We encourage you to explore several of our projects so you can decide where you fit in best. There are seasoned volunteers to help show you the ropes. We currently offer several opportunities to work inside the Portland prison, Columbia River Correctional Institution, near the airport.

Community In-Reach Projects include:

• Monthly Transition Forum. One Saturday per month volunteers – along with men who have completed our leadership training – meet with those from the general prison population who are about to be released.
• Relational Culture Strategies. This meets Wednesday evenings. Volunteers are invited to join us any time. Three times per year we present an intensive leadership training based on MACG’s Leadership Institutes for Public Life. We invite MACG leaders to come in to participate in the training.
• Problem-Solving. This course meets on Tuesday mornings. It is geared toward cognitive restructuring and is taught by two retired professors from Portland State University, along with an ex-convict Cultural Advisor.

For all in-prison work volunteers need to have a background check, so please contact us at least one week prior to your visit with your full name, driver’s license number and state, and your date of birth. Please contact Musa Olsen or Scott Brazieal with this information. PHOENIX keeps your personal information confidential.

In-the-Community Projects are open to all and include:

• Mentor Project. Community volunteers team up with a trained ex-convict Cultural Advisor to serve as mentors for parolees who have graduated from our projects inside the prison. Special training is offered periodically. Participation in PHOENIX projects provides the best exposure to how this works.
• General Meetings. These meet once a month and are open to all. We have speakers from various organizations and areas of expertise talk about issues of concern to those who have been incarcerated.
• Core Team Meetings. These also meet once a month and are open to all. They serve as our main connection to the work of MACG by bringing issues to them that reflect the concerns of PHOENIX members.
• Problem-Solving-in-the-Field. This meets on Tuesday evenings at Portland State University. It is an extension of our in-prison Problem-Solving class and is taught by the same two professors.

For exact dates, times and locations, please visit our calendar. For your convenience there are links to MapQuest directions.