Neither Bijan Fayyaz or Ian Sisson have spent time in Oregon before joining RARE.
Two young professionals have traveled from different parts of the country to Clatsop County, where they will spend the next year gaining experience in various areas of public service.
Bijan Fayyaz, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Ian Sisson, of Chicago, came to the North Coast this fall through Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE), a division of AmeriCorps that operates through the University of Oregon.
The program places about 20 volunteers in cities throughout Oregon. They come from all over the country and stay for 11 months.
“It’s a mix of people. Some have master’s degrees, some have work experience and some are just out of college,” Sisson said. “Everyone that is in the program is affiliated with planning or nonprofit management.”
Sisson is a graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology with a degree in architecture. He worked for the past two years in urban planning and design for a landscape architecture firm.
He applied for the RARE program to get into project management and was placed with the city of Astoria Parks and Recreation Department, where he is helping develop a parks master plan, giving him a chance to lead a project.
There has not been a parks master plan in Astoria since 1978. The department is collecting input through community workshops and an online survey open on the city’s website until Jan. 1.
The department is looking at how peopleuse the parks, what the parks’ shortcomings are and what opportunities are available. Sisson is working with a mayor-appointed citizen advisory committee to create recommendations for the master plan and set criteria for prioritizing those recommendations.
“There is going to be a lot coming out of this,” Sisson said. “This should be a really good thing for the department and for the city.”
Fayyaz recently graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and planning. He is also certified in emergency management and homeland security.
Through RARE, Fayyaz will spend his time working with Clatsop County Emergency Management helping with emergency planning and facilitating new projects.
His focus is on getting high school students involved in Community Emergency Response Teams, known as Teen CERT.
“We are trying to have each high school have their own unit,” Fayyaz said. “In the event of a disaster, there are benefits to having a group in every school.”
Fayyaz and Sisson have also both attended training sessions in Cascade Locks and Roseburg with the other RARE volunteers.
Neither Fayyaz or Sisson have spent time in Oregon before joining RARE. They said it has been a change of pace coming from large metro areas. Working in a smaller area has allow them to feel more a part of the community. They can see the impacts of their work, firsthand.
“It’s really neat seeing how much the community leaders are a part of the community,” Fayyaz said. “Some of the places I’ve lived, there is a distance in the leadership. Here, it’s people engaged in the neighborhoods and their own town, and they care.”
Originally Published in The Daily Astorian
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