Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1983)
1rs Frances Schoen-Kswapaper Rooa U n iv e rs ity o f Crcjon L ib ra ry tu g c a o , O regon 974 0 3 LU LU Starlight Cotillion New star on horizon Page 2 Page 7 □lack History activities Below PORTLAND OBSERVER USPS 959-680-855 February 16. 1983 Volume XIII, Number 19 25C Per Copy C é-i» PbMuAtni C o . /M l AFS stays at center State rejects move The Northeast C o a litio n of Neighborhoods board was assured Tuesday night that the Albina office of Adult and Fam ily Services will not be closed, but suspicions linger. Ben Tally, regional manager for Adult and Fam ily Services, ex plained that he had been asked by the state office to close one o f the Six offices and that he had proposed closure of the Albina office. T ally's decision was based on geography; the Albina branch is lo cated between the North Portland branch on Interstate and the North Cast branch on Oregon. "Logically, in my mind at least, A lb in a , be tween two other branches was the one to close. There is excellent transportation and clients would not be inconvienced at a ll." T ally's recommendation was turned down by a Human Resources Department task force mainly for two reasons: a) The Multi-Service Center com bines several agency offices for "one stop” service and if Adult and Family Services were removed the other agencies would be negatively b) The Albina district serves ap proxim ately the same number o f clients as other offices but a much smaller geographic area Moving the branch would be moving away from rather than toward high concentra tions ot clients. Answering questions regarding com m unit^nvolvem ent. Tally ex plained thjit the proposal was sub mitted by him to the state office and if it had been accepted, he would have gone to the community for a response before the final decision was made by the state. Members o f the community ex pressed concern that they knew nothing about the proposal until shortly before it went to the state and had no opportunity to express an opinion. Feeling is very strong that the A l bina office should be retained and that the integrity of the Albina H u man Resource Center should be pro tected. Tally assured those present that the decision to retain the Albina o f fice is final; however, the building lease ends in 1984 and a decision will havq to be. sytde then. Keith Pu'. nam, state director o f A dult and Family Services, said in a letter to Representative Ed Leek (D-District 18) that the office will remain open but the size o f the office is not as sured. Tally said the region is budgeted for 28,000 A D C cases and the re gion is already 250 over the budget lim it. Depending on the budget adopted by the Legislative Session cost cuts will be necessary and he cannot now determine how they will be made. Linda Sunday, regional director for Children’s Services Division, ex plained that her office is beginning to plan for the 1983-1985 time per iod and is leaning toward consolida tion of all its offices, and organizing along program lines. This would not directly affect most clients because staff members interview clients in their homes. The Albina CSD office is in the Walnut Park Building on Union. Bob Nelson, chairman of the coa litio n , recommended that the coalition be alert and organized to protect the community's access to necessary proarams Reading Tree hosts educator Bill Walton. Lionel Hollins: The old times were pood times Black History The Urban League of Portland will host its Annual Open House on Friday, Feb. 18. from 3 p.m . to 6 p.m. The three Northeast offices— YSC, 4815 N .E . 7th; SASC, 4128 N.E. Union; CSA, 5329 N.E. Union — will be providing refreshments and cultural exhibits as well as in formation on the numerous services provided. History o f the Senior Center as well as other Black History informa tion will be the focus of the Senior Center. The public is invited to visit all of fices, learn about the Urban League, enjoy the refreshments and add to their information about the positive impact black Americans have had on history. The National Council o f Negro Women, Tri-County Section, cur rently in application for charter, will celebrate Black History Week at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church on Feb. 19, 1983, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Speakers will include. Ron Hern- Jon, co-chairman. Black United Front; Geneva Jones, PP& L Com munity Services; Harold Williams, Labor Relations Manager for the State of Oregon; Pearl S. Gray, D i rector o f A ffirm a tiv e Action for Oregon State University. Mt. Olivet Baptist Church is located at 116 N.E. Schuyler. The event is free and open to the public. The Oregon Association o f C o l ored W om en’s Clubs will hold its annual Black History Program on Sunday, Febryary 20 from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m . at the M a tt Dishman Community Center, 77 N .E . Knott Street. The program theme, "Connect ing the Past with the Present," will be presented through four program sections of music, drama and poetry reflecting black faith, hope struggle and national loyalty using the songs " T h e Negro N atio n al A n th e m ," "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "W e Shall Overcome." (Photo: Den Long) Hillcrest closure hit Grassroot News, N. W. — Repre sentatives from the Children’s Ser vices Division met with a storm of criticism from the community as they presented their proposal to phase out three cottages a MacLar- en School for Boys and close H ill crest School for Girls. One resident stated, " M y con cerns are that N o rth /N o rth e a s t Portland is becoming a dumping ground for problem populations of all types. For example, with Mental Health we were promised funds to support the mentally handicapped's return