Welcome to the Portland Promise Center

The Portland Promise Center began in the fall of 1956 as the Sunshine Club, a humble sidewalk Sunday School that met once a week. The program eventually moved into a dilapidated shotgun house in the heart of the Portland neighborhood (where the current Center’s parking lot is located) and became known as the Baird Street Mission. In 1990, a new vision began to emerge and the mission was renamed the Portland United Methodist Center. One part-time employee was hired and commissioned to nurture a handful of young children.

A dream was born in those early days to build a new facility that would allow the Mission to expand its scope and meet the needs of more children and youth. In 1997, the program moved into a newly constructed, 9,000-square–foot multipurpose facility, which is now known as the Portland Promise Learning Center.

In January 2002, three people began to meet in the Chapel of the Learning Center to read scripture communally and to pray. The agenda of the meeting was to discern if planting a church in Portland was the next right thing to do. This humble prayer meeting evolved into the Portland Promise Community of Faith, a mission-based faith community of the United Methodist Church, and has become the heartbeat of our urban ministry.

In 2004, we changed our name to Portland Promise Center to reflect our expanding commitment to helping our community realize its potential–spiritually, socially, educationally, and economically. Today, we employ several full-time and part-time staff members, who lead our programs.

This team of leaders and the countless volunteers who support them work with over 150 families. Hundreds of children and teenagers are involved in the after-school programs, College Connection and Youth Community. Attendance at our Community of Faith Celebration is strong. The families who worship with us provide a network of volunteers who sponsor positive events throughout the year for our neighbors to enjoy and benefit from.