P o rtla n d O regon
VOLUME XIX NUMBER 49
ERVER
'The Eyes and The Ears of the Community*
DECEMBER 13,1989
Oregon National Leader in Adoption Needs
SALEM -Oregon is a national leader
in special needs adoptions. In 1988-89, the
Oregon Children's Services Division placed
389 children in adoptive homes. That's a 35
percent increase from 1986 and a 10 per
cent successful, Oregon CSD's adoption
success rate is over 90 percent
Many o f these children have special
needs. They may be school age children
with siblings who need a home where they
can stay together, minority children who
need minority families, or children with
emotional or physical difficulties.
The rate of disruptions (placements
that do not work out) has improved signifi
cantly, dropping to 9.8 percent compared to
19 percent in 1987 and 16 percent in 1986.
A new program called Post Adoption Family
Therapy, which is attracting national atten
tion, is being used in the Multnomah County
area to reduce adoption disruptions.
The CSD sponsored community-based
Mayor Declares Dec. 16th
“Kids Care Too Day”
In Portland
Mayor Bud Clark has declared Satur
day , December 1 6 " Kids Care Too Day ’ ’ to
honor the efforts of the Mattel Kids Care
Too Program in Portland. Mattel Kids Care
Too is a nationwide program sponsored by
Mattel, Inc. The toymaker is donating up to
$2 million in new toys and up to $250,000
in cash to several national charities and is
setting up nine thousand giving sites across
the country so children can donate new or
used toys to benefit less fortunate kids.
National charities sponsoring the Mattel
Kids Care Too Program include the Easter
Seals Society, the March of Dimes Birth
Defects Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation, the National Sclerosis Soci
ety, Boys Clubs o f America, Goodwill
Industries and K.I.D.S. (Kids In Distressed
Situations).
Mattel Kids Care Too encourages chil
dren to help other children less fortunate
than themselves by donating a toy—any toy.
Through participating in this program, a
child learns both the value and joy of giving
as he brightens another child's Christmas.
In Portland, Mattel Kids Care Too is
working in conjunction with the Channel 8
Toy Drive to benefit seven local charities:
Portland Fire Bureau's Toy and Joy Mak
ers, Fire District 10 Toy and Joy Makers of
East Multnomah County, Portland Salva
tion Army, Tualatin Valley Fire and Res
cue’s Toy and Joy Makers, Beaverton Elks
Lodge, Clackamas County Toy and Joy
Makers and the Clark County Salvation
Army. All toys collected at Mattel Kids
Care Too events and ongoing giving sites
will be delivered to needy Portland-area
children for Christmas.
On Dec. 16, "K ids Care Too Day,’
Mattel Kids Care Too will be collecting
toys at the Musical Com pany's perform
ance o f “ The Wizard of O z” (Eastside
Performance Center, S.E. 14th and Stark).
Children who bring toys to donate will have
the opportunity to design their own button
to wear for the day. Other Mattel Kids Care
Too collection sites include the Galleria,
Lloyd Center, OMSI, KGW-TV, G.I. Joe's,
U.S. Bank Winter Light Festival (Metro
Washington Park Zoo) and The New Rose
Theatre’s “ Christmas Carol” performances
(Winningstad Theatre).
of their adoption successrate, there are still
children wailing for families in our state.
For more information call the Special Needs
Adoption Coalition at 1 -800-342-6688 or
contact your local Children's Services
Division office.
program One Church, One Child is suc
cessfully placing Black children in Black
homes through the support of 26 minority
churches throughout the state.
November 19-25 was National Adop
tion Week. While Oregonians can be proud
FACT SHEET
FOR CSD ADOPTIVE PLACEMENTS*
1988 - 89 Statistics
•
At the end of June there were 428 children with active referrals to the Legal Assistance
Program to be freed for adoption. 76% of the children were under the age of 8: 108
birth to 3; 106 age 3 to 6; 113 age 6 to 8; 94 age 8 to 14; and 7 are 14 or older.
•
Adoptive placements increased: 10% over 1987-88 to a total of 389 legal risk and
adoptive placements in fiscal year 1988-89.
•
The average placement rate is 32.4 per month, compared to 29.5 in 1987 - 88 and 24 7
in 1986 - 87.
•
Legal risk adoptive placements went up to 102, comprising 26.2% of total placements,
compared to 23% in 1987 - 88 and 18% in 1986 - 87. Our goal for 1989-90 is to
substantially increase the number of legal risk placements, as a means of assuring
permanence for children at an earlier age.
•
The rate of disruptions (placements that did not work out) has improved significantly,
dropping to 9.8% compared to 19% in 1987 - 88 and 16% in 1986 - 87.
