By Willow Ryon, Educator Housing Project Manager, Eastern Oregon Regional Educator Network

“It’s only 2 hours away,” I said to my mother on a Sunny Tuesday afternoon in September. A sentence that had become seemingly normal since moving to Eastern Oregon. Life is different out here. A two-hour commute one way is normal and is something people often do multiple times a week. On the west side of the state, a two-hour drive was reserved for weekend trips so I wasn’t surprised when my mom responded “only?” in a tone that indicated she thought I was crazy.

Growing up in a rural community in Southern Oregon I was accustomed to my parents driving to the next town over to work and shop. I naively thought “how different could it really be?” when agreeing to live in Burns, OR.

Drastically different.

My hometown, Rogue River, OR, is situated between two decently sized urban centers – 9 miles south of Grants Pass and 20 miles north of Medford – with a major interstate connecting them all.

Burns, OR on the other hand is 132 miles from ANY urban center. To get to Bend, OR, one has to travel over 2 hours west, crossing two county lines. To reach Ontario, OR on the Idaho border, one has to travel over two hours east crossing 1 county and losing an hour in the process as you cross a time zone on your way.

On this Tuesday afternoon I was gaining an hour though, making my trip back to Burns from Vale. Although only my third week on the job, I had grown fond of my weekly drives from Burns to Vale and back. With most of the two-hour trip being out of cell range on a straight desert highway, it gave me a ton of time to think about what the hell I had signed myself up for.

You see, the two-hour commute wasn’t the first thing my mom had found crazy about this job. The first was that, somehow, in the midst of a housing crisis, a 22-year-old decided that moving to one of the most remote and desolate regions in the state would be a good idea to explore a career working in housing.

And in a way she was right. The decision was one made with extreme enthusiasm and affinity for rural Oregon. It was one made with the desire to serve communities often left out of the conversation. With the desire to put my education to use while pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying something new.

It’s been four months since I started with the Eastern Oregon Regional Educators Network and all of these things have remained with me long after the newness of it all wore off. Trying to implement place-based solutions to workforce housing issues has not been easy. I’ve hit more roadblocks, had more setbacks, been told no more often than not, and have had hundreds of conversations that lead absolutely nowhere.

As the Eastern Oregon Regional Educator Network’s Educator Housing Project Manager (a mouthful I know), I am tasked with asset mapping all fourth school districts we serve across five counties. This includes gaining a better understanding of their current barriers to recruiting quality educators, identifying how housing plays a role in that and what land and housing assets they can utilize to bolster their recruitment efforts. The second project I oversee is the creation of a regional CTE construction program that creates access to elective credits and trade skills for high schoolers in Eastern Oregon while having them build houses for the school districts deemed most vulnerable through asset mapping. It’s no small feat. Especially for someone who has no background in construction in a region with a contractor shortage.

Defeated.

It’s how I would have described myself, especially on Tuesday, January 4th as I got into my car at 7:30 in the morning to begin my 3-hour journey on icy roads to Monument, OR. Our first groundbreaking ceremony. One I take no credit for, but an event that reinvigorated my soul and reminded me of why I stepped into this space to begin with.

A local (and by local, I mean from a town 45 minutes away) newspaper reporter snapped pictures of all 60 kids in the school excitedly yelling “thank you” as they stood around a piece of plywood that had “new house” crookedly spray painted on it. Behind them a hole in the ground that held a promise of opportunity, and off in the distance the now empty, old school building that would later provide us a warm place to celebrate the occasion with cake. More pictures were taken of the handoff of two shovels that had been picked up at some small hardware store somewhere and decorated with puffy paint, to my supervisor and the school superintendent.

I made this crazy decision for the 60 smiling kids in front of me and for others like them because I desired to support their access to quality education which starts with housing their educators. I did it for this moment.

About the author, Willow Ryon: Growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Willow experienced first-hand the socio-economic issues that can plague rural spaces. Receiving PathwayOregon, a scholarship through the University of Oregon that pays tuition for low-income rural Oregonians for all four years, Willow was able to fulfill her dreams of attending college. Knowing that her attending college had only become a reality because of the support of her community back home, she dedicated her time in college to getting a degree that would allow her to someday give back to her community. Graduating with her Bachelor’s of Science in Planning, Public Policy and Management with minors Nonprofit Administration and Economics, Willow desired to help bridge the gaps rural communities face specifically in regards to access to affordable housing and higher education.

Interested in gaining community and economic development experience of your own? Are you looking for a life changing experience in rural Oregon? Learn more about serving with the RARE AmeriCorps Program. Applications for Year 30 (2023-24) due April 30, 2023 by 11:59pm PDT.