We are a small group of neighbors in the Hazelwood neighborhood (the area with the highest rates of gun violence in the city) who are organizing a place-making project this June. We have been accepted as a site in this year's Village Building Convergence (https://villagebuildingconvergence.com/) , a flagship event with eight days of workshops, placemaking, presenters, and community building that has been going on for twenty years in Portland.

Our project is a covered cob bench on SE 127th between Stark and Burnside - the Weary Wanderers Waystation, for the parched and famished pedestrian in our desert of a neighborhood. Ideally the bench will include a community cupboard and a cob oven (though those might be add-ons during next year's Convergence). And the roof will include rainwater catchment that feeds into an existing rain garden. We are getting design help from the natural building experts and designers with the City Repair Project (hosts of the VBC) and community support from the neighborhood to help build it - including formerly homeless neighbors now housed in the Safe Rest Village two blocks away.

The images attached are of other cob bench projects constructed through the Village Building Convergence, which we will be using as inspiration and plans for our own design.