Keizertimes., August 10, 2018, Page PAGE A7, Image 7

AUGUST 10, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
OUTSIDE: ‘This is about
supporting people’
(Continued from Page A1)
DRIVE A LITTLE – SAVE A BUNCH!
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE • SALEM
MORE INFO AT NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
Summer
Award
Program
See 5 movies and get a
Small Popcorn and Reg
Soda. Get a punch card at
the box offi ce. Punches
Stop 8/13. See a movie,
get a punch. Collect 5
and Redeem.
SUMMER FAMILY
MOVIE SERIES
$1 KID MOVIES (M-F)
Jumanji (PG) August 13 - 17
LIVE STAND UP COMEDY
Lights, Comedy, Laughs!
Saturday, August 18
AUGGIE SMITH & BENJI WRIGHT
will perform at 7pm and 9pm. Admission
is only $10. Ages 21 & over only. Reserved
seating for this show. Purchase tickets at
box offi ce or at our website.
Today in History
The electric guitar—the instrument that revolutionized
jazz, blues and country music and made the later rise of
rock and roll possible—was recognized by the United States
Patent Offi ce with the award of a patent G.D. Beauchamp
for an instrument known as the Rickenbacker Frying Pan.
Beauchamp, partner with Adolph Rickenbacher in the Electro
String Instrument Corporation of Los Angeles spent more
than fi ve years pursuing his patent on the Frying Pan.
— August 10, 1937
Food 4 Thought
“It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power
on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining
power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except
his own.”
— Herbert Hoover, 31st president of the United States.
Born Aug. 10, 1874
The Week Ahead
Friday, August 10
Valvidia Entertainment Concert. 8 to 11:30 p.m. at the
Oregon State Fair Expo Center, 2330 17th St NE in Salem.
Entrance is $40 .
Saturday, August 11
Englewood Forest Festival, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m, at Englewood
Park, 1260 19th Street NE in Salem. Free family-friendly art
& environmental workshops.
Willamette Valley Genealogical Society meets Sat 12 Noon in
Anderson Room A of Salem Public Library (585 Liberty St
SE). Virginia Green will speak about “Women of Importance
in Salem‘s History.”
Keizertimes presents The Severin Sisters as part of the
Free 2018 Summer Concert Series located at Keizer Rotary
Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park. Gates open at 5 p.m.,
show starts at 6:30 p.m. Beer, Wine, & Spirits available
from Santiam Brewing Company. Please no outside food
or beverages. No pets allowed inside the amphitheater. For
complete concert schedule go to Facebook.com/KRAORG.
For more information, call (503) 910-3232.
Saturday Night Dance and Potluck. Featuring music by The
Country Gents. Admission is $5, 7 to 10 p.m. at Keizer/Salem
Area Seniors, 930 Plymouth Drive NE.
Tuesday, August 14
Keizer Parks Advisory Committee meeting, 6 p.m. Keizer
Civic Center.
Friday, August 17 – Saturday, September 8
Pentacle Theatre’s The Savannah Sipping Society. A light-
hearted comedy that follows the lives and misadventures of
four southern women. Pentacle Theatre 324 52nd Ave NW
in Salem. Showtimes and tickets available at pentacletheatre.
org
whether kids know it exists
and can reference it is another
thing altogether,” she said.
“And we have a lot of train-
ing around making this a key
priority.”
It’s also important to note,
Gelser said, that the Sibling
Bill of Rights applies not just
to foster families, but also to
adoptive parents. Gelser is a
mother of four children, two
of whom are adoptees. She
said understanding the im-
portance of biological family
is important even once the
adoption papers are signed.
“You can have these per-
fectly loving, nurturing, hap-
py adoptive families but that
doesn’t take away the ques-
tions you have about your
roots and where you come
from,” Gelser said. “I don’t
think a child or an adult can
ever have too many people in
their lives to love them. We
need to do a better job of re-
ally educating adoptive par-
ents about that, especially kids
INSIDE,
continued from Page A1
The Oregon foster care sys-
tem is “about one and a half
times [larger than] what you’d
see in other states,” Bellatty said.
“So, it’s about downsizing as
much as possible without put-
ting kids at risk.”
The predictive analytics
should help DHS employees
prioritize which youth are at
risk when a child welfare case
is reported, allowing DHS em-
ployees to focus on youth who
are actually in need of state re-
sources.
The second project, which
is currently in the process of
reviewing 2500 child welfare
cases statewide to better under-
stand what types of youth who
enter the foster care system and
which types of foster care are
in most need of state attention.
The goal of that project is to
understand what type of care
is best for the types of young
people in care. This project also
analyzes the outcomes of dif-
ferent child welfare services to
see which programs suit which
type of family best, so families
can be better paired with DHS
programs.
