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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The Future: A New Building For CSS!

July 26, 2025
Because of your support, we’re growing into something bigger—two new spaces designed to better serve our unhoused neighbors. Community Supported Shelters is in the middle of an exciting transformation. After over a decade at our Grant Street location, we’ve purchased a new building that will allow us to bring our in

The Present: CSS to Make a Big Move

July 25, 2025
“Everyone will have desks,” declares Blake Burrell, CSS Director of Community Impact, anticipating the move of most of the CSS staff and programs from 1160 Grant Street to 2870 West 10th Place, a former Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles facility. The move will take place between now and the end of 2025.

The Past: A History of Heart at 1160 Grant

July 24, 2025
Erik de Buhr fell in love with the building at 1160 Grant long before there was a Community Supported Shelters. He was involved with a group that built things out of salvaged materials (Resurrected Refuse Action Team), including huts that would turn out to be precursors to the CSS Conestoga Huts. “I’d been eyeballing t

CSS is Now Operating the Nightingale Safe Spot

July 23, 2025
In partnership with the Nightingale Board of Directors and the City of Eugene, CSS is ensuring the Nightingale Safe Spot continues to operate in South Eugene. In the month of July, CSS officially began to operate the Nightingale Safe Spot Community in South Eugene. As the organization moves its home to our new building

Donor Spotlight: Eugene REALTORS® YPN

July 22, 2025
The Eugene REALTORS® Young Professionals Network had their yearly ‘Sip of Summer’ event to raise money for Community Supported Shelters. A good time was had by all with games, a raffle, BBQ, and great networking at Alton Baker Park. This was their 5th fundraiser for CSS, and they raised $3,300 this year to Adopt-a-Hut.

Volunteer Spotlight: UO Duck Corps

July 21, 2025
This summer, we've been collaborating with UO Duck Corps, who have been giving Hut exteriors some good scrubbing. Dustin (the staff member taking the selfie), says, "It's so encouraging to see a younger generation work against stereotypes about the unhoused and have such an interest in helping their community."

Lowe’s Hometowns grant will fund vital upgrades to CSS’s Access Center

June 24, 2025
Community Supported Shelters (CSS) has been proudly selected as a 2025 Lowe’s Hometowns project, one of only 100 community-nominated, large-scale renovations nationwide. This recognition is part of Lowe’s five-year, $100 million commitment to revitalizing the spaces that serve as the heartbeat of hometowns across Ameri

As Eugene's unhoused numbers rise, Blake Burrell helps struggling people dream

June 15, 2025
In the warmth of a late-spring day, in front of the Community Supported Shelters office on Grant Street, Blake Burrell strikes up a conversation with a familiar face. He gives a warm hug and kind words before unlocking the front door to the social service office. The office is full of resources like clothing, surviv
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.”
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