New CSS Director of Community Impact: Blake Burrell

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:

My name is Blake Burrell, and I am very excited to join the Community Supported Shelters Team as Director of Community Impact. In the past weeks, I have been overjoyed to meet the teams and dive into the amazing work we are doing for our community. I am ready to invest in this organization and lead CSS’ teams! 


I am a nonprofit administrator and public official residing in the City of Eugene. I am a lifelong learner with a diversified educational background. My personal studies led me to research fields such as psychology, anthropology, and urban planning. My professional work in nonprofit administration has centered on developing and implementing homeless and emergency service programs, teaching tenant education seminars, and investing in professional development opportunities for staff, interns, volunteers, and beneficiaries entering the human service field. Overall, I am an open person and passionate leader, and I look forward to connecting with the CSS community. 


As I embark on my new journey with CSS, I will start by supporting our client services teams and collaborating with our leadership teams to implement various projects. I am very excited to further develop our client service models for our communities and to implement a new program model for our upcoming collaboration on the Community Court Program. (Ed: We have more exciting news to come about how CSS is partnering with Community Court—stay tuned for future newsletter and social media updates!) Our leadership team will be working to sustain our current operations and explore new opportunities to serve our unhoused community and partner organizations. 


I feel most alive when I am helping people and investing in making a more just and equitable community for us all to call home. I look forward to this opportunity to serve Community Supported Shelters, and I look forward to the year to come!


Best, 

Blake

You can read more about CSS directors, as well as board members, here.

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If you are a member of the media who is seeking information or would like to request an interview, contact community@cssoregon.org.


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I didn't want to participate in the 5K. Too early on a Saturday morning, and besides, I don't love c

The first-ever Team CSS runs at the Eugene Marathon

April 30, 2025
I didn't want to participate in the 5K. Too early on a Saturday morning, and besides, I don't love crowds. Then I learned that CSS wasn't only buying tickets for staff to participate, but we were also buying up to 10 tickets for our clients to join the first-ever Team CSS for the 5K run at the Eugene Marathon.

Workforce Development: Creating Paths to Employment

April 15, 2025
In a September 2023 interview, Sabrina, who had been in a CSS Hut for about two years, said, “It's been well over 10 years since I've had a job, because my drug habit has caused me to be homeless.”

Spring 2025: Letter from the Director of Philanthropy

April 14, 2025
Spring is a season of renewal—and at Community Supported Shelters, it’s arriving alongside some significant and hopeful changes. I’m writing today to share updates about our growth as an organization, exciting developments in local policy, and a special event we hope you'll join us for.

Staff Spotlight: “To Give Back Is Super Big for Me" —Harley

April 13, 2025
If you have the opportunity to meet Harley and discuss her job at CSS as a Community Facilitator, you will be impressed. She is confident, thoughtful, and compassionate about the work she does to improve the lives of her clients and help move them on a path to sustainability. But you have the feeling there is something else. And when you learn about her story you understand there is more. Way more.

Volunteer Spotlight: Crystal, Supporting Access

April 12, 2025
Meet Crystal, one of our newest CSS volunteers. Crystal has quickly become a welcoming presence at our Access Center, generously donating her time once a week to support staff and clients with a smile.

Donor Spotlight: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

April 11, 2025
Little by little for ten months, St. Mary's Episcopal Church Congregation collected cans and bottles. And now, those small BottleDrop deposits have provided a big return: shelter for the unhoused. Recently, St. Mary's donated $3,000 to CSS and adopted their FOURTH Conestoga Hut! St. Mary’s has been a long-time supporter of CSS. They hosted our first ever Annual Celebration back in 2014. We’re beyond grateful for their decade of support!

A Driver’s License Can Alter Lives

January 22, 2025
Soon after Mark moved into the Skinner Safe Spot Community in 2022 he got a CSS staff job on the maintenance crew. He worked 10–12 hours a week, and his primary responsibility was cleaning up Huts when clients moved out, preparing them for the next occupants. He didn’t have a driver’s license. He had one “many years ago” in California before he became homeless, but then he didn’t have a vehicle and he let his license lapse. He had never had a license in Oregon, where he moved in 2014. So for the maintenance job, he says, “I would commute by way of my bicycle. I carried all the cleaning products and brooms and mops and whatever I needed on my bicycle.” Things went well, and when the maintenance crew was reorganized about six months later, he was offered a new position, at 30 hours a week, in which he would be the primary maintenance person for three communities. It required he drive a CSS vehicle, so the offer was contingent on him having a driver’s license. “My supervisor at the time told me that CSS

Breaking The Cycle: Fostering Financial Literacy

January 21, 2025
A CSS Yurt on a rainy cold December afternoon in West Eugene may not be a place you would expect to find two Eugene area bank branch managers enrolling new depositors. Even more remarkable is the effort and journey that brought them there. The story begins earlier this year when Downtown Eugene KeyBank Branch Manager Michelle Khanthanhot reached out to Blake Burrell, CSS Director of Community Impact. What ensued is a focused grassroots effort by Michelle and another KeyBank Eugene Branch Manager Jose Contreras to educate the CSS community about financial health and planning. “For KeyBank it is important that we are involved in our community,” says Michelle. “Blake and I connected and it has just kind of evolved in the last 6 months.”

Grants That Create Pathways to Stability, Creativity, and Community

January 20, 2025
Community Supported Shelters is thrilled to share news of the incredible support we received from our community partners in 2024. These grants have allowed us to expand our programs, enhance our services, and make a meaningful difference for the individuals we serve. Here are the highlights:

Family Reunites and Forges a New Beginning

January 14, 2025
Robert hadn’t seen his brother Dan in 17 years. “I’ve been looking for him. I hadn’t had any luck and, honestly, I didn’t think he was still around.” But when Robert moved from one CSS community to the Micro-Mission Community in mid-September, he saw a face he knew. “Oh my God, it’s my long lost brother,” he said. And they gave each other a big bear hug. Dan, 56, has been in CSS Safe Spots for two years and Robert, 59, about a year. Eugene natives, they have both dealt with many difficult challenges. But, thanks to CSS, they have been reunited in a safe place and will help each other build more stable lives. “It was meant to be,” Dan says.
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