. The level of our class's understanding of these issues was made manifest through the physical workshops they attended, providing them real life experiences and examples to back up the more conceptual work we do in the classroom.
I look forward to many more years of collaboration with the Farm on educational projects, and am encouraged by their recent organizational development. I trust that they will continue to build a model for environmental stewardship and community living. Portland is seen as a city that is leading the nation in environmental ethics and livability. It is precisely because of projects like the Farm that we have such an identity. We need to support their work and enable their future.
If there is anything I can do to help the Farm, please don?t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Pedro Yusef Ferbel-Azcarate, Ph.D.