Fellow Profile
Ben Gates
“Today, cities are being built for singles and empty nesters, while family needs are largely ignored, especially the needs of working families. Our urban family development in Portland is an opportunity to show how American cities can be truly livable by attracting and retaining children and families.”
— Ben Gates
Fellowship Host:
Central City Concern
Portland, OR
Ben Gates has focused his work thus far on catalyzing an urban, mixed-use building that integrates over 150 housing units, a community center, and child-care facility that serves diverse, mixed income families. As Richard Harris, Central City Concern’s Executive Director tells it, “Multiple years and multiple players, stakeholders and partners make this development even more complex than the usual affordable housing project. From the very beginning Ben has managed the public input phase of this project with great skill, patience, and vision … As we move to the next phase, the actual design and building of the housing and community center, Ben will be guiding the development team to produce the housing we have all dreamed of for so long.”
Ben’s facilitation of a neighborhood ‘family forum’ is an example of the kind of community engagement that the Rose Fellowship program seeks to cultivate everywhere. Designed to further the understanding of what families in the central city need, the forum creatively engaged parents and children though the use of a giant neighborhood floor map on which participants imagined and drew neighborhood possibilities. The forum helped rally support for the missing neighborhood amenities of affordable family housing, child care and a community center.
Ben says he learned as much from the process as the other participants. “Talking with neighborhood individuals, families, advocates, professionals, business owners, and politicians has been instrumental in helping me understand issues unique to my project. These conversations have taken on a life of their own. Lately, neighborhood stakeholders have been generating support for our project in their own circles, helping us to indirectly overcome several hurdles.”
Gallery
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Ben Gates
Portland’s River District: Ben’s office and area of work. The district is comprised of the ‘Old Town/Chinatown’ and ‘Peal District’ neighborhoods.
Portland’s Pearl District offers diverse experiences for children, as seen here in Jamison Square. However, the majority of these families live elsewhere as nearby housing has been built primarily for singles and childless couples.
Ben’s facilitation of a public family forum offered creative ways for parents and children to discuss family needs and opportunities in the River District.
Over 30 volunteers worked to make the family forum happen. Alison, Allison, Ben, and Frank (in the blue socks) created the giant neighborhood map which invited drawing and commenting that helped better understand how children see the neighborhood.
To better understand how a city can better serve parents and children, Ben organized a tour of Vancouver BC for project partners and stakeholders. In the courtyard of Pascal Spino’s home, the Portland visitors learn how certain neighborhood features influenced the Spino family’s relocation from the USA.
Jake, a River District resident, takes Portland’s city commissioner Sam Adams for a ride in Vancouver, BC. Both attended the tour facilitated by Ben to learn how to make Portland’s central city more family friendly.
At his first fellowship retreat in Garrison, New York, Ben was encouraged by the challenges and successes faced by the other fellows as well as their enthusiastic support.
Make a Difference Day, Los Angeles, 2006. Ben, together with other Rose Fellows work to encourage school participation by introducing their work, facilitating a creative drawing exercise, and leading an architecture tour of two famous LA buildings.