to the community. This did not happen. I would like some as surance that the money is going to follow.” Paul Backus, Director of the Yan Youth Home, sees the proposal as increasing minority youth in institu tions rather than decreasing it. "There will be fewer kids locked up in close custody but the percentage o f m inorities will go up because funds for this project are not target ed for services to black kids.” Janice Barnett from "O p tio ns," a program that currently keeps young girls from committment to the State's training schools, voiced her concerns: " M y concerns are for what is available in the commu nity if we are turning away from Hillcrest. If you want to keep young girls out of a training school you have to have all kinds of services in the community to meet their needs. O ur notion o f a foster or group home is not always appropriate for the kinds of girls we deal with—girls who have a long runaway record, because they were victims of sexual abuse. Some are sexually active so they are not appropriate for place ment in your typical foster home. They are not the kind of kids that need to be in a home but they need to learn how to live independently. There is no program that meets this need. Another problem is babysit ting. Many of these so-called hard- to-piace girls have children. S till another problem is with girls who were involved in prostitution. When we try to make that transition from the streets to a legitimate job there are no jobs available to help them. These are some of the needs that have to be met before you close down a facility. If resources are not available for young white women in this state, there are even fewer avail able for young black women. You limit yourself to Portland in terms of placement. And in Portland there are no facilities to deal with young black women." A foster parent stated. " T h e Northeast community is hard pressed to truthfully say that CSD is interested in protecting black chil dren. CSD administrators have indi cated to this community that it is hard to find black families who are willing to open their homes to black children as an alternative to institu tionalization. This is in direct con flict with the black tradition which opens our home to anyone in need. I know CSD contentions are not true. CSD is unable to maintain a positive relationship with the black commu nity." Freddye Pettet, Executive Direc tor of the Urban League, says the community should assess the level of commitment the Children’s Ser vices Division has to black youth in this com m unity. " C S D must be committed to this community’s de veloping and operating all programs implemented for our young people. We have witnessed a decline in ser vices that are designed to train and rehabilitate the community’s youth. The absence of transitional facilities for young people leaving these insti tutions and C S D ’s support for the lowering o f the remand age to 14 makes ¿ is proposal unworkable.” C ircuit Judge M . Deiz added, “ The slate is listening to hard-nosed human beings. They are insisting that our kids be remanded to the adult system and tried as adults. The reason Oregon has the third highest commitment rate in the country is (Please turn to page 3 col. 3/ The Reading free, the nationally respected ch ildren ’ s reading pro gram held annually in Irving Park, will host a reading workshop Satur day, February 19th, for parents and interested persons. "Sing ..S p e ll.. Read” will fea ture Sue Dickson, teacher and author. A teacher in New Jersey and V ir ginia for 23 years, Ms. Dickson used her background and interest in music to develop a system to teach reading and spelling. Ms. Dickson's method can be used by teachers or by parents to help their children read. It is a total Language Arts program that corre lates reading, writing, phonics and spelling and requires the child’s to tal participation. The rate o f learning is approxi mately three times faster than tradi tional methods; for example, first graders learn 1500 words while those using the sight reading methods learn 613. Ms. Dickson is a member o f the National Reading Reform, the N a tional Education Association, Delta Kappa Gam m a honor society for women educators, the International Reading Association. She is a recipi ent of the George Washington Med al from Freedoms Foundations. Ms. Dickson presents workshops in " S i n g . . . S p e l l . . .R e a d ’ ’ throughout the country. Her method not only makes reading easy, but it is fun. W hile in Portland Ms. Dickson will address staff and teachers from the Early C hildhood Education Centers, Tubm an M iddle School, and St. Andrews School. She will hold a public meeting at Sabin School on Thursday at 6:45 p.m. The reading tree was established twelve years ago by Ms. L illia n Herzog and other community resi dents who were aware that commu nity children were not being taught Governor Victor Atiyah demonstrates oroper mixing technique while baking a chocolate pecan pie at the Gourmet Galla. Other celebrity cooks to read in the public schools. The program holds six-week sessions each summer in Irving Park to en courage children to read and to en joy reading. The Reading Tree workshop will be held February 19th at 8:30 a.m. at Cascade Center, Portland C om m unity College, in the C afeteria. The public is invited. A S3 registra tion will will assist the Reading Tree program. Tha Northeast Coalition of Neighborhood Asaoclations will aponaor a workshop on Land Use and Economic Development on Saturday. Fab. 28th from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tha workshop, which Is free, will ba presented by Sumner Sharp of Cogan b Associates. To register call 248- 46 7b were Edith and Stephen Mlnde (director of the Portland Opera) Geneva Jonee was a judge. (Photo: Richard J. Brown)
