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A Creative Juggler: Carmen Parkinson, Shop Coordinator

Sept 6, 2021

The CSS shop is a busy place with parts and pieces for projects in various stages of completion for Safe Spots and other locations. Carmen Parkinson is the new shop manager with the task of keeping track of it all.


“It’s a bit of a juggling act,” Carmen says. “It’s all part of what CSS does really well, which is being creative and flexible to keep things running as smoothly as possible.”


Carmen’s responsibilities include ordering supplies and building materials from Jerry’s and other vendors, keeping the shop well-stocked and organized—a never-ending task—and coordinating with other staff and volunteers on the many infrastructure projects underway.


A recent project is building picnic tables with built-in benches for the Safe Spots. These sturdy tables are being built by the Hut Crew. There’s also talk of building additional picnic tables to sell as an ongoing fundraiser.


There’s never a shortage of opportunities for creative improvisation at the shop. The record-breaking heat wave in early summer required ongoing ice bucket drop-offs to the Safe Spots and finding a solution to venting the extreme heat build-up in the new kitchen shelters. The shop team also designed and built secure boxes for portable propane tanks.


Carmen also helps coordinate Safe Spot maintenance teams. This group of folks makes sure the Huts, community buildings, and kitchen areas are in good working order, making repairs as needed.


“I love working at this very amazing organization,” Carmen says. “The CSS philosophy is there’s a solution to anything that needs fixing—you just have to ask the right person and find a workaround that’s efficient and practical.”


Carmen works with Hut Crew leader Jim Schmidt to order and stock a myriad of tools and supplies for new Huts or decommissioning older ones that have outlived their useful lives.


She had first-hand experience building Huts as a volunteer on the Hut Crew starting in 2019. She was hired as part-time Shop Assistant last year during the Safe Spot expansion, then became Shop Supervisor in early summer following the retirement of Barr Washburn.

Carmen brings a wealth of work and life experiences to the position. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and has worked as a design consultant, horse trainer, beekeeper, home school teacher, and a volunteer with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) advocating for children living in unsafe homes and shelters. She has three children, including a daughter at the U of O.


“Carmen has the ability to coordinate and filter through lots of incoming information via the maintenance request system,” says Erik de Buhr, General Services Director at CSS. “She is good at delegating things and is great at working with people. A true trooper on the CSS team!”

Community Court Program

04 May, 2024
Community Supported Shelters’ Roosevelt Safe Spot Community has been transformed into a shelter community aligned with the City of Eugene Community Court program. Beginning in January, people charged with minor misdemeanor offenses who have opted into the Community Court system (rather than Municipal Court) can opt into the CSS shelter program and move into one of 16 available Huts at Roosevelt.

Volunteers Boost Energy Systems at CSS Communities

03 May, 2024
During the ice storm that brought Eugene to a standstill in January, all the batteries that stored the energy from the solar panels at CSS’s Lot 9 Community went dead, meaning no lights and no way to charge cell phones. Dave Reuter knew that because of a monitoring system he had set up to keep track of the status of the solar energy systems at eight CSS communities. Dave, a volunteer who has led an effort to upgrade and standardize the CSS power systems, and his wife Janel Erickson, who has worked with him on this project, are intrepid outdoors people. While most of us struggled to get out of our front doors, Dave and Janel loaded a couple of fresh batteries on their Flexible Flyer sled and attached Yaktrak spikes to their shoes and a rope to the sled. With Dave in front and Janel in the rear, they guided the sled the five miles from their Friendly neighborhood home to Lot 9, near Autzen Stadium.

UO Interior Design Creative Storage Collaboration

02 May, 2024
A sixty square foot area. Six feet by 10 feet of space covered by an unconventional Conestoga shaped canvas. This is the simple description of the Hut basic to all CSS communities. How can a safe, comfortable, and efficient habitat be created within this framework using common and inexpensive materials? This was the question posed by Assistant Professor Solmaz Mohammadzadeh Kive to her Architecture 484 class this winter term at the University of Oregon.

Volunteer Spotlight: Sandy and Percy

30 Apr, 2024
For the past several months, a couple of long-time donors to Community Supported Shelters have joined us for two hours a week at our main office to do whatever needs doing. While this may sound like a modest amount of time, Sandy and Percy’s consistent, constructive, and upbeat engagement demonstrates a truth that is often overlooked: big issues can be meaningfully addressed in small increments of time.

Eugene Parking Ban Opposition Testimony

12 Mar, 2024
It's not too late to share your thoughts on this proposed update. Send your written testimony to mayorcouncilandcitymanager@eugene-or.gov .

Incarceration and Homelessness: Breaking the Cycle

15 Jan, 2024
Formerly incarcerated people are almost ten times more likely to be homeless than the general population, according to a study from the Prison Policy Initiative. Jack spent 27 years in prison, from the age of 33 to 60. “It is a long time. It's an entire lifetime,” he says. At first, he thought he might never get out and continued what he calls “bad behavior.” But he saw others who participated in educational programs and were successful in getting their sentences reduced. He realized if he started “acting right,” he might get out. He especially credits a program called “Nonviolent Communication” with helping him. He started using what he learned and realized that “the person we communicate worst with is ourselves.”

From Waste to Wonder - UO's Grey Water Conservation Project

14 Jan, 2024
Lima, Peru, and Eugene, Oregon, are worlds apart in many ways. But spend some time with Kory Russel, an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, and you will learn there are communities in both places with challenges of access to sustainable and efficient water use. Kory has a photo in his office depicting a highly condensed neighborhood in Lima, a city where he and some of his students work on sustainable water projects.

New CSS Director of Community Impact: Black Burrell

13 Jan, 2024
Did you know CSS has a shared leadership model, with three directors? This November, Blake Burrell joined CSS as our new Director of Community Impact. His role supports all of our direct service staff, managing internal relationship-building, culture creation, program operation, mentoring, and conflict resolution. Read on for his introduction:

Volunteer Spotlight: Veronica Paredes

12 Jan, 2024
Veronica Paredes has been helping sew the weatherproof porch coverings ("scrims") for the Huts, recently working 26 hours to complete 34 scrims for us before the holidays.

Bike and Build Volunteers Assist in Refurbishing Huts

13 Oct, 2023
Bike and Build organization was established as a nonprofit in 2003. Its website summarizes its mission: “Bike and Build engages young adults in service-oriented cycling trips to raise awareness for the affordable housing cause. We advocate for the need for affordable housing in thousands of communities across the country.” As teams bike from town to town, they volunteer for service projects and give presentations about issues surrounding the lack of affordable housing. Since 2003 Bike and Build estimates that over 3,800 participants have biked over 11 million miles and donated over 255,000 volunteer community service hours to local organizations throughout the country.
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