June/July 2026 – Connect, Resource, and Mobilize.

On May 29th, over 600 people gathered at the SLF Community Celebration events —lunch and dessert—to hear stories of how SLF is “Building Bridges” by connecting, resourcing and mobilizing networks of neighbors, churches and nonprofits for the flourishing of everyone in our community. We are thrilled to report that the event raised over $215,000 in support of SLF’s vision of Salem/Keizer becoming the healthiest community in all of Oregon, truly a city of Shalom!

This year marks 30 years of SLF serving our community. At both events SLF’s first employee, Sam Skillern, took a break from his Hawaiian vacation to join us on a Zoom call. It was wonderful to be encouraged by Sam to “celebrate what has been and lean boldly into what’s next.”

Hailey Hulsey of Punx with Purpose and Maddie Leutwyler of Salem Free Clinics shared about the SLF Development Cohort, a 9-month training experience designed to connect leaders and provide resources to help nonprofits achieve financial sustainability. Hailey shared about writing and being awarded a grant for $25,000 for a truck which helps them transport their youth participants to their graduations!

Rian Rasubala shared about the great work of Neighborhood Partnership Teams in providing over 6,000 full-size pies to all SKPS employees. Rian also shared about a project with Chick-fil-A to help increase attendance rates in schools across our community. We love blessing our schools!

Finally, Valerie Geer outlined the four pillars of the Churches as Neighborhood (CaN) Centers Network—contracted site churches, Preaching Peace, Charity 2 Change, and the CaN Collaborative leadership team. All of these are designed to connect, resource and mobilize churches to pursue Shalom (Peace, Right Relationships) in their neighborhoods.