Street roots., August 05, 2016, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • August 5-11,2016
News
■BIRTHS, from page 7
■community groups that contracts with the
■county in order to better serve foreign-born
■mothers. Currently, most families served by
I IRCO’s team are from Asia, but it’s also
■serving new mothers from Africa, the
■Middle East, Pacific Islands and Eastern
■Europe.
For several years, IRCO had 10.home
■visitors who were able to serve as many as
■264 families at once, Chao said. But then
■there were budget cuts, and now just six
I positions remain.
“There’s a need for more resources,” she
■said, adding that even when she had nearly
■twice as many home visitors, the program
■always had a full caseload.
: Fussell said that within the program, the
I immigrant and refugee team at IRCO has
I the longest list of families waiting to enroll.
“That’s partially because there aren’t
I many programs that serve families,
I regardless of language,” she said, adding
I that the immigrant and refugee team also
I has a strong retention rate.
Countywide, 56 percent of families served
I last year stuck with the program for at least
I 12 months.
The Healthy Families program in
I Multnomah County is just one of 24
I voluntary and free programs across the
state operating under Healthy Families
Oregon, which is an accredited system
i following a national model. Home visitors
I arSpaired with mothers when their child is
r 3 months or younger, and then continue to
work with the family for up to the first three
years of the child’s life.
These programs are funded through the
state with federal grants, and counties are
required to match funding at 50 percent
The Multnomah County Healthy Families
program’s budget rose from $2.8 million in
2016 to $3.3 million for 2017. The program
accounts for less than 1 percent of the
health department’s $336.12 million budget.
Statewide, the percentage of births
attributed to foreign-born mothers has
fluctuated between 19 percent and 24
percent between 2000 and 2014, peaking in
2006, according to Oregon Vital Statistics
Annual Reports. Numbers for 2015 will not
be available until fall.
More than parenting tips
Nadiya Zagorodniy, 21, has been in the
program since late in her pregnancy. Her
son, Nathan, is now 11/2.
She moved with her family to the U.S.
I. from Ukraine when she was 11.
Most days, Zagorodniy goes to work at a
cardboard box factory, and during the school
year, she also takes classes at Portland
I Community College Southeast Campus.
She still lives in her mother’s Southeast
I Portland home, where she helps care for her
I 12 younger siblings, in addition to caring for
I Nathan. She said she usually gets home
I from running errands after work in time to
I cook the family dinner, usually traditional
I Russian and Ukrainian fare, which equates
I to lots of soup, she said, especially borscht.
For Zagorodniy, the program has been a
I source of personal support and
I encouragement.
Her home visitor, Branka Kravljaca, is an
I immigrant herself and also speaks a Slavic
Healthy Families
If you are pregnant or have a child 3 months old or younger and are interested in having a home
visitor, call Multnomah County Early Childhood Services at 503-988-3520.
How you can help
The Healthy Families team at IRCO is always
■cepting donations.
Uirrently needed:
■Car seats
J Toys
■ Baby wipes
■ Drapers
U Chiloren's board books
■ Hygiene items (especially soaps, lotions
and shampoos both mom and baby can use)
■ ways accepting:
■ Other baby and toddler essentials
■ Strollers
■ High chairs
language. She works for IRCO’s Healthy
Families team.
Kravljaca moved to the U.S. from what
was then Yugoslavia (now called Bosnia and
Herzegovina) in the mid-1990s, and four
years later she gave birth to a little girl.
She knows exactly what the mothers she
visits are going through.
“I didn’t have external support,” she said.
“The first six months is really challenging.
You become a different person when you
become a mother. It’s not about you
anymore.”
Zagorodniy said Kravljaca encouraged her
to enroll in college at a time when she was
feeling depressed and unsure of what
direction she wanted to take in life. Now she
hopes to soon transfer into a medical
assistant program.
As the two women sat next to each other
on the padded floor of a toy-laden gym at
East Portland Community Center, it was
clear they had formed a bond. Kravljaca had
invited mothers in the program to bring
their children to the gym that mid-July
afternoon for a play date.
“I believe in her. She is one of the really
hard-working people,” Kravljaca said. “She
goes to school and has a job and is helping
her big family and having a goal and wanting
to be somebody - and understanding that
without education, that will be difficult.”
Kravljaca said emotional support is as
crucial a connection to resources for new
moms.
“You can go online and get a bunch of
information about why your baby is crying,”
she said, “but no one knocks on your door
to see how are you.”
Portland’s future generations
The number of refugees resettling in
Oregon has risen in recent years.
