About
WeShine stands for Welcoming, Empowering, Safe Habitation Initiative with Neighborhood Engagement. Our villages are located in residential neighborhoods, with wraparound services and robust volunteer engagement. In conjunction with other types of shelter, WeShine is an important component of the region’s shelter ecosystem. And, WeShine villages help reduce the region’s unmanaged encampments.
Mission
WeShine designs, builds, and operates neighborhood-based micro-villages that provide safe, transitional shelter and services where vulnerable, unsheltered adults in the Portland metropolitan area can live as they prepare to become successful tenants in permanent, affordable housing.
Vision
A regional network of micro villages that meet the varied and unique needs of unhoused people throughout many Portland neighborhoods.
Values
Inclusion, dignity, and respect are present in all of our activities and operations.
History
The WeShine Initiative, a nonprofit corporation, was formed in 2021 by a grass roots group of neighbors from several northeast and southeast neighborhoods, who came together to help find better solutions for people experiencing houselessness in Portland.
Founders include Jan McManus, Chris Tanner, Dave Weaver, Joanne Herrigal, and DJ Heffernan, who envisioned a plan where every neighborhood would support at least one managed village to provide transitional housing for unsheltered neighbors.
They were mobilized by the need for neighborhoods to engage in positive productive action to be part of the solution to houselessness — to offer hospitality rather than hostility — as well as a supportive pathway to affordable permanent housing. The white paper Solving Unsheltered Homelessness in Portland and this PSU study Evaluation and Best Practices for the Village Model informed WeShine’s vision, as well as visits and interviews with a variety of village-style communities in Portland, in Oregon and in other states.
Our initial start-up and operational funding came from the Joint Office of Homeless Services and the City of Portland, as well as other grants and donations.
WeShine’s first village, Parkrose Community Village, opened in August 2022. Our second village, Avalon Village, opened in August, 2024, and our third, St Andrews Village, is under construction and will open in early 2025.
Read more about the WeShine Model.
Here are some of the people that make up WeShine. If you would like to join forces with us please join our list here or contact us and see how you can fit in!
OUR TEAM
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Janet (Jan) McManus, LMSW, Executive Director
Janet (Jan) McManus, LMSW is a social worker and social services innovator with more than 45 years’ experience in special needs housing development, crisis intervention and adult protective services, program development and management, long term care, service coordination, and organizational administration and financing. Jan lives in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.
Krysten Hall, Deputy Director
Social activist and educator with 15 years of classroom teaching and tutoring experience. Currently the Deputy Director at WeShine Initiative, a startup nonprofit in Portland, Oregon that builds and operates transitional micro-villages for the unhoused.
Board
Valerie Ilsley, Board President
Retired real estate banker, member of Social Venture Partners and 99 Girlfriends, with an interest in providing administrative support to WeShine, particularly in the area of construction management.
Scott Robertson, Vice President
Scott is a civil engineer who has worked on transit projects in Portland for over 15 years as an inspector, design manager, and construction manager. Scott lives in the Rose City Park neighborhood
Randolph Carter, Treasurer
Randolph Carter, an educational consultant who specializes in diversity, equity and inclusion for schools and colleges and lives in the Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood.
Belinda Green, Secretary
Belinda Green has spent over 30 years in community non-profit organizations addressing needs of crisis management, medical and mental health concerns, and housing assistance. Her passions lie in program development, organizational change, and making communication accessible to everyone. She believes communities are strengthened by engaging all who live there. Belinda lives in NE Portland.
Ruth Tadesse
Ruth Tadesse is the nurse faculty for Adult Mental Health Project ECHO at OHSU. Ruth has a PhD in nursing from the University of Utah, and a masters in gerontology and a post-masters in psychiatric mental health practitioner from OHSU School of Nursing. Ruth specializes in mental health related to older adults including depression, delirium, and dementia. Ruth is also an interventionist on a research study called Tele-STELLA and meets with family caregivers to help them modify behavior that they find upsetting or distressing. In her free time, Ruth likes to spend time with her family and travel and learn about new cultures.
Blair Loudat
Blair is retired from North Clackamas School District where she served as the Director of Technology and Information Services. She is currently an active member of Parkrose UCC, the location of the Parkrose Community Village. Blair is also a volunteer and former board member of SnowCap Community Charities.
Sue Gemmell
Sue enjoys mentoring humanitarian groups that are driven to make the world kinder and more equitable. She brings a human-centered, value-sensitive lens to her expertise in program design and evaluation, strategic planning, and information system design. Sue lives in the Kerns neighborhood in NE Portland.
Theo Hathaway Saner
Theo has extensive experience in both nonprofit and political settings and as a property manager works with low-income renters offering assistance to those facing challenges in meeting their rent obligations. Theo firmly believes that every individual has a fundamental right to access shelter, and a just society should strive to offer housing at a reasonable and fair price.
Dan Valliere
Dan is Associate Director at Asian Health & Service Center and has worked in social services and community development organizations for over 30 years. He also serves on the Board of Project Access NOW and lives in SE Portland.
Advisory Council
Chris Tanner, former board president
Chris Tanner is a retired nurse with decades of experience in teaching, community development and coalition building, grant writing, project management and community health. She has served on several boards of non-profits, and board member and Chair of the Sullivan’s Gulch Neighborhood Association. She is a founding member of the WeShine Board.
Dave Weaver, former board president and secretary
Dave Weaver is a co-founder of WeShine, a web designer, digital resource specialist and neighborhood volunteer with Kerns Neighborhood Association and SE Uplift district coalition board president.
Bruce Murray
Retired real estate banker and business consultant, member of Social Venture Partners, instrumental in the development of CASHOregon, a free tax-preparation program for low-income Oregonians. Bruce has a interest in providing administrative support to WeShine in the area of contract management.
