CBEL’s Civic Engagement Model Earns Substantial Grant from Meyer Memorial Trust
Written by Tim Buckley, December 2025
More than 100 organizations in the NW applied for funding in the Meyer Memorial Trust category: Our Empowered Youth. The top 25 candidates were interviewed and the finalists hosted site visits from Trust staff evaluators.
Word arrived just before Christmas that CBEL was chosen to receive $130,000 to continue supporting and enlarging the Neighborhood Family Council project in Salem and Keizer in 2026.
CBEL’s work warranted the award, and it reflected the values of Fred G. Meyer, who died in 1978 and left two million shares of stock to begin the charitable foundation.
The website for the Meyer Memorial Trust laid out these basics:
At Meyer, we believe that lasting change — the type that actually reaches homes, schools and gathering spaces across the state — requires a multifaceted approach. That’s why our theory of change is three-fold: we invest in community-based programs, strategies that strengthen movements and efforts to transform existing systems to be more just.
It went on to say:
Meyer prioritizes grants that foster community power and leadership — the civic engagement, organizing, movement-building and infrastructure that enable lasting change.
Beyond issue-specific funding, we invest in strategic initiatives that address structural injustice, build power, and support healing and thriving.
For the specific program for which CBEL applied, the application form said:
We are accepting grant applications that focus on two goals:
Build power for a thriving education through the strategy of strengthening community capacity to engage in systems and policy change for educational justice.
Cultivate educators and leaders that reflect our diverse youth through the strategy of increasing leadership opportunities for youth and community to advocate for educational justice.
Here are specifics in CBEL’s application that address those criteria. CBEL will continue building community capacity by:
Continued support of five Neighborhood Family Councils (NFC), while adding two new Councils in 2026.
NFC priorities are formed by listening to their neighbors, amplifying their collective voice, and advocating their priorities with the greater community and its leaders
Continuing to promote the Strengthening Family Protective Factors (social connections, concrete support in times of need, knowledge of parenting and child development, parental resilience, and social-emotional competence of children in all NVC activities
Continuing to host six annual Collaborative Gatherings, bringing together NFC leaders and community stakeholders to share stories, to validate challenges faced by parents and neighbors, build social capital, and co-create systems change.
Continue to use Results Based Accountability as a core strategy to measure impact, guide decision-making, and stay accountable to the communities we serve.
Expand the free, bilingual infant-toddler playgroups to all CBEL neighborhoods
Scale implementation of Yale University’s RULER program for emotional regulation to neighborhood families, expanding from a school-only setting to being offered in trainings and at home to parents and families in the neighborhood (a first in the nation).
“I believe the strength of the CBEL proposal is in our ability to get important things done by connecting grass roots neighborhood leaders with grass tops systems leaders in a way that honors the voices of lived experience and, at the same time, remains grounded in credible science,” said Jim Seymour, CBEL director. “With neighborhood elementary schools as primary partners, and with other partners like area police, housing, and healthcare organizations, it’s becoming easier to address what neighborhood residents say they need most. That is neighborhood safety, housing security, and an opportunity for their children to get ahead through a good education.”