street roots
Aug. 30, 2013
Dr. Bob Sayson’s journey has brought him around the world to serving Rockwood's residents
It’s midway through lunchtime at the Good
News Community Health Center and Dr. Bob
Sayson has yet to take a bite of his sandwich.
“Here, take my seat! Are you hungry?
poverty line, and nine out of ten students
split between the community’s two schools
are on free or reduced lunch plans. The only
food options in the neighborhood are a run
down Plaid Pantry and a Taco Bell. Before
Good News opened its doors in 2007, there
out here,” says Peterson. “It’s an uphill battle
that really takes the whole community’s
effort.”
Which is exactly what the center has
ignited.
T h ir s ty ? ” S a y s o n
w e r e n o o p t i o n s f o r lo w - in c o m e h e a l t h c a r e .
c o m e f r o m a ll c o r n e r s o f t h e n e i g h b o r h o o d
BY ALEX ZIELINSKI
CO NTRIBUTING WRITER
a s k s o n e o f t h e c e n t e r ’s
“We started as a walk-in clinic, but the need
board members who stopped by unexpectedly
was so great that we started taking in regular
to chat.
Minutes later, the routine is repeated patients,” says Blake Peterson, the center’s
when a patient and volunteer cheerfully peek director. “We’ve continued to expand.”
With an estimated 6,000 patients who
their heads into the lunchroom. “Sandwich?
speak a combined 57 different languages, the
Coffee?”
This selfless attitude is the fuel the center center now offers mental health care, foot
runs on. With only four paid staff members, care, and diabetic consultation along with
not including Sayson, the volunteer-driven basic medical services on a sliding-scale pay
low-income health center is a beacon of hope range. If the patient can’t pay, medical help
in one of the poorest and most neglected can be exchanged for volunteer hours.
In addition, the clinic offers prayer and
neighborhoods in Multnomah County.
It couldn’t come any sooner. After 15 years spiritual support to any patients who request
at his Gresham practice, Sayson, 63, was it. Peterson stresses conversion isn’t the
ready to leave tjie United States and return center’s goal.
“There’s a stigma that goes along with
to one of the impoverished countries he had
provided medical assistance to before settling faith-based practices like ours, which is a
shame,” he says. “People assume that the
in Oregon.
However, Sayson soon found a community only reason we’re offering these services is
in need of medical aide mere miles from his to push faith on our patients-which is the
home in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood, last thing we do. Faith is merely the reason
we as individuals are doing this.”
and quickly set up shop.
Peterson says he hopes the center can
Rockwood is situated within the small strip
between SE 162 and 202 Avenues along East provide that sense of community support
Burnside, edging Gresham. Out of the 40,000 that’s been long neglected in Rockwood.
“We’re trying to not be an isolated island
residents, almost one-quarter of the
neighborhood’s families are below the
Since th e health center opened, aid has
and has helped get it off the ground. From
administrative work to counseling —
community members have gone out of their
way to contribute to the center.
“It takes a certain caliber of people to just
serve without pay,” says Peterson, who was
born in Rockwood. “It’s amazing what kind of
volunteers we’ve found in this community —
it really shows how driven these people are
to turn their neighborhood around. We’re fed
by the community as much as we feed them.”
One of the many dedicated volunteers,
Marv DeVore, says the center saved his life.
After falling on financial hardships, the
once-middle class Rockwood resident found
himself on the streets with little will to live.
After visiting the center, he never looked
back.
“What kind of place pays for your antibiotics
out of pocket and lets you stay in their back
(parking) lot for months?” says DeVore.
“This is more than just health care, this is
community.”
DeVore says that before the health center
opened, he had to save $50 to visit the
nearest clinic for a check-up that took less
that ten minutes.
“The doctor barely even talked to me,” he
says. “Here, you talk to real people who want
to find a real solution, not just a quick fix. I
feel respected.”
This sense of resp ect and community is
exactly what Sayson s e e s m issing in the
co u n try ’s c u rre n t health care system ,
especially com pared to o th er com m unities
he’s visited.
“I think the root cause of the problem
stems from the lack of strong relationships
and broken families in America,” says Sayson.
“We no longer value or respect the family and
community structure in the U.S. It’s all about
the individual, which leaves so many behind.”
Sayson says that he’s seen many doctors
become discouraged and drop out of the field
after discovering it’s no longer what they
want to contribute to.
“It’s less about helping, more about greed,“
he says. “ Whatever happened to ‘Give us
your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. I
thought that was what America was founded
on.”
Back in the lunchroom, Sayson energetically
chats with other staff about volunteering to
paint a local elementary school while passing
a bowl of cherry tomatoes around the table.
“We’ve got to give back as often as possible.
The best thing we can do is give our
community a sense of hope,” he says, finally
taking a bite of his sandwich.
Real food for real people.
E 21 st Avenue
(503) ORGANIC (674-2642)
SNAP/EhT accepted
Weekly Farmers' Market, Wednesdays
www.peoples.coop
2-7pm