The CBEL Approach: Centering Residents, Building Resilience
Written by Tim Buckley, October 2025
Five years ago, CBEL began a novel program to raise the boats of all Salem and Keizer’s residents, focusing on neighborhoods where families face the most adversity (neighborhood violence, housing insecurity and lagging academic achievement). It began with one neighborhood – Hallman-Northgate - and one Neighborhood Family Council.
There are now five Neighborhood Family Councils (NFC) in five neighborhoods. To acknowledge the accomplishments of 32 volunteers who make up the Councils, we sent out a questionnaire to get feedback about CBEL’s unique community resilience approach.
Each of those who responded has watched carefully as the project expanded. Here’s a response from the recently retired director of Oregon’s Department of Human Services:
From experience, I’ve seen how often systems struggle to truly connect with the communities they serve even as they commit to community engagement. What makes CBEL’s Neighborhood Family Council model so unique and effective is that it doesn't just consult residents—it centers them. By creating councils comprised of volunteers who live in the same school catchment areas and who are only accountable to their neighbors, CBEL has built a structure that fosters authentic grassroots leadership. The CBEL model empowers community members to become active drivers of neighborhood change. That kind of trust and autonomy is rare, and it’s exactly what’s needed to ensure relevance, responsiveness, and long-term impact. - Fariborz Pakseresht
Top-down approaches tend to be focused on getting other people to do something they aren’t ready to do. Grassroots actions tend to focus on the change people want to see happen. Collaboration is necessary to overcome big challenges and to capture big opportunities. I remember a lesson about that from childhood: how easy it is to break a single stick, but when you tie several sticks together it’s very difficult to break them. We are stronger together than on our own. Resilience is the result of internal and external resources being sufficient to face and overcome these challenges. Efforts that focus on prevention, intervention, and treatment put the focus on disease, disability, and disfunction. CBEL’s effort focuses on peoples dreams and promotes five key Strengthening Families Protective factors as a means for moving in that direction. - Jim Seymour, CBEL Director
The genuineness of the CBEL model invites us all to not only start but to stay in the relationships we build across our neighborhoods. It's not a layer we put on top of everything else but springs from the roots we already have. We must nurture those roots to grow. - Cathy Clark, Mayor of Keizer
Traditional community organizers focus on us and them. In CBEL 's paradigm, there is only us. Everyone is welcome in the tent. - Rick Newton, CBEL Training Consultant
This kind of grassroots engagement exemplifies how diverse community members—each bringing unique experiences, networks, and skill sets—can unite around shared goals in safety, housing, and education. What makes the CBEL model so powerful is its emphasis on relationship-building and shared ownership. Unlike a top-down approach, which often imposes solutions without local input, CBEL creates space for open dialogue, mutual respect, and co-creation. When people feel heard and involved, they’re more likely to stay engaged and invest in long-term outcomes. The safe environment CBEL fosters allows for honest conversations about challenges and sparks innovative ideas that are rooted in the lived realities of the community. Ultimately, this model holds greater potential for lasting change because it builds trust, accountability, and resilience from the ground up. It’s not just about solving problems—it’s about empowering people to shape the future of their own neighborhoods. - Sue Bloom, former CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Marion and Polk Counties
Getting involved where you live is the best way to invest in the future. CBEL provides the framework for investment in others, ourselves and the places we live. - Sally Cook, Marion County Health Educator