•
Older children are sttll being placed for adoption but the age distribution shifted slightly
to younger children. This year 67% of the children placed were under the age of 8:
97 birth to 3; 82 age 3 to 5; 81 age 5 to 8; 106 age 8 to 14; and 23 were age 14 or older.
•
325 adoption decrees have been received from the courts finalizing CSD placements
made earlier.
Age D istrib u tio n o f Placem ents
(L2
3-5
83/84
88 (34%)
45 (17%)
84/85
64 (24 %)
49(18% )
85/86
58 (21%)
53 (19%)
86/87
54(18% )
82 (27%)
87/88
83 (23%)
48 (13%)
88/89
97 (27%)
82 (22%)
5J?
42(16% )
55(21% )
60(21%)
58 ( I » 7r,)
85 (24%)
81 (20%)
Decrees
231
217
239
219
216
325
EUGENE—Gov. Neil Goldschmidt on
Dec. 6th, proposed three new state actions
to help Oregon’s homeless. The new efforts
are aimed both at helping the homeless with
the immediate problems faced this winter
and with long-term housing issues.
“ Too many around the nation are say
ing, ‘this isn't our responsibility; we have
done what we can, and we don’t have the
time to deal with an unexpected increase in
the numbers of homeless,’ “ Goldschmidt
said. “ Not in Oregon; not in this state
government. We are going to accept some
responsibility; we are going to do m ore-w e
are going to be a partner in helping Ore
gon’s less fortunate.”
Goldschmidt said first he would ask for
a rule change that would allow the State to
use $250,000 o f existing State homeless
funds to obtain an equal amount of new
federal funds. The resulting half million
will go into a special Emergency Assis
tance Fund targeted for housing that would
lead to permanent homes for welfare fami
lies.
Second, Goldschmidt announced his
intention to ask the December Emergency
Board for additional $300,000 to help cities
and counties with their homeless efforts.
The funds would be provided to cities and
counties on a match basis. Smaller local
governments without the resources for the
local match would be allowed to use their
Federal Emergency Management Assistance
(FEMA) funds.
Goldschmidt also announced that he
would bring together representatives from
the business community, many who are
already providing leadership on housing
issues for the low-income, to attempt to
identify additional housing options that the
private and public sector could work on
together.
Details on the actions announced today
will be presented to the December Legisla
tive Emergency Board.
Four-year-old Ashley Beghtel will have a very special Christmas this year-w ith the gift
of sound.
Ashley, of Tigard, near Portland, is able to hear sounds again, after becoming Oregon’s
youngest multi-channel cochlear implant recipient. Cochlear implants can restore sound and
speech recognition to people with severe to profound deafness. Ashley lost her hearing after
a bout with spinal meningitis at age one. She received her cochlear implant at Good Samaritan
Hospital and Medical Center in Portland.
Now Ashley is looking forward to all the sounds that accompany C hristm as-reindeer’s
footsteps on the roof, sleigh bells, and the marching feet of wooden soldiers.
"Ashley is doing quite well since her im plant," says Judy Benko, Ashley’s speech
pathologist at the Infant Hearing Resource in Portland. ‘ ‘She is showing awareness of sounds
that she never showed before and developing speech skills that she never demonstrated
before."
Ashley's parents and Ms. Benko would be happy to share Ashley’s heartwarming
yuletide story with your audience.
8 & older
80 (31%)
90 (34%)
105(38%)
101(34%)
138(38%)
129(31%)
* Does not include Independent /Adoptions of Children in CSD's Temporary custody
Prepared by:
Gov. Goldschmidt
Proposes New State Actions
To Help The Homeless
Youngest Multi-Channel Cochlear
Implant Recipient Celebrates
Xmas With The Gift Of Sound
A doption S tatistics for 6 Y ears
N um ber of P lacem ents, D isru p tio n s and Decrees
Legal Risk
Adoptive
Total
Disruptions
83/84
28
227
255
27(10%)
84/85
23
235
258
25 ( 9%)
85/86
26
250
276
31 (11%)
86/87
55
241
296
49(16%)
87/88
82
272
354
69(19%)
88/89
102
287
389
38(10%)
25C
Permanency Services Section
Time To Celebrate African-American Roots
On this holiday, Decem ber 26 thru
January 1, tens o f millions o f African-
Americans will honor those who have
gone before, the living presence o f a
people, and those who will follow. Seven
evenings of beautiful, solemn or fes
tive celebrations will see nationw ide
gatherings o f Black people to honor
their roots and culture- and to renew
their faith, strength and determ ination
to secure a viable future against all
odds.
The Black Education Center will
sponsor the local series o f celebrations
at the M att D ishm an Center, 77 N.E.
