Impact NW is a premier provider of educational and social services in the greater Portland metro area.
Our mission is to help people achieve and maintain self-sufficiency and to prevent and alleviate the effects of poverty.
Impact NW is a private non-profit organization that began in 1966 as Portland Action Committees Together, Inc. (PACT). Four neighborhoods came together and created the agency to address the growing problems associated with poverty in the area. Impact NW’s mission is to prevent and alleviate the effects of poverty through advocacy and the provision of high-quality, culturally relevant human services.
Throughout its 45-year history, Impact NW has been a leader in providing individuals of all ages with the skills and resources necessary to achieve success and to advocate for themselves and their communities. Annually, over 60,000 low-income children, youth, families, seniors, and adults with disabilities participate in Impact NW’s comprehensive anti-poverty programs.
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Impact NW 2010 Organizational Highlights
Trauma Informed Recovery
Impact NW, in partnership with the Regional Research Institute of Portland State University, just began a 3 year project to provide Trauma Informed Care to women residents of our housing programs as well as assess our organizations’ current status in delivering quality Trauma Informed Services. It is the intention of the project to inform/change the broader communities’ current housing system for families so that we can better serve them. The self-assessment will inform other providers on the success of the direct service intervention as well as how as organizations we can better serve our children and families – 95% of whom have a history of trauma, either past, current or both.
Action for Prosperity
The successful Action for Prosperity (AFP) program, in partnership with Multnomah County, Work Systems, Inc., Housing Authority of Portland and the Department of Human Services, expanded to help 210 low-income households increase self-sufficiency and create future prosperity by participating in assertive engagement, training and employment, and housing stability services.
Safe and Together
This pilot program is an enhancement of our highly successful Parent Child Development Services and works to reduce the trauma of foster care placement and to prevent the need for future intervention. The program brings birth parents, foster parents, child welfare officers, counselors, and program advocates to work collaboratively to address the issues that led to the need for intervention and to ease the transition of the child back to the birth family. In order to help families heal and to keep them together after reunification, the program has begun offering free counseling sessions through PSU’s Community Counseling Center address issues that resulted from separation or the underlying issues that led to the child being placed in foster care.
Case Management Model
Program Directors and staff completed a new Case Management Model for the agency in order to maintain high quality standards of work by all staff and programs. The model establishes both theory and practice guidelines, which are evidenced based, to guide all staff in working with our consumers. The model is result of two years of research and work by staff to ensure client-centered, strengths based services are at the core of all we do and that staff have the tools, training and experience to best serve those in need.