In 2012, Oregon resettled 695 refugees,
and in 2015, it resettled 1,029, according to
the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement.
This past year, most people were fleeing
conflicts in Myanmar, Somalia, Iraq and
Ukraine.
But the truth is, said Charlene McGee,
Multnomah County’s refugee health
coordinator, while there’s an increase in the
number of refugees the United States is
accepting, it’s a tiny fraction of all the
world’s displaced people.
Worldwide, there were 21.3 million
refugees in 2015 according to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
If you have new or used infant and todder
items you would Ike to donate, please confect'
Mae Chao at maec@irco.org.
The U.S. resettled just 70,000 refugees that
year. President Barack Obama determined
the U.S. will accept 85,000 in 2016.
“When there is an increase nationally,”
McGee said, “all the states that are placing
refugees see an increase as well, so our
numbers are going up.”
She said this increase puts more demand
on county health department services that
many refugees use.
Research shows that focusing support on
early childhood development “gives us the
most bang for our dollars,” she said.
Today, McGee is charged with leading the
region’s effort in improving refugee and
immigrant health services, but when she
was a new mom eight years ago, she had the
help of a home visitor through the county
program herself.
“We’re from Liberia, Africa, so our
approach to birth is very communal, and
community focused,” she said. Her home
visitor helped advocate for her family’s
cultural needs at the hospital.
She also helped McGee work through
difficulties with breastfeeding, “a job that
nothing really prepares you for,” she said.
“It was just good to have somebody come by
to ask how you were adjusting.”
While the Healthy Families program
already serves nearly 200 immigrants and
refugee families, recent internal analysis of
the program revealed it might be leaving
some foreign-born moms behind.
This is because many of the indicators
the county looks for during the screening
process “don’t often capture the kinds of
stressors that immigrant refugee families
carry with them,” Fussell said.
For example, she said, past and present
substance abuse is one of the screening
indicators, but in the immigrant and refugee
communities, substance abuse is very low.
At the same time, screeners aren’t factoring
in stressors such as fear of one’s partner
being deported, past trauma or the stress of
resettling.
After an examination of the community’s
needs, the county health department is
seeking a partner to help revise its
screening process and offer support to
African, Asian and Pacific Islander families -
communities that face disparities locally.
Coalition of Communities of Color has
authored reports in partnership with
Portland State University on the Asian,
Pacific Islander and African immigrant
communities in Multnomah County.
Page 11
Findings revealed widespread inequities in
these communities, and the reports
recommended, in part, increased
investments in refugee services and early
childhood development programs.
The winner of the new contract has yet to
be announced, but it will help the county
adjust its screening process to include
stressors unique to immigrants and
refugees, and provide two additional full-time
employees to screen potential families, along
with a full-time supervisor.
It will also provide two community health
workers and find ways to support African,
Asian and Pacific Islander families with
young children.
Albina Head Start also contracts with the
county to serve African-American families,
as well as Impact NW, which serves about
250 families through the program each year.
Between Impact NW and Insights Teen
Parent Services, the county is serving 117
Spanish-speaking families, Fussell said. By
filling staff vacancies with bilingual
individuals, she said the program will soon
be able to serve an additional 60 Hispanic
families.
County Commissioner Jules Bailey
recently requested the county end its
partnership with Impact NW, Willamette
Week reported July 21, citing the nonprofit’s
financial insecurity.
McGee, who was unaware of Bailey’s
request prior to speaking with Street Roots,
said that anytime there’s a change in service
providers, “it’s just never that smooth for
the communities that are utilizing that
service.”
As foreign-born mothers continue to
account for more than a quarter of the
region’s newest additions, Portland’s
demographics will continue to change.
And, as their children grow and enter
public school, foreign-born parents often
require additional support to be fully
involved in their child’s education.
In 2015, just 56 percent of the student
body among Portland Public Schools was
Caucasian, and roughly 8 percent of
students were English language learners,
according to the district’s current English
Language Learners Plan.
The plan also indicated that the district
has increased the number of multilingual
staffers and that commonly used forms and
letters have been made available in the
region’s top five languages.
IRCO’s director, Lee Po Cha, said her
nonprofit has been working closely with
Portland, Multnomah County and school
districts to provide services that meet the
needs of immigrant and refugee families.
McGee said school districts within the
county could be doing more.
“There are other states where you have
culturally specific Head Start, for example,
for the Somali community, or the Asian and
Pacific Islander community,” she said. While
these programs don’t exist locally, she’s
optimistic because conversations have
begun. “We’ll get there, I think,” she said.
emily@streetroots. org