Knott St. The schedule, beginning
Tuesday, Dec. 26th, is 6:30 p.m. to
8:00 p.m. w eekdays, and 2-5 p.m. Sat
urday and Sunday. Each evening a dif
ferent program will be presented by
such community organizations as the
Coalition o f Black M en, the Black
Professional Network, The Black United
Front, the Sirius Study Group, and others.
For further information or needed sup
plies visit the Talking Drum Bookstore
at 1634 N.E. A lberta St., Tuesday
through Saturday afternoons (phone:
282-9465).
The Kwanza holiday was founded
in 1966 by Dr. M ulana Ron Karenga, a
renowned African-American professor
of Black History. The structure, includ
ing homage, feasts, fashions, decora
tions, icons and an African M arket
place, is in the fashion o f ancient and
contemporary African agricultural cele
brations o f harvest and thanksgiving,
rh ese cons-old traditions antedate all
other o f m ankind’s recognition o f value
systems and spirituality.
CELEBRATION
OF LIFE
I«
There follows here a listing and de
scription o f meaning and purpose o f
each festival day.
1. U m ojo [pronounced oo-M O H -
jah] (Unity): Achieve unity in the family,
the com m unity and in the world dias
pora.
2. K ujichagulia [pronounced Koo-
gee-cha-goo-lee-ah] (Self-determ ina
tion): Define, name, structure and speak
for ourselves.
3. U jim a [pronounced oo-GEE-
mah J (Collective work and responsibil
ity): W ork and build together a com
munity that will serve our needs.
4. U jam aa [pronounced oo-jah-
Mah] (Cooperative economics): Finance
and build o ar own commercial enter
prises to serve our needs.
5. N ia [pronounced Nee-ah] (Pur
pose): A com m itm ent to a collective
vocation of developing and restoring
our community and people to tradi
tional greatness.
6. K u u m b a [pronounced kooj-
OOM -bah] (Creativity): A single-
minded determination to use our proven
innovative skills to render our com m u
nity a better place than we found i t
"A spirit set Free to
abide in eternity...
7. Im ani [pronounced ee-M AH-
nee[ (Faith): An unshakable belief in
our people, parents, teachers and lead
ers, and ultimate victory in our struggle.
Corbbrey
I
I 9 f ft *£'/*'*/*
a • » A ♦ MfcM * * >
Given the steadily increasing par
ticipation o f community leaders and
organizations, it is expected that this
year’s Kwanza celebration will be the
most successful and meaningful to date.
There will be lectures and panel discus
sions which will examine the many
issues critical to the well being o f the
community and its residents. And there
will be speakers whose expertiste and
responsibilities will lend credence to
their analyses. The festival nature of
Kwanza will reveal itself in the incom
parable panorama of African food, music,
dance and drumming, and on Saturday
afternoon when a magnificent African
Bazzar will be set up for shoppers-and
on Sunday afternoon, the day for Kar-
ami, the Big F e a st
If one sees symbols and icons which
might suggest that D.r Karenga has in
vented a religion, that is not the case at
all. These who have read my column
“ Perspectives” for the past two years
will immediately appreciate that W est
ern Civilization has-from the Greeks
onw ard-alw ays turned toward Africa
and the African for its spiiitual suste
nance, as well as the other facets of
culture, and for its technology. But as
the great cycle of an eternal world has
been turning through its western phase
of wars, pestilence, slavery, racism,
atomic bombs and an alleged “ con
quest of space,’ * we note a parallel and
traumatic alienation of mankind as he
has been wrenched from his spiritual
roots. Who can sing a spiritual, really?
This pitiful mindset has been best
expressed this century through the voices
of those who have been labeled the
“ Existentialist Philosophers” (Sarte-
Heidegger, et al) who, spiritually bank
rupt, gave the cry, ‘ ’God is dead! ” It is
not strange that this sad state of affairs
coincided with the arrogant revisionist
program to reject all things African in
the historic literature and even the Bibles
of the world. Under the aegis o f the new
Neanderthals, the wooly-headed patri
arches and law-givers o f the Judeo-
Christian Bibles and literature have
become pale, souless narrators of events
now described as “ folklore.”
Ironically, at the very same time
the most renown of modem scientists
ran into an absolute dead end trying to
follow Einstein into a universe of rela
tivity and quantum theory. They now
say that “ in the beginning” there was a
Big Bank wherein the universe was
created instantaneously from a void
which cannot be com prehended by the
human mind. This is exactly what the
Africans said 6,000 years earlier “ Spirit
moved on the face o f the primitive N u -
” I (God) created m yself out o f noth
ing.” How fortunate we are that our
forefathers wrote in stone and upon
papyrus-still to be found in Ethiopia,
Nubiaa and Egypt, and displayed in
Muslims throughout the world. There
is still hope.
W hat other treasures are there that
the ancient Africans bequeathed u s -
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