Include, Engage, Educate, Amplify
An Ashland community that welcomes all, a circle of support dedicated to racial and social healing.
Ashland Together fosters kinship and collaboration, shining a light on vital social and racial equity work in our town and beyond. Through cultural events and community gatherings we amplify voices often overlooked, nurture relationships, and support meaningful change for a more just and welcoming community for all.
“Many people in Ashland care but don’t know what to do. We are a resource for helping people move from caring to doing.” —Hillary Larson, Ashland Together
Ashland Together was born in 2022 in response to an undeniable longing for an inclusive community.
Core planning team, January 2025
These were our questions:
What if all of the great humans who are doing the essential work of racial and social equity could connect with people who share the same desire for inclusion, but don’t know what to do?
What if the bubbles we live in could be dissolved through education, understanding, engagement…to build true relationships? No one left out.
What if we could create Ashland as a place where we could all be Together?
A conversation with Oregon author Sarah L. Sanderson, author of The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate, and Taylor Stewart. Sarah will share her story of discovering that her ancestors participated in exiling Jacob Vanderpool from Oregon City in 1851 under the exclusion laws that prevented Black people from residing in Oregon.
Monday July 8, 6:30-8:00
OSF Carpenter Hall, 44 S. Pioneer St. Ashland
“Before I moved to Ashland, I’d heard Oregon was an anti-slavery state. I assumed that meant Oregon supported abolitionism. When I took Kristn’s class last year, I learned my assumption was wrong. Oregon didn’t want slavery because they wanted a whites-only state.”—Elizabeth Fairchild
Ashland Sunrise Project is a truth and reconciliation coalition addressing our community’s history as a Sundown Town created in collaboration with the Oregon Remembrance Project
Ashland Sunrise Project presented a packed event last month featuring John Almaguer, our local immigration attorney. John Almaguer is a Mexican American attorney at Stout Law. He has been practicing immigration law for 24 years in Southern Oregon.
Opportunities to learn, get involved, connect with others.
If you have a social or racial justice event or organization that you would like us to amplify, please email ashlandtogether@gmail.com with a short description and your event flyer.