The third and fourth proj-
ects seek to ease the burden on
caseworkers. The projects seek
to collect data to understand
where caseworkers’ time isn’t
being utilized as effectively as it
could, fi nd the “optimum case-
load” size for caseworkers, and
to discover the factors that cause
Friday, August 17
Showcase at the Park presented by Uptown Music. Keizer
Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park. Performing will
be Laura and Emily (duo), Alexis (solo), Black & Blue, and
Red Spectre will close the show. Gates open at 5 p.m., show
is 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Food and beverages will be sold at
the concession stand. Please no outside food or beverages.
No pets allowed inside the amphitheater.
sudoku
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE
THIS WEEK’S
MOVIE TIMES
Avengers Infi nity War (PG-13)
Fri 12:35, 8:20, Sat 12:25, 3:10,
6:00, Sun 12:40, 3:30
Deadpool 2 (R)
Fri 6:45, 8:30, Sat 6:45, 9:15,
Sun 8:40
Oceans 8 (PG-13)
Fri 6:20, Sat 2:40, 5:00, 7:10,
Sun 12:00, 6:30, 8:00
Overboard (PG-13)
Fri 3:25, Sat 2:05
Show Dogs (PG)
Fri 12:50, Sat 12:50
Enter digits
from 1-9 into
the blank
spaces. Every
row must
contain one
of each digit.
So must every
column, as
must every
3x3 square.
looking
back in
the KT
DHS emphasizing
family retention
In the face of a heightened their range and used that data
need for foster parents in Or- to create targeted messages for
egon, the Department of Hu- prospective foster parents to
man Services is employing a better serve the youth in the
three-pronged strategy: recruit- system already. For example,
ing more foster parents, retain- certain districts have higher
ing the foster parents currently numbers of LGBT+ identi-
in the system, and using a cus- fying youth, minority youth,
or
sibling
tomer service
groups, and the
approach in all
GRACE proj-
their interac-
ect is market-
tions.
ing those needs
“That’s
a
as opposed to a
different
ap-
general call for
proach
from
foster homes.
the past,” said
“We’re try-
Billy Cordero,
who hesitantly
— Billy Cordero ing to use that
claims the title GRACE grant director info to moti-
vate people to
DHS
expert
say yes to foster
on foster parent
retention and recruitment. For care,” Cordero said.
To better collect the data
the past fi ve years, he’s directed
the Growing Resources and necessary for this task and
Alliances through Collabora- implement better recruitment
tive Effort, or GRACE project, strategies, Cordero wants to
a pilot program designed to see DHS add employees in fos-
improve DHS’s relationship ter parent recruitment-focused
with new and continuing fos- roles, something that doesn’t
ter families. GRACE expires in currently exist.
Aside from recruitment, re-
September, but Cordero wants
to take the lessons learned from tention is one of the main fo-
testing the data-informed, cus- cuses of DHS in maintaining
tomer service model in South- their foster parent population
ern and Central Oregon and and keeping experienced foster
apply them to statewide policy. families in the fold.
“Retention is key,” said Cor-
The GRACE project took
data on the young people in dero, adding: “We want them to
foster care in different areas in feel a part of the team.”
“We’re trying
to ... motivate
people to say
yes.”
maze
A group of McNary
students is making a
movie
20th Annual McNary Estates Garage Sale, from 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. Volunteers will be accepting donations for Marion-Polk
Food Share at each entrance. Every home participating in the
sale will pay a $20 fee which will be donated to Keizer Police
Department and Keizer Fire District. Last year, over $1,200
cash was raised and over a ton of food was donated.
Richard Gilewitz live performance. Fingerstyle guitarist
Richard Gilewitz kicks off his West Coast tour with a
performance at Uptown Music, 3827 River Road N. Starts
at 7 p.m. Free, but reservations are suggested. Contact Paul
Elliot at 503-393-4437 for more information.
caseworkers to quit their jobs.
To address the latter concern,
DHS is researching whether the
main problem is recruitment or
retention: are the wrong people
being recruited as caseworkers,
or is there not enough support
to retain good caseworkers? Or
is it a combination of both? To
answer to these questions, DHS
will send out regular surveys to
new and continuing casework-
ers to fi nd out what casework-
ers need on the job and why
those who choose to quit make
that decision. That way, DHS
can lessen turnover and create
a better environment for case-
workers.
The fi fth project is about
foster parent recruitment and
retention. This project seeks to
understand foster parent burn-
out, provide better training and
services to foster parents to keep
them in the system, and to re-
cruit foster families that can
better serve the needs of youth
in the system. To learn more
about DHS’s foster parent re-
tention and recruitment efforts,
see sidebar.
All of these research projects
are in progress, and all have con-
crete implementation goals to
achieve once the research and
data collection period ends. The
goal isn’t just to horde data; the
goal is to make the lives of chil-
dren in the system better.
