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Portland Observer, June 8, 1983 Page 3
You Are Cordially Invited to:
JUNE'S DINNER
PARTY
Featuring:
Register for
Summer Fun
The Jazzmin Community Marching Band, di-
ractad by Thara Memory, participated in tha Rosa
Festival Starlight Parada,
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Sponsored by the Urban League,
through the Northeast Youth Serv­
ice Center, the "Education for
Summer F u n " program in its fifth
year o f operation, will begin next
month. The program is a cross-age
tutoring program offering indivi­
dualized instruction in reading and
mathematics, art, music, and struc­
tured recreation to youth between
the ages o f 3-12. Lunch is also pro­
vided, and there is no cost involved.
The program begins on June
27th, and ends August 3th. Program
times are 9:00 a.m . to 1:00 p .m .,
M onday through Friday. Program
locations are: Hum boldt, King,
Sabin, Vernon, and W oodlawn
schools. Parent(s) can select any one
o f the sites based on which site is the
most convenient.
For more inform ation, and in
order to register children, call: 288-
6708. Pre-registration ends June 20,
1983
them. They are not the breadwinner
and what they get is what trickles
down to them. They look at T .V .
and Gary Coleman has this, that
and the other. But when they go
home they are barely eating.”
Davidson says what distinguishes
these street kids from the rest is
adult supervision. "Being a parent,
I know how much time it takes to
mold a child. These kids would be
here from 2:30 in the afternoon to 5
a m. in the morning. U n til we put
curfew signs up, they were here.
Now, how can a kid be here that
long without going any further than
down the street and around the
corner. They will eat popcorn and
candy from the vending machine.
You have to wonder about what
these kids are seeing. They are
seeing this arcade, (he store next
door with the grown men who hang
out there, the disco and the street
walkers. And this is all they see.
"N o w , there are a couple o f
parents who come down and get
their kids. I ’ve seen grandmothers
who can barely walk creeping down
here to get their grandkids. They kid
would grumble, but that is for the
benefit of the other kids. When they
get out of here they just skip along
with grandmom because there is
someone who cares for them. And
that is all they w ant.”
W hite believes these kids are con­
cerned with what can benefit them
now. "They are concerned with get
ting and spending money, a job.
entitles you to dinner plus
your first drink — and a tax
credit 232 9271 for info.
Legislative
Community Meeting
Come discuss your legislative concerns
with Rep. Wally Priestley
7:30 p .m ., Thursday. J u n e 16th, 1963
Far W est Federal Savings b Loan
3333 N. Lom bard Street
Portland. O regon
Refreshments
PEARL
In Honor of Our First Year
Anniversary, We Are Having a
Very Special Sale.
Partii
in the Arm y and fighting somebody
else’s war. The war is right here and
the battleground is in the city.“
Gregory says he has thought
about it but that is as far as it has
gone. “ The way the top brass is
talking about all these nuclear
bombs, what is a person going to do
with a gun against those bombs. I t ’s
going to be a big mess anyway so
why go into the service?"
M any o f these men will make the
arcade their second home — the
streets being their first. One o f the
workers inside one o f the many
arcades in Portland says, “ The guys
around here brag about all the
money they have and all the dope
they smoke. Other than that they
are headed for a fate worse than
death. They are very much hard-
headed. They talk back to everyone
they meet and they take no kind o f
advice from anyone. Now , there are
a few who listen when you can get
them o ff to themselves but for the
most part those that live in the
streets will die in the streets."
Ron
Davidson
and
Cottrell
W hite, Jr. operate M r. Charr, an
arcade on Union Avenue which
caters prim arily to minority youth.
Davidson says some o f the kids he
observed, " D o drugs like it’s soda
pop. These kids are hallucinating.
Any time you stay high five days out
o f seven there is something wrong.
Some o f these kids try to do that.
They want to escape from the real
world the way it is. It is hard on
p .m . to?? Your #6 donation
• Live music and dancing
N o cover charge for
m at-din ner fun
Voices from the street
Grassroots News. N . H / — Last
week we brought you a sampling o f
sentiments from young men who
live in the forgotten zone o f Am eri­
can culture. This week we’ll focus
on a few o f the adults who are
around them. They perceive, under­
stand and help these young men like
no social worker can. Their m otiva­
tion is their own desire for
“ Change.”
Raymond Wilson runs the N .E .
Cornerstone project. “ It is the
result o f studies I ’ve done on A fri­
can history. O ur project encom­
passes education and work. Our
primary goal is to build a better
community. Across the country,
wherever you go, young men like
these are impoverished. There are a
lot o f obstacles I could point to, but
I also realize that education is the
vehicle. I f we coujd acquire it in
mass we could change our place in
society."
Wilson believes young men like
Gregory, Lionel, Jimmy and T .J .
are an endangered species. “ It is a
wonder they are not in jail. And it is
a wonder they haven’t been in jail.
Traditionally, street youth have had
two choices open to them — prison
or the Arm y. The value orientation
of ^this society does not consider
these youth.” Gregory and Lionel,
along with the rest o f the young men
we interviewed, ruled out (he possi­
bility o f going into the Armed
Forces. “ It is against my religious
background. I ’ m just not into going
W h en? S aturday. J u n e 18. at
,7 2 8 NE 49th A ve. fro m 6
• G ourm et b u ffet dmnar
• Tantalizing desserts
• S T R A W B E R R Y D A IQ U IR IS !
house or a car. Most o f the time,
education figures in their some­
where, but not all the time. They
don’t see an immediate use for edu­
cation. They want to know what
they can use to day."
It seems ironic that W hite, a born
again Christian, would open and
operate a video room right in the
heart o f Portland’s ghetto. " I ’m o f
this community and by this commu­
nity. I take whatever I have with me.
