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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2001)
Two new weekly sports columns Robert Brown shares the secrets of Hollywood y'.hf-ciïihpm out on pages 6 and 7 Check out the profile on page 5 New art on display in Pauling Gallery the profile of the artist on page 4 www.ClackamasPrint.com Wednesday, January 17, 2001 Clackamas Community College Oregon City, Oregon Volume XXXIV, Issue Family Resource Center expands Ideare progr MIKE POLLOCK / Clackamas Print After three years of construction, the newly completed wing doubles the capacity of the YMCA Child Development Center and makes a new kindergarten class possible. STEVE NIELSEN News Editor Several of Clackamas’ youngest attendees will be on hand next Tuesday, Jan. 23, for a celebration and dedication of the newly com pleted wing of the Elizabeth McClung Brod Family Resource Center. The dedication and celebration, held from 4-5:30 p.m. in the center, will include guest speakers, guided tours of the new wing, entertain ment by student musicians and a Mother Goose storyteller. The new wing adds six more rooms to the YMCA Child Devel opment Center and more than doubles the licensed capacity of the center. Construction on the new wing started three years ago and has been funded mostly by private parties and the CCC Foun dation, a separate charitable non profit organization dedicated to raising funds for the college. “In the last ten years, the center has gone from being licensed for 44 children to 180,” said Judy Kling, director of the YMCA Child Development Center (CDC). The addition made it possible for the center to offer a kindergar ten program for the first time, this year, to children of parents who work or go to school full-time. The new wing also enables the center to provide care on a more short term basis. Kathleen Smith is an administra tive assistant at the college. Her son Jeremy has been attending the CDC since he was seven weeks old. “It’s been a godsend,” said Smith. “I don’t know what I would have done without the facility.” The center provides care prima rily for the children of Clackamas students, but also serves many other community families. Some parents have continued to use the center for childcare even after they finished at the college and moved on to work in the community. There are about 180 children en rolled at the center and an addi tional 300 on the waiting list. The demand for childcare is increasing. “We see more and more older students going back to college who need a place for their kids,” said Kling. “It’s wonderful watch ing the kids grow up.” The center is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m.- 6 p.m. Monthly fees range from $75 to $600 depending on the ages of children and how many days a week they are at the center. According to Kling, over half of the families that use the center receive financial assistance to help them with the cost. Kling is one of the original 16 people that staffed the CDC when it started in 1991 and was housed in temporary green buildings pro vided by the college. When the contract for operation of the cen ter passed from Mt. Hood Council of Campfire, a youth service orga nization, to thé YMCA in July of 1998, the staff decided to stay with the center. “There’s no measure of how im portant [the center] is,” said Kling. “There’s a shortage of quality childcare and we feel that we step up to the plate to help fill that shortage.” Grant expands PGE training DIANA SCRIVNER Editor-in-Chief Clackamas College’s Wilsonville Oregon Advance ment Technology Center’s (OAT) partnership with PGE has re cently been awarded a $52,000 grant from the Oregon Workforce Investment Board. The grant, which goes into ef fect in February, will be used to develop a Workforce Readiness Certificate Program for women and minorities and focuses on training workers when the com pany shifts job duties. “The federal legislation wants people to be in, or enter into, the workforce as quickly as possible so that the economy keeps go ing,” explained Glenn Ferris, as sociate dean for industrial pro grams. “So by retraining work training and the grant pays for ers, you increase their skill lev their schooling. els and reduce the possibility of A new phase to’the training layoffs.” program with PGE will begin later PGE has been training employ this year with the building of an ees at the college’s OAT center outside training center at the for over two years. They train OAT center. It will include high them using a power grade rise power lines and wires for stu simulator so stu- / dent learning in line dents can ob- Jf training, insulation tain a number of '•’«’«■and General and repair. skills m meterX,/ Electric Clackamas reading, recycling, garage work, communications, as well as learning job skills as line men and service inspectors. “We’re retraining them to go to a different phase of employ ment within their company,” said Ferris. “These jobs also tend to be higher paid jobs, family wage jobs.” Employees are paid during job College’s connec tion with PGE provides many in ternship and cooperative work experience opportunities for those seeking employment with the company. “A lot of our programs prepare students for work at PGE,” said Ferris. “It is such a huge com pany that there are a lot of as pects of business involved.” MIKE POLLOCK / Clackamas Print Skateboarders at Clackamette park in Oregon City test the new facility Sunday. The free community skate park officially opened to the public last weekend. Rollerbladers and BMXers also came to try it out The hours of the park are from dawn to dusk.