“We’re going to do a better
job of serving [foster youth].
Child safety is what it’s all
about,” Bellatty said.
do a better job of support-
ing families before they reach
their own crisis point, then
the state will not have to be
the deciding factor in a young
person’s future success.
“That’s what I see my
primary focus as a legislator
and a community member is
strengthening, modernizing,
and improving our child wel-
fare system and empowering
youth to be the ones that lead
that change,” Gelser said. “The
work is not done, I’d say it’s
barely started, but I’m excited
about where we’re going. It’s
one of the most important
things that we can do.”
In addition to chang-
ing laws and policy, Gelser
emphasizes the importance
of community in support-
ing people in general, even if
their children aren’t in foster
care.
“Parenting is hard. Fami-
lies and relationships are hard.
The more that we can all take
responsibility for each other,
when we see someone strug-
gling in the store, a neighbor
struggling down the street,
how can we offer to help?”
Gelser said. “A lot of this is
about supporting people to
be successful.”
5 YEARS AGO
Saturday, August 18
Rituals 2018 custom car and truck show, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at
Volcanoes Stadium, 6700 Field of Dreams Way NE.
Keizertimes presents Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts as part
of the Free 2018 Summer Concert Series located at Keizer
Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park. Gates open at 5
p.m., show starts at 6:30 p.m. Beer, Wine, & Spirits available
from Santiam Brewing Company. Please no outside food
or beverages. No pets allowed inside the amphitheater. For
complete concert schedule go to Facebook.com/KRAORG.
that are being adopted out of
foster care.”
Both of her adoptive chil-
dren have contact with their
biological families. One of her
daughters, who was brought
into the Gelser household un-
der an open adoption, has had
contact with her birth family
throughout her life. Her other
adopted daughter had a closed
adoption, but just connected
with her birth father through
the Oregon Adoption Search
and Registry.
“I want my kids to be hap-
py and whole and feel solid
and grounded in who they are
and I don’t think there’s any-
thing threatening at all about
other people who care about
and love my kids, and that
my kids care about and love,”
Gelser said. “Love grows.”
Gelser is also involved with
the newest national foster-care
reform legislation, the Family
First Act, as chair of the Fam-
ily First Implementation and
Policy Work Group at the
State Capitol. This act was
signed into national law in
February of this year, and will
go into full effect in October
2019. This law reallocates fed-
eral funds toward preventative
services for parents, and away
from group foster care, which
often produces unsuccessful
outcomes for foster youth.
The impetus of this law is
that state agencies and child-
care providers receive federal
funding to take care of foster
youth. Now that the law has
been handed down from the
federal level, state legislators
need to fi gure out how to
comply with it in their states.
“Right now, that [federal]
money can only be spent on
foster care maintenance, but
now we’re going to be able to
use that money for prevention
services, for parent coach-
ing, for therapy, for substance
abuse treatment—all the kinds
of things that will help fami-
lies avoid abuse and neglect
and hopefully safely reduce
the need for foster care,” Gels-
er said.
The shift toward preven-
tative services seeks to ad-
dress the increasing number
of youth entering foster care,
which is a factor in the cur-
rent “crisis.” If the state can
Solo: Star Wars (R)
Fri 1:10, 3:45, 5:50,
Sat 12:00, 2:30,
Sun 12:15, 2:50, 5:30
Tag (R)
Fri 9:00, Sat 9:05
Book Club (PG-13)
Sat 4:45, Sun 8:30
Sicario 2 (R)
Sat 8:45, Sun 6:10
Adrift (PG-13)
Sun 4:15
FOR ALL SHOWTIMES GO TO
NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
Nick Wolfert and Levi
Heinrichs, along with a group
of friends who dub themselves
“The Pathetic 7” are shooting
a movie called The Adventure
Movie. The movie, featuring
actors from the McNary drama
program, will premier at the
Keizer Rotary Amphitheater.
10 YEARS AGO
Windows at McNary
shot out
A janitor arrived early Friday
morning to fi nd three large
windows near the front of the
school shout out with a small-
caliber fi rearm.
15 YEARS AGO
Keizer boy recovers
from near drowning
A 6-year old Keizer boy, Baeley
Scott nearly drowned July 31
while swimming in the pool at
the WMCA mini-camp at Silver
Creek Falls. He was LifeFlighted
to Doernbecher and released
after he was able to breathe on
his own without a machine. His
parents are optimistic their son
will make a full recovery.
20 YEARS AGO
Keizer tot wins
coloring contest
Dakota Bovee, 3, of Keizer re-
cently won the 0-4 age group in
the Oregon Watersheds color-
ing contest held at the Summer
in the City in Salem.
Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer
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