Meet Our RARE AmeriCorps Participant: Aubrey Erwin

Aubrey Erwin RARE Resource Assistance for Rural Environments

Aubrey Erwin received her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Literature from Albertson College in Idaho. As a student, Aubrey worked with the campus environmental organization TERRA (The Environmental Resource & Recreation Association), where she worked across organizations and social groups to education and advocate for sustainability. After attaining her Bachelor’s degree, Aubrey served with the Idaho Food Bank as an AmeriCorps Vista member. During her first year of AmeriCorps, Aubrey worked as a Summer Feeding Associate that included a wide away of program implementation and coordination related responsibilities. Now with RARE AmeriCorps – Resource Assistance for Rural Environments, Aubrey hopes to contribute as many of her strengths as possible to the betterment of the community she serves. Following her year with the RARE Program, Aubrey plans to study urban & regional planning at the graduate level.

Aubrey is placed with Sandy Main Street. In September 2008, the City of Sandy was selected to participate in the Clackamas County Main Street Program, in conjunction with the Oregon Main Street Program. Currently, Sandy Main Street is participating in the Oregon Main Street Program at the “Transforming Downtown” level. As such, Sandy Main Street is committed to downtown revitalization using the Main Street Four-Point Approach, and is working incrementally to implement the program.

With Sandy Main Street, Aubrey will coordinate and manage an array of activities leading to further development of the downtown area, including filling vacant stores, recruiting businesses, counseling property owners, and developing and expanding existing events. Specifically, Aubrey will spend the majority of her time developing processes, procedures and methods for helping new businesses locate in Sandy. Additionally, Aubrey will work with Main Street’s Promotion Committee on a local restaurant promotion plan, plan and execute a visioning process for downtown Sandy, and help manage the organization’s master database of properties, businesses, vacancies, etc.

Organization: Sandy Main Street
Community: Sandy, Oregon
Population: 9,774
County: Clackamas

ready. . . set. . . SNOW!

Top Story on the News Tonight: Snow

Just about every community in the state of Oregon is hunkering down for snow, snow and even more snow. Levels range from 1 to 3 inches along the south coast to 7 to 10 inches in areas east of the Cascade Range. The National Weather Service says the cold weather will last through the weekend and transition to milder and wetter conditions (a.k.a. rain) by the middle of next week.  With that in mind, the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments-RARE AmeriCorps participants took a moment to share photos of their community’s first winter wonderland conditions before the rain washes it all away.

Resource Assistance for Rural Environments - University of OregonThe mission of the RARE Program is to increase the capacity of rural communities to improve their economic, social, and environmental conditions, through the assistance of trained graduate-level participants, from across the US.  These RARE AmeriCorps participants live in and serve 25 rural Oregon communities assisting in the development and implementation of projects for achieving a sustainable natural resource base and improving rural economic conditions. The markers on the map represents the 25 RARE placements throughout Oregon for 2013-14.


Special thank you to Andrew Barbier, Aubrey Erwin, Jeremy Goldsmith, Laura Goodrich, Maggie Hanna, Julie Havens, Katherine Hayes, Blake Helm, Gabby Pauling, Maddie Phillips, Rebecca and Jason Sergeant, Saira Siddiqui, and Titus Tomlinson for sharing their photos with us.