🎆 Happy New Year!
Greetings CLU familia,
Happy new year to you and your loved ones! We recognize that it has been a while since our last update so there’s a lot we have to share with you. This past year has been filled with lots of hope, support, and unity within our communities and many of you played a huge role in this. Thank you to all our partners, donors, and volunteers who helped keep our programs and services running, especially during these uncertain times.
💭 What was CLU up to in 2025?
At the beginning of 2025, we started off strong with our free English classes! Not only did we teach in Corvallis and Lebanon; but, we also expanded to Monroe, Halsey and Harrisburg. In the spring, we brought back our annual mobile clinics at Sandy Ridge Berry Farms and at Colonia Paz in Lebanon, OR. We were able to serve over 100 individuals at our 4 clinics last year. These included agricultural workers and low-income families who are under or uninsured. A huge thank you to our volunteer doctors and partners @Sandy Ridge Berry Farms, @Community Outreach, Inc. (COI) and Linn County Public Health!
During the summer, we continued our support at events like Get Outdoors Day, Open Streets, Pop-Club at the Albany Farmer’s Market, and Summer in the Park at the Corvallis Farmer’s Market. These events provided the community with an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors, get fresh food and enjoy each other’s company.
In September, two of our trained staff brought mental health first aid education to the local community and conducted their first training for adults (in Spanish!). Folks learned about the different types of mental health challenges and disorders, how to recognize signs and symptoms, what to do during a crisis, and more!
Around this time, CLU started our Food Box initiative! As immigration raids and detentions increased, more families became separated. We saw a rise in fear within our community to leave their homes, go to work, take their kids to school, or shop on a weekly basis. These different factors led us to start our Food Box fundraiser in August. This fundraiser gained traction in the first couple months, raising over $5000 as of today. These funds have supplied at least 25 families with nutritious food every month and over 100 individuals with a meal on their tables.
Help keep our families fed! Click here to donate now!
🌟 Volunteer Spotlight 🌟
We’d like to take a moment to spotlight one of our many food box volunteers who’ve been doing the amazing ground work! Thanks to Dee for her contributions to our initiative so far!
Here’s why Dee volunteers for CLU:
“I volunteer for the immigrant community because I come from immigrants as all Americans do. I stand on my great grandfathers’ shoulders who came to this country, one to New York and one to California. They both had the hope of honest work and a good life, just as today’s immigrants do, enduring leaving their homes for a better, safer future. This country was built on people coming from other countries, sharing their cultures and belief of humanity. We need immigrants, we have thrived with their blending into our neighborhoods, our schools, our businesses. I want to pay forward my great grandfathers’ endeavors and be the kind of American they became, generous in spirit and strength”.
🎉 New Year, New Beginnings
Last June, we made the decision to move out of our former Corvallis location at Garfield Elementary school and relocate to the Rivergreen Landing Apartments in South Corvallis. Since being here, we’ve hosted an open house for residents, a backpack giveaway, STEAM activities, and most recently our holiday food bag and school supplies giveaway!
This relocation allowed us to tap into a new, broader community, bringing the same resources and services to them, while still connecting and supporting the families back at Garfield. We continue to work out of our Lebanon office as well, enjoying the support of @FHDC’s wonderful Colonia Paz apartment location and the staff.
We’re hopeful that this change and our partnership with Green Light Development will serve as a stepping stone for bigger and better opportunities for CLU and the communities we serve in 2026.
➡️ Looking into the future!
As we step into 2026 and look towards the future, we want to provide you with an overview of what’s to come! In the next couple of months we will continue teaching our English classes, offer more mobile clinics, a Latine Leadership Conference, our food box program, Festival Latino, tax workshops, and much more.
More details about these events to come! Keep an eye out for our Spring newsletter!