About

What is WENA about? The purpose of the West End Neighborhood Association is to address issues and concerns that affect the quality of life of all who live and/or work in the West End. The Association fosters and sponsors projects of the individual districts that comprise the West End; serves as a liaison with City Hall; and monitors the delivery of city services, questions of development and design, and maintenance of neighborhoods to ensure that they are clean, safe, quiet and attractive.

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WENA By-Laws

Here are the WENA By-Laws approved in November, 2022.

Meetings

WENA meetings are usually held in the community room on the upper level of the Reiche Community Center, adjacent to the Reiche Community School at 166 Brackett Street. WENA welcomes all regardless of residence.

Find out more 

Officers & Board

 

WENA Programs & Participation

Boundaries

Residential boundaries are as follows, excluding blocks within the current boundaries of the Western Promenade Neighborhood Association and those of the St. John Valley Neighborhood Association.

WENA History

Neighborhood associations have a strong presence and substantive history in Portland. The Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization (MHNO), for instance, dates back to the late 1960s and the Western Promenade Neighborhood Association (WPNA) to the early 1970s. While the Western Promenade constitutes part of the official West End, the area our association covers differs from the Prom in population make up, density, and land use. In 2003, neighbors Jodie Lapchick, Jo Coyne, Dennis “Chip” Martin, Chris Hirsch and a few others banded together to form an association for this part of the peninsula. We became an official 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation two years later when grant funds to address a variety of neighborhood needs became available. We have consistently enjoyed cordial, productive working relationships with the WPNA and other neighborhood associations around town.

WENA’s basic mission has remained the same throughout our 20 year history, but how we have carried out that mission has varied over time and with leadership changes. Some of our public accomplishments include:

Community Policing

• Initiating the move of our Neighborhood Community Policing office to its current, more central, location at Reiche School
• Working with the City and other collaborators to buttress Neighborhood Watch efforts

Education and Awareness

• Posting and mailing announcements of neighborhood and City events, meetings and initiatives
• Hosting candidate forums for individuals competing in municipal elections
• Sponsoring safety and public health trainings on CPR and AAA Driver Awareness

Families, Children, and Reiche School

• Conducting a major Community Design Workshop to re-envision Reiche Community Center
• Creating the World’s Longest Lobster Roll in 2009 at the Old Port Festival as a fund-raiser for children’s swimming lessons at Reiche pool
• Offering four years of West Fest in conjunction with the Recreation Department to continue funding swim lessons
• Funding, for more than a decade, summer open swims for all neighborhood school children

Increasing Neighborhood Connections

• Hosting monthly meetings
• Maintaining a list serve of 500+ people
• Maintaining a website with meeting minutes, announcements, and topics of neighborhood relevance
• Establishing Next Door West End as a limited social network to increase communications and connections among neighbors
• Initiating and providing volunteers for a variety of activities at Reiche Community Center
• Creating and staffing the Book Nook library and book exchange at Reiche Community Center with the support of volunteers, Portland library and the Rec Department

Neighborhood Infrastructure, Parks and Gardens

• Conducting seasonal neighborhood clean-ups and stenciling storm drains to reduce dumping
• Planting and maintaining pollinator gardens in and improving neighborhood parks
• Initiating efforts to revitalize Harbor View Park as a community green space and food forest
• Growing fresh produce in a community garden plot for food insecure Reiche school children

Seniors and Aging in Place

• Conducting a survey of senior neighbors’ needs and concerns
• Helping to start Portland Area Villages
• Organizing social events at Reiche Community Center
• Recruiting volunteers to shovel snow off older residents’ sidewalks

WENA Presidents