I don’t think there is anything too
dirty, because there is always water
and soap. I take what I am with me
be it church or wherever. These kids
need someone. They need us!”
Rag.
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Quality can be affordable.
w
n /£ KING'S RANSOM
520 SW 5th Avenue
228-6448
Street Beat
by Lanita D u ke and Richard B lo w n
Currently, there is a scattering o f
billboards directed at prostitutes and
their customers. The Street Beat team
wondered how the public felt about
this so-called solution with, "H o w
effective do you think those b ill­
boards would be in curbing prostitu­
tion in metropolitan Portland?”
Infant mortality rate reflects cuts
(Continued fro m page I column 6)
says the report.
“ Teen-agers, unwed mothers and
non-whites, who are at greater ri$k
o f having an unhealthy infant even
with prenatal care, are the most se­
verely affected by reduced access to
services,” the report states.
The inadequate care rate for 18-
and 19-year-old mothers, for in­
stance, jumped from 11% in 1980 to
16.3% in 1982.
Births to non-whites account for
6% o f all births in Oregon, “ but the
birth outcomes are consistently
worse than those o f whites,” ac­
cording to the report. W hile the in­
adequate care rate for whites in­
creased by one-sixth from 1980 to
1982, the rate for blacks increased
by a third to 12.8% . " W e know
there has been a decrease in the
number o f blacks getting prenatal
care since 1980,” said Clark.
The 1982 inadequate care rate for
Indians was over 18% in 1982, ac­
cording to the report. " T h e ex­
tremely poor prenatal care coverage
rates and distressing low birth
weight makes these infants a partic­
ular concern," says the study.
According to the Oregon Health
Division’s M aternity Services Plan
for 1983-85, a woman with inade­
quate prenatal care is one-and-a-
half times more likely to have an
infant who dies in the first 28 days
of life and twice as likely to have an
infant who dies between 28 days and
one year as a woman who receives
care. Infants born to mothers with­
out adequate care are three times
more likely to have low birth weight
requiring expensive high tech hospi­
talization. They also have a 20 times
greater risk o f suffering life-long
handicapping conditions and three
to five times the risk o f suffering
abuse and neglect, "thereby increas­
ing the risk o f dependency on public
programs,” according to the plan.
“ The costs o f medical treatment,
social services, financial support,
and in some cases, lifelong mainte­
nance, is large. The cost in terms o f
lost productivity, human suffering
and quality o f life is immense,” it
says.
The average cost o f taking care o f
a low birth weight baby n a special
intensive care unit is $2,000/day,
according to M ary Anne Curry,
professor o f nursing at Oregon
Health Sciences University. She
conservatively estimates a total
annual cost of $45 million for inten­
sive care at O H S U and Emmanuel
Hospital alone.
state,” she said.
Oregon is by no means alone in
grappling with these problems. A
Children’s Defense Fund Survey
found that Reagan administration
cuts in Medicaid and Title 3
Maternal Child Health bloc grants
affected 10 million children across
the country. “ Every state reduced
Medicaid programs for children by
cutting back on services and/or
making eligibility more d ifficu lt” in
1982, according to the survey, and
47 states including Oregon experi­
enced cuts in Title 5 funds.
Those areas hardest hit by the re­
cession are experiencing the worst
effects, according to survey. In the
county that includes Youngstown,
O hio,
where unemployment is
18.6% , the infant m ortality rate
jumped from 13.7 in 1980 to 14.9 in
1981. In parts o f D etroit, according
to the survey, the infant death rate
has risen to 33 per 1,000, the same as
the poorest country in Central
America, Honduras. One percent of
all mothers who gave birth in Detroit
in 1979 received no prenatal care,
according to the survey, and they
experienced an infant m ortality rate
of 88 per 1,000.
“ The economic cost is phenome­
nal,” said C urry, who also men
tioned unquantifiable social costs
such as grief o f the parents, mental
retardation and chronic health
problems. A decrease in the rate of
premature births by only 1% would
mean "tremendous savings to the
¿to
7
Karen McLain
Waitress
Michael Craig
Salesman
" N o , I don’t think so. We
have tourists who come through
town anC it’s not really good to
let them know what goes on.
The tricks are looking for a
pleasure and
they've
been
taking chances for so long, any­
w ay.”
“ I ’m a waitress and both the
girls and their customers who
come in just laugh at it. It is not
much o f a deterrent. I t ’s just a
waste o f tim e."
Amount o f Prenatal
Care*
None
M inim al
Some
Adequate
Low Birth Weight
R ate**
1979 1982
Neonatal M o rtality
R ate**
1979 1981
136.3
113.2
90.0
37.2
48 9
4 .0
13.9
13.9
" N o t very effective. You
aren't going to do anything by
putting up billboards. You can’t
stop it ."
L e ro y T ra h a n
P la te m a n
LOW BIRTH WEIGHT RATE AND NEONATAL MORTALITY RATE
BY AM O UNT OF PRENATAL CARE
Oregon Residents
W a lt e r M ille r
G u a rd
Gall Causey
Warehouse Person
" I don’t think it would be ef­
fective at all. W ho looks at b ill­
boards? They are spending all
that money when they could
spend it to stop prostitution a
different way. Those billboards
aren't going to stop it anyhow .”
"I
is all
stop
slow
think it would, because it
out in public. It might not
the tricks, but it would
the game dow n ."
D io n M o e
P a in te r
“ I think it would be real ef­
fective. If you are going down
Union and you look up at a sign
that says, ' I f you are looking
for a prostitute — expect to be
arrested,' that is flat out telling
you. They are at least working
at it.”