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Artisans Tim, Megan, Micki, Kristina, Mary, and Devon | |||
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Trillium was founded on John McKnight's principles of asset-based community development, which finds a way out of the tangled web of poverty by focusing on talents and capacities, rather than what is lacking. In 1994, we conducted an asset inventory of extremely low-income neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, and found talented residents wanting to sell their handmade goods and build their own businesses.
To facilitate this, the Eco-Biz program was established and later renamed Trillium Artisans. The Trillium name was chosen because the three-pointed trillium flower reflects the triple bottom line principles (people, planet, and profit) of the sustainability movement.
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Artisans at a recent marketing workshop | |||
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Today, Trillium has a growing group of artisans, wholesale accounts across the country, and a retail store and offices conveniently located in the Lents neighborhood of Southeast Portland.
In 2008, we are focusing on our PDX Green Crafts project, which seeks to continue Trillium's proven track record of providing small business counseling, access to markets, peer networking and technical assistance and training to low-income craftspeople. The project works to expand e-commerce marketing opportunities for the group as a whole, as well as increase the technical skill sets of our member green crafts start-ups.
Trillium Artisans is funded by grants from the City of Portland's Economic Opportunity Initiative, the eBay Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
For more information about us, please visit our profile and blog on WorldofGood.com, an eBay Community.
Note: Trillium Artisans' 501(c)(3) registered name is Neighborhood Pride Team dba Trillium Artisans. We were originally started as a project of the larger nonprofit Neighborhood Pride Team, now defunct.