Community Calendar

There's an exciting event that you can experience virtually from home. Please check out the 16th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, which will be happening during March 19- March 28, 2021. Normally, you’d have to travel to Eugene to catch DisOrient, but this year, they are having their first all virtual film festival. DisOrient is dedicated to broadening the representation of Asian American and Pacific Islander voices and narratives. DisOrient will be showing 12 films with filmmaker Q&A’s (9 pre-recorded and 3 live streamed) plus 1 panel discussion on “The Role of API Filmmakers in Supporting Black Lives Matter.” Please go to https://disorientfilm.org to explore their program. You have the flexibility to watch the films when it’s convenient for you within the dates of the festival. Once you start watching, you have 24 hours to complete viewing, which means you can re-watch within that 24 hr. window.

Dip into Jacksonville history at your leisure! Want a quick sample? Then check out our daily Facebook and Instagram posts. Want an overview? Watch our new 30 minute video tour of Jacksonville. Want to dig deeper? Check out historic sites at our Walk through History Blog or learn about early settlers at Pioneer Profiles. Posts! Blogs! Video! It's Jacksonville's history at your fingertips right here at www.historicjacksonville.org!

Rebuilding lives, livelihoods, and a sense of personal safety isn’t something anyone needs to do alone. COVID-19 and the 2020 Oregon wildfires have changed our lives. There are resources and supports available for you and the ones you love, and Lines for Life will help connect you to the right ones for you! This FEMA-funded outreach program is designed to connect individuals with compassionate assistance and resources to ease the burden of COVID-19 and the Oregon wildfires, strengthen community networks, and foster resiliency. We help individuals obtain housing/shelter assistance, food assistance, COVID-19 assistance, legal assistance, behavioral health assistance, transportation, small business relief, and more.  These services are free, confidential, and have no eligibility criteria — anyone who needs support gets support! Anyone can be connected with a member of our team by calling 971-420-1028, or for Spanish call 971-420-1018, or by email at FEMAhelp@linesforlife.org.

Join the Teens Get Active Challenge! Using the World Walking app or website and a pedometer--don't worry, we'll give you one if you don't already have one--we'll log our steps and attempt to virtually walk across the country as a team! This challenge will last throughout the month and includes two Tai Chi classes and an Intro to K-Pop dancing. Let's see how much our bodies can move!

A storywalk is a great way to combine fresh air, movement, and early reading skills. Stroll through William Mott Memorial Park while reading pages of the book Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson placed along the fence near the park's wetlands. This program is co-sponsored by the Central Point Library and Central Point Parks and Recreation and will run from March 17th through March 24th during park open hours.

AARP Tax Aide will offer free tax preparation services this year using a process intended to keep taxpayers and volunteers safe in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines. This service is by appointment only. The process this year is designed to minimize physical contact while allowing AARP volunteers to prepare complete and accurate returns. You will be asked to: Pick up a packet at the Ashland Branch during regular hours. This includes documents that you will need to bring to your appointment (see below) as well as documents to fill out so that volunteers have all of your information for the 2020 tax year. Request an appointment. Once you have all of your information compiled, you will use the AARP site to request an appointment for a brief meeting with one of the tax counselors. Add yourself to the Wait List (instructions inside packet). Meet with a tax counselor. Bring your information packet to the Library for a brief review with a tax counselor, who will then scan your documents and return them to you. At that meeting you will schedule a time to come back and pick up your return. Follow-up appointment for tax return. Your return will be prepared and reviewed by tax counselors working remotely. Then the return will be printed out and reviewed with you by a tax counselor at the library. You must wear a face covering (nose and mouth) and maintain social distancing at all times.

The Jackson County Syringe Exchange Program (SEP) is part of a comprehensive public health approach, that is evidence-based, to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and other bloodborne pathogens among people who use injection drugs, their families, and the larger community. On Friday events, we also offer HIV and Hepatitis-C test for no-cost. Services are anonymous and include: -Exchange used points for new points, 1 for 1 exchange -Safe injection supplies -Wound care supplies -Safer sex supplies -Risk reduction counseling -Referrals to medical care, HIV and STD testing and treatment, naloxone, mental health, alcohol and drug treatment, and medication assisted treatment -Naloxone kits are provided twice a month through HIV Alliance -Fentanyl Test Strips

Good News Club is a free weekly Bible club where children age 5-12 can discover hope and develop character through fun stories, songs, games, and more! Club teachers are carefully trained and screened for your child's safety. Visit our website to find a club near you and register!

Have a 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grader that isn't getting any sexuality education in school this year?  We’ve got you covered with virtual sex ed for 5th-8th graders! We have virtual classrooms that include medically accurate, inclusive sessions covering puberty, birth control, and more! To learn more and register for an upcoming series, visit these links: 5th/6th grade - https://bit.ly/LiveVirtual5th-6th, 7th/8th grade - https://bit.ly/LiveVirtual7th-8th.

The Southern Oregon Guild of Artists & Artisans invites you to join us for a 5 week online class series, Prophetic Activist Art with Tom Block. Every Wednesday night on ZOOM from 5-7pm MARCH 24 – APRIL 21, Tom Block will lead you through the principles of activist art by developing projects during the class. Prophetic Activism is based on the idea that true social transformation must come from within societal pillars, and the best manner of implementing change is to influence these power centers! The course draws on Tom Block's book, "Prophetic Activist Art: Handbook for a Spiritual Revolution" and introduces artists to the specific ideas of the art-activism model drawing on his 20-year history as an activist artist, writer, and art producer. It outlines a specific model of using art to spur social transformation, as an extension of both artistic and spiritual practice. It develops a model which can be implemented by artists working in any media. Prophetic Activist Art brings together medieval conceptions of prophecy, art's historic purpose to raise the human gaze toward the ineffable, and the contemporary "cult of the individual," to propose a mysticism of action, with art as the regenerating force. To learn more about Tom Block, visit www.tomblock.com This workshop will inspire you to: -Harness political, business and social energy -Partner with nonprofit groups -Make liaisons with non-art activists -Utilize innovative and unusual exhibition and outreach methods -Build a project from inception through completion -Imagine and attain quantifiable activist goals The course will build on itself over the five weeks, and we ask that participants commit to joining for all five weeks. Participants will receive a copy of Tom Block's book for their ongoing reference and personal library. To register for this special class series visit our website: www.southernoregonguild.org.