Launching Soon · 2025 – 2026

Something New
Is Coming

Three new programs — built on the same values that power everything THTF does. Community-designed. Dignity-first. Free. Open to all. And already yours to shape before they launch.

THTF Neighborhood Voices
Workplace Acts of Service
Neighbor-to-Neighbor Skill Share
"There is Always Room Inside."
3Programs Launching
FreeAlways, No Exceptions
OpenTo Everyone, No Barriers
BuiltWith Community, Not For It
Three New Programs

Meet What's Coming

Each program has its own full page with everything you need to know. Here's the view from the doorway.

Launching Soon
📰
THTF Neighborhood Voices
Every neighborhood has a story. We're here to help tell it.
Free training in storytelling, journalism & photography
Paid stipends for published work — no experience required
Workforce development built into the program design
Open to all — especially immigrants, refugees & first-time storytellers
Read the Full Program Page →
Community Education & Workforce Development

Neighborhood
Voices

Every community has stories that deserve to be told — and people inside those communities who are already the best possible tellers of them. THTF Neighborhood Voices trains residents from immigrant, refugee, and underrepresented communities to become neighborhood journalists, oral historians, and cultural documentarians.

Participants receive free hands-on training in storytelling, photography, audio recording, and community interviewing. Published contributors are paid stipends. No journalism background is required — only a story worth telling and a neighborhood worth preserving.

Free to participate Stipends for published work Workforce development No experience needed All languages welcome
1
Apply & attend a Story Circle — a free, informal orientation to the program and your community's storytelling landscape
2
Receive free training in storytelling fundamentals, photography, oral history technique, and community journalism ethics
3
Pitch and produce your story with support from THTF mentors and community editors who know your neighborhood
4
Get published and paid — your work is distributed on humbletravelers.org and in community print, with English translation for all non-English stories
Launching Soon
🤝
Workplace Acts of Service
Building real relationships between employers and the communities they work in.
Service projects co-designed with the communities served
Skill-sharing, cultural exchange & neighborhood projects
Impact reporting for participating employers
Not a PR program — a relationship-building one
Read the Full Program Page →
Employer & Community Partnership

Workplace Acts
of Service

Portland-area employers want to do more for their communities — but too often that energy gets channeled into events that feel performative to the very people they claim to serve. Workplace Acts of Service is different.

This program connects employer teams with structured, meaningful service in immigrant and refugee neighborhoods — where the projects, priorities, and terms are co-designed with those communities, not imposed on them. The result is genuine relationship, measurable impact, and a partnership that actually means something to everyone involved.

Community-designed projects Skill-sharing sessions Cultural exchange Employer impact reporting THTF community liaisons
1
Partner intake — we learn about your team size, capacity, and genuine interests; no corporate-speak required
2
Community co-design — THTF works with neighborhood partners to identify service projects that residents have actually asked for
3
Service day(s) — your team participates in skill-sharing, beautification, cultural exchange, or hands-on projects, guided by THTF liaisons
4
Impact report — you receive a documented summary of outcomes, community feedback, and options for ongoing partnership
Launching Soon
🌱
Neighbor-to-Neighbor Skill Share
Your expertise is a gift. So is your neighbor's.
Hyperlocal skill exchange — matched by neighborhood
No money, no credentials, no barriers of any kind
Every person is both student and teacher
Sessions in homes, libraries & community centers
Read the Full Program Page →
Hyperlocal Skill Exchange

Neighbor-to-Neighbor
Skill Share

Inside every neighborhood are people who know things — how to cook, how to sew, how to repair a bike, how to file taxes, how to speak a language, how to build something with their hands. And inside every neighborhood are people who want to learn those very things.

Neighbor-to-Neighbor Skill Share connects those people. No money changes hands. No credentials are checked. Every person is both student and teacher. Skills are matched through a simple platform maintained by THTF volunteers, with sessions hosted in homes, libraries, and community centers across Portland's outer neighborhoods.

Free — no fees, ever No credentials required Matched by neighborhood In-person sessions Every skill welcome
1
Tell us what you know and what you want to learn — cooking, language, computers, bike repair, tax help, childcare, carpentry, whatever it is
2
Get matched with a neighbor in your area who complements your offer — someone who wants what you have and has what you want
3
Meet in person at a home, library, or community center — your choice — with simple coordination support from THTF volunteers if you need it
4
Keep going — ongoing sessions, new matches, and growing circles of skill and relationship within your neighborhood
What All Three Share

Built on the Same Foundation

Every program THTF builds starts with the same non-negotiables.

🆓
Free. Always.
No participant in any THTF program ever pays to participate. Donations are welcome and never required. No one is turned away.
🚪
Low Barriers by Design
No lengthy applications. No complex eligibility rules. We design the front door to be as wide as possible, then work with whoever walks through it.
🤲
Community as Author
We don't build programs and then invite communities into them. We start with community and build from there. Every program here was shaped by the people it serves.
🌍
Immigrant & Refugee Centered
Our programming is designed specifically to be accessible, culturally aware, and genuinely useful to Portland's immigrant and refugee communities — without being exclusive to them.
💪
Empowerment, Not Charity
We do not do things for people. We equip, train, connect, and support — and then step back. The accomplishment belongs to the community.
There Is Always Room Inside
Our tagline is also our operating principle. Every program creates space. Every person is welcome. Every community has something to offer and receive.
Shape What Comes Next

Your Ideas Build
Our Next Program

"We don't decide what this community needs. We ask. Then we listen. Then we build together."

The three programs on this page exist because people in Portland neighborhoods said they needed them. That process doesn't stop — it's how THTF works. What comes after these three programs is entirely up to what the community tells us next.

Submit your idea. We read every one. Strong ideas with community interest become our development shortlist. You are not a participant in this work — you are a decision-maker in it.

💡
Community Tool Library — free-to-borrow tools so every household has what it needs to fix, build, and maintain their home without buying everything from scratch
💡
Elder Story Archive — structured oral history recording with Portland elders, preserving first-person accounts of migration and community-building before they are lost
💡
Digital Literacy Circles — peer-led tech help for adults navigating smartphones, email, government portals, and telehealth — in their own language, at their own pace
💡
Youth Cultural Exchange — connecting young people from different cultural communities across the same city who share neighborhoods but rarely share the same space
💡
Have a different idea entirely? Even better. The best programs we've built came from things no one on our team thought of first. Submit yours below.
Tell Us Your Idea
All ideas are read by the THTF team. Ideas with strong community interest move to our development shortlist. There are no wrong answers here.

We respond to all ideas within two weeks. Submitting doesn't commit you to anything — it starts a conversation.

Idea received.

Thank you for helping us decide what to build next. We read every submission and will be in touch if your idea moves forward.
— The THTF Team