OREGON’S ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES
Serving Oregonians for over 75 years.
Now giving back across the globe.
We completed our first Guatemala project in March 2023! Click Stories and Photo Gallery to see the project at work and hear from the team about their experience!
Oregon Empowers is bringing electricity to people in developing countries. We design and implement successful, sustainable, scalable rural electrification programs that improve education, healthcare, safety and economic opportunity.
Support Oregon Empowers.
All donations are tax-deductible. One hundred percent of your donation will be used to help those who currently do not have access to the opportunities we take for granted.
A mother in her baby in the village of Ventura
Electrification
Our team is focused on establishing and strengthening rural utilities. These utilities energize agriculture, power small businesses and workshops, provide light for schools, facilitate vaccination storage and enable street lights for improved community security at night. We focus on practical solutions that have lifelong impacts and we train our counterparts to operate and maintain power systems they own.
These efforts require practical approaches, long-term capital, and investment in communities.
The direct link between electrification and poverty reduction is undeniable, and we continue our tradition as an implementer, role model and guide for governmental and private efforts to bring electrification to those in the world who need it and wish to convene efforts to overcome energy and economic poverty.
Cooperative Development
Oregon Empowers promotes the cooperative business model as the best way to bring energy services to rural areas in developed as well as developing economies. Electric cooperatives have the power to harness innovation, community self-interest, and mutual self-reliance to overcome significant economic obstacles to long-term sustainability.
The cooperative enterprise model has proven to be successful is being deployed in many developing countries around the world, including many where the economic and quality of life circumstances are dire and the challenges immense.
Together with our partners, we remain committed to helping communities use the cooperative model to build lasting connections, gain a more effective voice in their cooperative and, in turn, build stronger economies.
Community Empowerment
Oregon Empowers connection and heritage with the electrification of rural America brings not just a unique perspective but also a culture of serving communities. We convene cooperative efforts to build and operate community-owned infrastructures, an attribute that is key to long-term success for many electrification endeavors.
Having witnessed firsthand how their own communities have benefited from the cooperative business model, Oregon’s member cooperatives are committed to supporting cooperative development to empower communities in Latin America and at home in Oregon. They work with partner communities to expand electric access and build human capacity through a wide variety of volunteer assignments.
America’s electric co-op workforce is intimately connected to members, and line crews and staff volunteer time and resources as a direct expression of concern for community. Co-op employees who travel far to volunteer their skills come back changed and even more committed to continue the co-op legacy and empower communities abroad and at home.
“It is incredible and humbling to see a village that is totally subsistence off the land and the hardships that come with it. Bringing electricity to the village will transform their lives just like it did in America almost a century ago.”
— Charlie Tracy, Project Leader, Oregon Empowers, Guatemala
Contact
Office Address:
8565 SW Salish Ln. Suite 130
Wilsonville, OR 97070
Office Phone:
(503) 585-9988
Office Fax:
(503) 585-2147
You can leave a message using the contact form to the right.